Disrespectful...and Racist

Read that graphic from Fox News. Can you ever imagine a news outlet doing a story on Laura Bush while referring to her as George Bush's "Baby Mama"?! Can you imagine them doing it to Cindy McCain? What oh what could possibly lead this network to use the term "baby mama" for Obama's college educated, bootstrapper of a wife, a woman to whom he has been married for almost 16 years, a woman with whom he had children AFTER marriage? The only woman to whom he has ever been married? What oh what would possess someone to use the term "baby mama" about someone to whom none of the definitional elements of "baby mama" apply--except for her skin color?

If you don't find that deeply, deeply offensive I'm not sure what to say. When I posted yesterday about the Right's coming attacks on Michelle Obama, I didn't actually think they would oblige me within 24 hours. And yeah, yeah I'm a shill for Obama. But really. On a basic scale of human decency and respect, what would you do if a "news" organization called your wife a race-based name that also speaks to a lack of respect for marriage and fidelity? If the significance of the "baby mama" insult is lost on you, it's the equivalent of having a graphic underneath Hadassah Lieberman saying, "What a JAP."* Or a graphic under Cindy McCain saying "What a piece of white trailer trash." You can't imagine it being done because it just simply wouldn't be done.

This is racist. Pure and simple.


*some attempts have been made by some women to "reclaim" this word but it is so steeped in mysogyny, anti-Semitism and racism as to be irredeemable, IMHO.