Oh, yes, it’s racism. As someone who worked in the media, I can’t imagine any publication (mainstream, that is) running a headline and photo like this. Or, for that matter, respectable conservative blogs or respectable conservative websites. It’s a combo of snark and racism. A head of lettuce at Albertson’s Grocery story on Carmel Mountain Road in Rancho Penasquitos would look at this and say: “Racism. Lettuce all agree on that…”
When you read the post, the headline is not accurate. It is claiming the barbecue was something it wasn’t. And it just so happened that it called it a “hip hop barbecue” and the post ran a bunch of people who happen not to be white (when so many who were white were there).
Now I’m sure some fans of Fox News will now respond by insisting it’s nothing of the sort. But, yes, it is.
The one thing that MUST be said in Fox’ defense: I’m quite sure the corporate bigwigs don’t micromanage what a specific webpage has at every given moment. But if they were smart they’d suggest Fox Nation scrap it, the headline and the fact that all of the people in that photo just happen to be the…ahem…same color. But in the way our politics works, partisans will not defend it and claim it’s all PC. Which it isn’t. And if it was, the headline and post are still…racist.
We have to ask ourselves as well: has the state of our politics fallen this low, this petty that if a President in a time of economic trouble has a birthday party or barbecue that somehow this is a)an attack point, b)it is suggested even with (very lame) snark that, hey, see, it didn’t produce jobs?
And the answer to the above question is:
Yes.
(Even the lettuce and carrots agree.)
Be sure to read Hart William’s take on this story.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.