What Does the Picture Mean?

A short time ago, posters such as the one accompanying today's blog, were seen around the city of Los Angeles. In case you have been hiding under a rock for some time and aren't too familiar with current events and pop-culture of the last year you may not know that this is a photo of President Barack Obama which has been made up to resemble the Joker from "The Dark Knight" as portrayed by Heath Ledger. Since first being spotted this poster has done exactly what the creator most likely envisioned; it set of a malestrom of discussion over what is right and what isn't and where to draw the line in terms of social and political commentary.

Now whether you liked him or not you have to admit that George W. Bush was ridiculed and insulted or commented upon in just such a manner too many times to count. No matter what he did (or thought he did) right, there was always someone who jumped up and tried to bat down his standing. Right-wingers will state that it was left-wingers and vice versa when the target of this commentary is a liberal. What astounds me however is the way in which many of us react. I grant you that no matter what, the Presidency should be afforded some modicum of respect and therefore the person occupying the position also deserves some respect but if not in the case of Bush, certainly in the case of Obama there appears to be a schism of opinion.

Again you may not agree with one or both of the men but you have to admit that there were and are many negative comments being spouted about the both of them. What a lot of people feel is wrong with this current statement on Obama is not the fact that the word socialism is plastered on the bottom of the poster but rather what the image itself is meaning to imply. Calling Obama a socialist isn't anything new. People have been accusing him of that from the beginning. Agree with him or not; consider it socialism or not, all I'll say is that after the Depression, Roosevelt created many government run and/or sponsored programs which were integral in revitalizing our economy. I don't recall reading much about whether people thought those programs were socialist or not. Maybe I haven't read the right history books.

But regardless, the discussion isn't over whether or not he's a socialist but the image. Philip Kennicott wrote in the Washington Post yesterday about the fact that this image, to him, conveys a sense that someone is trying to send a message that like the Joker in "The Dark Knight", Obama is also unpredictable and dangerous and this is because he is black. Kennicott believes that the subtext to the image is that because Obama is a child of the inner city and from a racial minority that he is more likely to be unpredictable and dangerous like the Joker or any common criminal. That's an interesting interpretation but I don't necessarily interpret it that way. My feeling is that the picture's creator is meant to imply that Obama is trying to be a White-face as opposed to a white man attempting to be black as in the case of a Black-face.

I think the subtle message that the creator of the image is trying to send out is that he's just as dangerous and unpredictable as any other politician who has had his doubters but that because he's black, we (the American public) may be more tolerant of his decrees out of fear of offending him. Again, this is only my interpretation and thought on the image but it makes more sense to me than the violent black man stereotype being applied to Obama. After all, that too has been applied to him. I don't think that anyone has managed to create such a polarization of the American people in politics as much as George W Bush managed but Obama (whether he means to or not) has made a similar impact as well.

It's unfortunate because rather than wanting to understand the reasons behind his decisions, most of us take it for granted that if a President is in the opposition party then he must be wrong. By doing this though I think the end result will be that the problems will persist longer and recovery will take a much longer time. But to those who find the photo insulting or racially biased I would simply ask you to remember the statement or lecture that your parents (or some adult for that matter) gave you at some point in your life when you got upset over someone calling you a name. "It doesn't really matter if anyone calls you 'stupid'; if you know you're not stupid then it doesn't matter what anyone ever says." I think that's wise advise. So what if someone paints a picture of Obama as the Joker? If you don't think he's a vicious, psychotic socialist then he isn't.