Obama Witch Doctor Poster: Racist?

Kanye West may now take to his blog and start yelling that Barack Obama hates black people (nothing would surprise me when it comes to him), as the President allegedly even couldn't help but sound off on the egomaniac, calling him a jackass for stealing the spotlight from Taylor Swift at the MTV VMA's (but not officially; the jackass remark is strictly off the record, of course). But as Barack Obama catches a bit of flack for calling Kayne West a bad name, he's being called plenty himself: socialist, Nazi, and now witch doctor. A poster portraying President Obama as a witch doctor is circulating at tea parties and in E-mail forwards across America, making the left cry "racist!" and leaving us all wondering what these tea party partakers are brewing with their tea leaves (perhaps some kind of magic voodoo herbs that turn them into the living dead?)

Of course the witch doctor poster isn't the first poster featuring Barack Obama to cause a lot of controversy. There was the ridiculous Joker poster with Barack Obama in whiteface (it could also be considered racist because it could be called a form of reverse blackface) with the word "Socialist" at the bottom. Many found it funny; some found it offensive; and others just though it was plain silly and nonsensical (myself included). More will probably find the witch doctor poster offensive; it portrays President Obama half-nude in witch doctor garb, and it seems to be comparing his health care plan to the practice of voodoo. It is really an ignorant and silly comparison that makes little sense at all, but those who enjoy racist jokes seem to love it.

A witch doctor isn't the worst thing Barack Obama has been compared to, at least, with Rush Limbaugh and other members of the right hell-bent on convincing us that he's the second coming of Hitler whose Nazi regime includes a holocaust of the elderly.

There are those, of course, who will claim that the Obama witch doctor poster is not racist, but to them I pose this question: would anyone have even thought of portraying a white man as a witch doctor, or did the idea spring up because of the color of President Obama's skin?

Some out there drinking the tainted tea may as well be getting drunk on Hennessey and yelling out inappropriate things at inappropriate times, a la Kanye West. But, sadly, they'll get away with their craziness without as much of a backlash.

SOURCES:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2009/09/14/cnns-situation-room-charges-racial-tinge-tea-movement
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/09/obama-calls-kanye-west-jackass.html