phillel
May 25th, 2005, 07:58 AM
Are you offended by 'racial' photo?
(http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/epaper/2005/05/25/A1E_offense_0525.html)
By Mark Schwed (mark_schwed@pbpost.com)
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
It was just a joke. Really.
When Robert Richards, 19, decided to pose for his Boynton Beach High School yearbook with a leash around his neck, it was all in good fun.
The students who watched the photo session of Richards, who is black, with his then-girlfriend Melissa Finley, who is white, got the joke: Richards was voted "Most Whipped," meaning his girlfriend had him around her little finger.
"Most people think it's funny," Richards says.
But his mother wasn't laughing.
"You have to be careful what kind of fun you have," says his mom, Jacqueline Nobles. "We as adults know the truth. To see a black male with a belt around his neck with a white female holding onto it, it can be offensive to the black race."
Twenty-five years earlier, two students posed in a similar picture for their Forest Hill High School yearbook. They were voted "Wittiest" members of their Class of 1980.
A grinning Margie Logsdon held the leash and a panting Rob Pruitt was on his knees, like a dog. Both students are white.
"Nobody took offense," says Louis Vassalotti, the yearbook editor.
'I know they were having fun'
What is it that makes the same image offensive to some and a goof to others?
"Words or images have no intrinsic meanings apart from the connotations we place on them," explains Clayborne Carson, professor of history at Stanford University and also editor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers. "What meanings we make of the scene we see in front of us comes from our culture. That's what culture is all about: How do we give meaning to what we see and hear."
In the case of Richards' mother, the "meaning" was racism. She was instantly transported back to the days of slavery, when she wasn't alive, and the civil rights movement, when she was. What she saw wasn't just her son, but the manacled slave Kunta Kinte in the 1970s miniseries Roots.
[the rest of the article (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/epaper/2005/05/25/A1E_offense_0525.html)]
[THAT ARTICLE LINK EXPIRED. HERE'S ANOTHER (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2005/05/18/m1a_skyearbook_0518.html)]
personally, i think he should have known better. and it's a shame that he didn't know that he should have known better. no matter what the intend, it was a stupid idea.
Are you offended??
(http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/epaper/2005/05/25/A1E_offense_0525.html)
By Mark Schwed (mark_schwed@pbpost.com)
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
It was just a joke. Really.
When Robert Richards, 19, decided to pose for his Boynton Beach High School yearbook with a leash around his neck, it was all in good fun.
The students who watched the photo session of Richards, who is black, with his then-girlfriend Melissa Finley, who is white, got the joke: Richards was voted "Most Whipped," meaning his girlfriend had him around her little finger.
"Most people think it's funny," Richards says.
But his mother wasn't laughing.
"You have to be careful what kind of fun you have," says his mom, Jacqueline Nobles. "We as adults know the truth. To see a black male with a belt around his neck with a white female holding onto it, it can be offensive to the black race."
Twenty-five years earlier, two students posed in a similar picture for their Forest Hill High School yearbook. They were voted "Wittiest" members of their Class of 1980.
A grinning Margie Logsdon held the leash and a panting Rob Pruitt was on his knees, like a dog. Both students are white.
"Nobody took offense," says Louis Vassalotti, the yearbook editor.
'I know they were having fun'
What is it that makes the same image offensive to some and a goof to others?
"Words or images have no intrinsic meanings apart from the connotations we place on them," explains Clayborne Carson, professor of history at Stanford University and also editor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers. "What meanings we make of the scene we see in front of us comes from our culture. That's what culture is all about: How do we give meaning to what we see and hear."
In the case of Richards' mother, the "meaning" was racism. She was instantly transported back to the days of slavery, when she wasn't alive, and the civil rights movement, when she was. What she saw wasn't just her son, but the manacled slave Kunta Kinte in the 1970s miniseries Roots.
[the rest of the article (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/epaper/2005/05/25/A1E_offense_0525.html)]
[THAT ARTICLE LINK EXPIRED. HERE'S ANOTHER (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2005/05/18/m1a_skyearbook_0518.html)]
personally, i think he should have known better. and it's a shame that he didn't know that he should have known better. no matter what the intend, it was a stupid idea.
Are you offended??