Wingnut Web – FreeRepublic Goes Balls to the Walls Racist Edition

As if anyone at FreeRepublic.com has balls, but that is besides the point. The point is Barack Obama’s 11 year old daughter Malia decided to wear a shirt with a peace sign on it. This simple act turned the normally stupid wingnuts at FreeRepublic.com into frothing at the mouth screeching crazy racists who began a game of one-upping each other on who could be more offensive. The threads created quickly became a firestorm as DailyKos.com spotted them and the story blew up big time, threads were pulled, newspaper articles were written, and it looks like TV will get involved. Below is a summary of the events as best as we can put together:

1 – Malia Obama wears a peace sign T-shirt
2 – FreeRepublic.com posts several threads mentioning her wearing the T-shirt, and offensive posts begin to appear.

Thread #1 – http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2288776/posts
Thread #2 – http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2288933/posts

Clicking now will just get you a message the threads have been pulled. Luckily, many posts have been archived (but not in picture form, I regret that I was busy at the time and thought I could get screenshots later, not realizing it would just be yanked.) Thanks to some fellow goons (Stefu, pacerhimself, suboptimal, POTUShead, Keels) for these quotes:

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE – A poster on Digg knew that Yahoo has a cache system similar to Google’s (who knew? that guy did!) and managed to get a copy of the first 50 posts. Thanks to that Digg guy, Keels on SA for finding it, and Itam for letting me know here! The archive is mirrored here. And here is a jpg of the first 50 posts. Remember, FR is claiming it was only 1 or 2 bad apples:

Click for big!

Here is another blog, the Mr. Destructo blog, that further analyzes these posts.

To: skimbell

She is as ugly as her mother. She can sing WE ARE FAMILY without worry.

48 posted on 8.7.2009 15:25:05 by AndyPH (?+)

To: brwnsuga

Sorry…the girls are ugly….
Ugly kids do exist…they are 2 examples.

52 posted on 8.7.2009 15:27:07 by AndyPH (?+)

To: skimbell
First time I see a close up of her. She’s not going to turn out to be a sweet, cute girl. Here, she’s starting to look like a thug. An activist in the making.

She’s not 5 years old, she can choose her clothes, or did J.Crew supply this t-shirt? Since she’s starting to make political statements with her clothes, she’s no longer immune to criticism. She’s now working on brainwashing kids her age.

Black nail polish? goth-ing soon?
68 posted on 8.7.2009 15:42:12 by 1_Rain_Drop

To: skimbell

Notice the long, painted black, fingernails? She just turned 11 years old… you’d think she was 16 or 17. This shirt is atrocious for the daughter of an American President to be wearing…

105 posted on 8.7.2009 16:10:52 by Arizona Carolyn

To: Bushbacker1
I would say no. Malia was the one that made some snarky comment before BO got elected about black’s & “how’s that working for us”. I’ve been searching for the exact quote and I can’t find it. Now she shows up wearing this shirt. How classless and tasteless for a first family to let her do so. But what do you expect from the ‘first family of the ghetto’. Everything they do is revolting.
127 posted on 8.7.2009 16:30:33 by MagnoliaB

To: trisham; All
This, fellow FReepers is how far our Country has sank:

188 posted on 8.7.2009 17:51:39 by Las Vegas Ron (zer0 is doing to capitalism what Kennedy did to health care)

To: Albertafriend
This isn’t the article I’m looking for, but interesting:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103579.html

http://www.nypost.com/pagesixmag/issues/20090201/Six+City

snip….

While the early grades focus on Obama-appropriate issues like community service and the Quaker values of equality and communal learning, grueling workloads and fierce competition are the hallmarks of the junior high and high schools. “I pulled my first all-nighter when I was in sixth grade,” says Sidwell alum Erik Meers, editor of celebrity website Uinterview.com. “I had a teacher who used to assign us long essays to write every night, sometimes 20 pages.” Sidwell’s high school, which routinely sends more than a quarter of its graduates to Ivy League schools, is reputed for its Dickensian workloads. “On the nights before big tests, a friend and I used to call each other at 3 a.m. to make sure we were still awake. I used to take NoDoz all the time in high school and never thought there was anything weird about it,” says Erik. “Not everyone was doing this, but there was a lot of competition among the students. When I got to Yale, I remember being relieved that the workload was so much lighter!”

end snip….

Tuition is approximately $28K a year per child, theschool lunch menu is very healthy and upscale — things like Baby Spinach with Mandarin Oranges, Roasted Atlantic Salmon, Garlic Basil Pasta, Roasted Local Squash, etc. Until congress voted to drop the DC school voucher program a couple of months ago, I imagine there was kids attending Sidwell who never dreamed of eating so healthy in their own homes…

307 posted on Thu Jul 09 2009 02:31:42 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by Arizona Carolyn

That’s her 15-year old cousin Avery on the right (yep, he travels with them on the taxpayers dime while taxpayers are told to sacrifice), who I think goes by the hip-hop name’s “Welfare Check” or “P. Diddly Squat”.

267 posted on Wed Jul 08 2009 23:57:53 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by BigSkyFreeper (Stop meddling in the affairs of countries and individuals Obama!)

What makes you think they’re not taking care of it? Perhaps they are and are only being superceded by the Obama’s themselves. If you think that’s bad, just wait until they show up looking like ghetto trash at the Vatican, with Michele wearing a horrid sleeveless dress.

I think they believe protocol, dress and decorum doesn’t apply to them and that us plebes, red state country bumpkins, the unsophisticated types and white folk just don’t understand this blaxploitation of the White House.

270 posted on Thu Jul 09 2009 00:12:16 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by BigSkyFreeper (Stop meddling in the affairs of countries and individuals Obama!)

How come it’s alright for Miss Obama to wear that shirt in front of the entire world; but another child can not wear thier Pro life shirt?

279 posted on Thu Jul 09 2009 00:22:05 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)

To: BigSkyFreeper
Wait a second. Even the Clintons had to pay for extra friends of Chelsea. So we are picking up the tab for that kid who I am sure hates us. Can you imagine seeing the way the two are dressed in Europe representing the US.

There is no parental class to allow their daughter and nephew to go around Europe in those clothes.

287 posted on Thu Jul 09 2009 00:37:53 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by PhiKapMom (Mary Fallin – OK Gov/Coburn/Rubio – Senate 2010 ! Sarah for President 2012)

What if an 11 year old white kid wanted to wear a swastika? Certainly an outrageous symbol that would certainly upset many people. Can the child wear it? Why not? The peace symbol really riles up a significant portion of our society. It reminds me of the time Billy Ayres and Co. blew up a police station and terrorized middle class America with threats of violence against normal Americans. It is a hate symbol and I find it offensive. So… can an 11 year old white kid wear a tee shirt with a swastika? How about a president’s kid? Why not? Its a symbol of hate. Just like the peace symbol…

296 posted on Thu Jul 09 2009 01:02:31 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)

these are from thread 2:

How many of Hussein’s and Aunt Esther’s relatives are traveling with them??? Are we picking up the tab for them too??? Disgusting!!!

83 posted on July 9, 2009 1:26:36 PM EDT by Sig Sauer P220 (Forget going Galt. Its time to go Braveheart.)

I can’t help but notice the resemblence….


Maybe a rap career in Malia’s future?

“Now the Obama girls are treated as national treasures, and if they grow up and do hard drugs or rob banks, no one will care.”

They’re politically correct sacred cows, twofers. The Bush twins were raised right and had a lot of role models and are simply decent women. Their drinking peccadillos are nothing and they didn’t dare walk around wearing shades and looking as though they would cut someone.

As for the double standard, that’s another reason I am losing patience with everything these days.

96 posted on July 9, 2009 1:50:41 PM EDT by Niuhuru (Anger means your spirit isn’t broken)

Very nice! I like this picture even better:

Black nail polish to go along with her nasty radical hair. Using their children for that kind of shit is horrific. But they did grow up in Rev. Wright’s church so what do we expect? Their entire family makes me want to vomit.

112 posted on July 9, 2009 2:30:54 PM EDT by mojitojoe (All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.)

DIRTBAGS! All of them. Our WH is now a joke to the rest of the world. We have no respect and this is not going to turn out well, mark my words. We will be hit, and much worse than last time. We are now seen as weak and vulnerable. Ghetto and Chicago thugs have taken over the WH.

113 posted on July 9, 2009 2:33:02 PM EDT by mojitojoe (All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.)

She’s still 11 years old and should be treated as such.
___________
Come on now. 11 years old is 7th grade. Don’t think for one minute she’s some innocent kid after growing up all of her life in Rev. Wright’s church every Sunday. Come on. 11 year old kids have raped, murdered, they aren’t ALL innocent conservative 11 year olds and you can bet she isn’t for sure. I knew this was a KMA statement trip when she got off the plane in Russia, with that radical, wild hair.

118 posted on July 9, 2009 2:42:02 PM EDT by mojitojoe (All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.)

No offense, but is this a picture of a 23 year old street thug? or some twenty year old wanta bee singing sensation in a rapper group named “HATE AMERICANS!”??? I’m at a loss to recognize who this might be, or is this someone just busted for selling CRACK?

140 posted on July 9, 2009 3:57:19 PM EDT by True Republican Patriot (May GOD Continue to BLESS Our Great President George W. Bush!!)

The quotes (including some from above and others not collected) were posted on a DailyKos Diary by CatM:

Hello. I am an independent writer developing a book about the grassroots conservative movement online, of which your site, Free Republic, is included as a primary online gathering place for conservatives.

Could you please tell me how the owner of the site feels about posts like this one:

http://www.freerepublic.com/…

…in which conservatives who post regularly at the site make several racist statements about the 11-year-old daughter of President Obama for wearing a t-shirt adorned with a peace symbol? Remarks included the following:

“We’re being represented by a family of ghetto trash.”
“Looks like a bunch of ghetto thugs. A stain on America.”
“Looks like a typical street whore.”
“What we now are sending the ghetto over to represent us. and if so who the hell is that flea bag who looks to be dragged from the trash dumpster.”
“you could go down any ghetto right now and see exactly the same.”
“could you imagine what world leaders must be thinking seeing this kind of street trash and that we paid for this kind of street ghetto trash to go over there”
“the world must be laughing like mad right now at that we have this kind of street trash in our white house.”
“Wonder when she will have her first abortion.”
“sad isn’t it that we now have ghetto street trash over there representing us in Europe.”
“This disgusting display makes me more and more eager for the revolution.
“They make me sick…. The whole family… mammy, pappy, the free loadin’ mammy-in-law, the misguided chillin’, and especially ‘lil cuz… This is not the America I want representin’ my peeps.”

In addition, the thread includes a picture of Michelle Obama speaking to her daughter with the caption, “To Entertain Her Daughter, Michelle Obama Likes to Make Monkey Sounds.”

Before you dismiss this as only a minority of posters at the site, out of 100 posts on that thread I found only 1 that criticized such remarks. This is not the first time I have seen such an exhibition of blatant racism at Free Republic by members who regularly post there.

Here are my questions:

Does Free Republic condone this type of exercise in free speech?

Are these the type of participants Free Republic is happy to have posting at its site?

What is Free Republic’s policy about posting racially offensive comments?

What is Free Republic’s policy about making sexual insinuations about minors (particularly relevant in light of the David Letterman/Sarah Palin brouhaha)?

Does Free Republic believe its membership accurately represents the conservative movement?

Does the owner of Free Republic believe this kind of discourse is helpful to rebuilding the Republican Party and furthering its goals?

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your responses.

The thread was pulled/unpulled/pulled again. Then FreeRepublic.com founder Jim Robinson (JimRob on the forums) posted this thread:

Mr. Mojo begins lie #1, that all attacks were at Michelle Obama, not Malia

while astounded begins lie#2, that all those racist comments were done by secret Obama supporter infiltrators to make the site look bad. Lie #2 will eventually become FreeRepublic.com’s main defense of the comments.

I am not sure what this comment means

more infiltrator talk

Blacks are the real racists!

A voice of reason? He gets banned.

mojitojoe posts like 30 times in the thread, each time getting angrier and angrier

FR is only 10% racist…

Costumed Vigilante seems to think Obama got elected on a bayoneting children platform.

Yeah, blacks need to get over the 300 years of racial oppression so I can racially oppress them in peace

Snurple is not afraid to ask why

Yeah, Twink, they were.

Twink plays his tiny violin some more

astounded returns with the shocking proof that Obama pays us to troll. I get my fat check every week from Soros.

Jim Rob ends the thread pretending everything is better than it is

Then a newspaper article is posted online for the Vancouver Sun about the FreeRepublic thread

Conservative Free Republic blog in free speech flap after racial slurs directed at Obama children

“A typical street whore.” “A bunch of ghetto thugs.” “Ghetto street trash.” “Wonder when she will get her first abortion.”

These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative ‘Free Republic’ blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama’s 11-year-old daughter Malia after she was photographed wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on the front.

The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured the caption, “To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds.”

Though this may sound like the sort of thing one might read on an Aryan Nation or white power website, they actually appeared on what is commonly considered one of the prime online locations for U.S. Conservative grassroots political discussion and organizing – and for a short time, the comments seemed to have the okay of site administrators

In the article, author Chris Parry misnames the founder of FreeRepublic Jim Robinson as Jim Thompson.

Author Chris Parry is immediately targeted for attack by FreeRepublic posters:
Thread attacking Parry

Did FR bow to the LIEberals’ demands?

It was all infiltrators!

Yeah!

Liberals are the real racists!

RoseofTexas shows us how to be a real conservative (be insane)

“Hates America” is so cliche at this point I just laugh when I read it.

Everyone since 2006 is a troll!

Balls to the wall indeed…

JimRob starts to meltdown with another thread
Oh my word! I just discovered that the president is a black man!
(check out the keywords: apefreezone!)

Ha! Look at them black people with their blackness…

Check out me calling Hillary a race traitor without saying the words…

I can’t see any flaw in your plan, bobby.223

Gordon Greene and Gordon Greene, Jr have a date with the FBI

This leads to a MASSIVE threat 1700 posts long and counting where they try to dig up all sorts of dirt on reporter Chris Parry, and Chris Parry registers an account to chat with them.

(Expect a run through on this thread later)

In addition, MSNBC announces the thread will be covered on Monday’s David Shuster show. This leads to a whole new thread of fun.

So we will see the segment on MSNBC tomorrow, and the story is starting to spread throughout the internet. Expect more work on this eventually, but for now I have had enough of Freeper nonsense for one day.

UPDATE: TV appearance:

Wah! Wah! It is all DailyKos’s fault!

More fun here!