Tennessee Hospitality Association CEO Sends Out E-mail Mocking Michelle Obama as Tarzan's Chimpanzee

Tennessee Hospitality Association CEO Walt Baker has sent out an e-mail mockingly comparing Michelle Obama to Tarzan's chimpanzee sidekick, Cheeta. In an e-mail forwarded by Walt Baker to 12 prominent Nashvillians on Thursday, in what he originally called political humor, there was an unflattering picture of Michelle Obama, whose face was in a certain expression, right beneath a chimpanzee which seemed to be making the exact same facial expression. Additionally, Michelle Obama was the butt of the joke in the same e-mail in a comparison to chimpanzee Cheeta, after it was said that she went on to marry a lawyer and now lives in the White House. Originally intended by Baker privately for only a small circle of high-powered friends, the political humor-e-mail was exposed by a race-baiting journalist from the Nashville Scene, potentially harming Tennessee's tourism industry, according to some commenters.

The Tennessee Hospitality Association is a not-for-profit trade association representing the hospitality industry in Tennessee. Its supposedly high-profile CEO, Walt Baker, was a key figure in getting approval for Nashville's $585 million convention center. The political humor e-mail, according to Baker, went something like this:

"Quoting Larry the Cable Guy...I don't care who you are, this is funny...

I was at the store yesterday, and I ran into Tarzan! I asked him how it was going and if he was into anymore movies.



He told me that he could no longer make any more movies as he had severe arthritis in both shoulders and could no longer swing from vine to tree.

I asked how Jane was doing, he told me she was in bad shape, in a nursing home, has Alzheimer's and no longer recognizes anyone, how sad. I asked about Boy, and he told me that Boy had gone to the big city, got hooked up with bad women, drugs, alcohol, and the only time he heard from him was if he was in trouble or needed something.


I asked about Cheeta, he beamed and said she was doing good, had married a Lawyer and now lived in the White House!!!"

Predictably-to the point where it was somewhat banal-the reaction against Baker who is white, male and Southern was swift. Almost instantly, the fallout from his political humor e-mail-which race-baiters will call racist reflexively without giving him the benefit of the doubt-was damaging. The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau cancelled its contract with Baker's marketing firm, and Baker is said to have lost personal friends over the political humor-incident with some of the recipients publicly condemning him.

However, interestingly, one of Baker's e-mail's recipients-Albie Del Favero, a local Nashville power-player who was a publisher of the Nashville City Paper-publicly defended Baker on a blog, essentially agreeing with Baker that the e-mail was political humor and not in the least bit racist. His argument is that due to the heightened, racial sensitivity of the PC times in which we live-exacerbated by race-baiters like those who publicized Baker's e-mail, no doubt-any comparison of blacks to apes or monkeys automatically means a comparison of a black's intelligence to the monkey or ape.

After all, one can easily tell why Baker is being raked over the coals like this: It's because the target of the political humor e-mail was Michelle Obama, a black Democrat, period! Clearly, this appears to be a campaign of race-baiting, fake outrage over Baker's e-mail since you can bet that the same folks in Nashville condemning Baker over his political humor e-mail weren't the least bit upset during the eight years when liberals mocked Bush as a ...chimp! That's right...a chimp, gosh darn it! You mean you don't remember? Maybe this will stir some memories. Cleary, because Bush was a Caucasian Republican, no one was upset over the demeaning references of him as a chimp, and that's the most important point here!

As far as the racist accusations over Baker's e-mail go, that's another part of the PC culture where people are not given the benefit of the doubt if they make allegedly "racially insensitive" communications, especially if they're not Democrats. Baker's e-mail could well have been intended as political humor, and to really know if he was racist-as so many of those race-baiters in Nashville now make him out to be-you'd have to be able to tell what's in his heart and soul...which of course you can't unless you're God. Fair-minded people should give him the benefit of the doubt that it was political humor. After all, when was the last time a Democrat made, arguably, the same kind of communications that could be interpreted as "racially insensitive" and not faced the same kind of firestorm?

For instance, remember Howard Dean cracking a racially insensitive joke about blacks a few years back? There was hardly a big deal made about it involving any kind of punitive action against him for said comments. Or how about Harry Reid, just of late? Again, with that other Democrat, no one in the media came out against him in a big way, nor did he lose any kind of relationship over the comments. That's because of the double-standard that exists in US culture: If you're a Democrat, and you crack a racially insensitive anything...you get spared and protected. If you're a white, Southern male (presumed to be a classic GOP guy), then you get a firestorm of all kinds of consequences over something that arguably could be innocent.

At the time of this writing, the forces of political correctness (probably liberal) and race-baiters have prevailed over Walt Baker. He has backed down from his original statement and now apologized, even going so far as to browbeat himself over what can arguably be interpreted as a political humor piece. This coming Monday, there will apparently also be a meeting held to determine if he should step down...again, a fanatical, hateful over-reaction to comments which are being in forcibly interpreted in a certain way to make him out as a racist.

To send Marc questions, praise or criticism, you can email him at marc_schenker@telus.net

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Sources:

Tennessee Hospitality Association, tnhospitality.net

Liz Garrigan, Nothing Funny About This Monkey Mail, Nashville Scene

Nate Rau, CVB drops hospitality executive's contract over controversial Obama email, Tennessean

Kleinheider, Del Favero Defends Walt Baker, Nashville Post

Bush Chimp Pictures, About.com

LaShawn Barber, Howard Dean: Emboldened White Liberal of the Week, LaShawnBarber.com

Brent Frazier, Nashville Man Loses Friend, Job over Email, Newschannel5.com