Anti-Obama Facebook page boasts 483,518 fans, and at least 20 offensive pictures

[wndycty]

Anti-Obama Facebook page boasts 483,518 fans, and at least 20 offensive (racist, homophobic, anti-semitic) pictures


Tonight I stumbled across a Facebook Fan page named “O.B.A.M.A. (One Big Ass Mistake, America)” which I learned about from my newsfeed after a friend from high school, who has admitted she hates President Obama, joined it.

A quick survey of the page’s photo gallery features at least 20, out of 443, offensive photos (racist, homophobic, anti-semitic) referencing President Obama as well as the First Lady.

Now let me be clear, opposing and criticizing President Obama IS NOT racist, however using some of the offensive imagery found in this photo gallery to attack him is.

I find it both pathetic and insulting that folks who post, e-mail and defend the use of these offensive images will portray those of us who dare to call them out on their bigotry as accusing anyone who does not the support Obama as racist, THAT SIMPLY IS NOT TRUE.

What is true is that there is a significant number of Obama detractors who are motivated by racism and I have no problem saying that.

To those who claim not to be racist I encourage you to strongly condemn this crap.

Now that the light has been shown on this fan page lets talk about potential fall out:

* Some will quit the page. (I’m hoping that my high school friend does that, our friendship is strained to begin with and I’m not sure how I can go on associating with anyone who would be a proud fan of this page, especially after its offensive content has been exposed).

* The page’s administrators or Facebook might remove the photos or even delete the page entirely, only to have it replaced by others, which will be equally offensive.

* Others will defend the content on First Amendment grounds, these folks usually are low information activists/bigots/voters who don’t really know what the First Amendment is about.

For starters I should note that I have not demanded that this page or the photos be taken down, I wouldn’t mind leaving it up just to show how racist some of Obama’s detractors are.

Secondly, those moaning about free speech should know that as they exercise their rights to be unrepentant racists, many of us will exercise our rights to call them, what they are, BIGOTS.

Lastly, the First Amendment only deals with the government restricting speech, Facebook who could face a member/advertiser backlash, can do whatever it wants if it feels this page hurts its image and damages its bottom line.

Below are some screen caps of some of the offending pictures be sure to check them out.

http://blog.windycitywatch.com/2010/02/anti-obama-facebook-page-boasts-483518.html

[Berry Cool]

1. Have you sent this to any news media?

They don't seem to be aware of it. I'm sure they would love to know about it. Well, Ed, Keith and Rachel, anyway.

[Raine1967]

2. When I see things like this, I tend to report them as offensive.

Facebook has some fairly strong rules about this kinda stuff. A lot of times it takes a while to get them removed, but still, you can say something.

It's disgusting. Why the hell do people think this is ok?

[Little Star]

3. I can't believe that shit is allowed to stay up on FB! n/t

[Raine1967]

6. Some of it is against the rules

http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

like this:
You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory.

or this:
You will not post content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic, or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.

or this:
If you repeatedly infringe other people's intellectual property rights, we will disable your account when appropriate.

--- a lot of those pictures skirt those rules, as does that page itself. It is really disgusting. These people actually think they are making a political statement when all they are doing is hate.

[Peacetrain]

4. It is things like this that keep me off places like Facebook.. they always

start out great.. but the looney tunes among us, always make such a mess of it..

[mopinko]

10. right?

unmoderated forums are just not worth it. fb, you can pick who you hang with. but all in all, the nuts eventually take over the asylum.
having been a mod here, i know how much work it is to keep the damn doors locked.

[activa8tr]

18. Sorry, but that kind of reasoning could be applied to:

Driving a car
Flying in an airplane
Walking on a city sidewalk
Reading a Newspaper
Listening to Radio
Watching Television
Following DU posts

I'm not buying your justification. Human freedom always has such risks, why bother enjoying it?

[Posteritatis]

30. The site has four hundred million members

Half of those accounts are accessed on at least a daily basis.

You're going to find just about anything there. Someone saying "Facebook is bad because there's loony conservativse on it" is more or less identical to saying "Brazil is bad because there's loony conservatives" in it at this point. Of course there will be when you start having those kinds of numbers. Treat it like you would any community with a population larger than most nation-states.

[Raine1967]

5. I disagree about this page remaining there.

For starters I should note that I have not demanded that this page or the photos be taken down, I wouldn’t mind leaving it up just to show how racist some of Obama’s detractors are.

These people are not aware -- nor ever will be-- of how racist this is, and silence about it only perpetuates that what they are doing is ok. I tire of people using the first amendment to be a classless low life person. People can say whatever they want, but there are consequences to what we say and do.

[Robbie88]

19. "...I wouldn’t mind leaving it up just to show how racist some of Obama’s detractors are."

That is kind of how I feel. Many on the right always complain that they are accused of racism simply for not supporting the President's policy agenda, and things such as this page show that while not all of President Obama's critics are racists, there is definitely an extremely frightening element of racial hatred which drives many of them. These people need to be exposed; if we simply try to "silence" their hatred, we are just ignoring the actual problem and making it less visible rather than doing anything to actually address the issue of racism.

[niceypoo]

7. Something tells me it wont be up for much longer

Someone send this to Keith Olberman!

[zulchzulu]

8. Sore loser racists... probably living in Mommy's basement too... n/t

[marshall]

9. Facebook is how the haters in Indonesia orchestrated the statue being moved

It's a whole new world with the internet.

[Zomby Woof]

11. Why don't you de-friend that fucking bitch

Like, yesterday?

[Cha]

12. I rec this to expose the stupid assholes.

Pres Obama is strong enough to handle all the ignorant shit thrown at him by mentally challenged idiots in this country.

[vaberella]

13. Interesting. 4chan Spillover made it to facebook! n/t

[sakabatou]

14. Shall we report this then?

[SunsetDreams]

15. As a facebook member, I reported it.

[wndycty]

16. The group is up to over 500,000 members now

:kick:

[Cha]

17. Any news on membership of pro Pres Obama on

Facebook?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

22. Well, a group that I'm a member of --1 million strong for Barack has over a million members.

[Cha]

23. Well, bless your little Quark

Heart! :hi:

[SunsetDreams]

21. Yes I see that,

although I did not join it myself only to report it, I suspect there may be some who joined it to give some a piece of their mind. Who knows? I do know this, I suspect that site will not be around much longer.

[donheld]

36. It's free speech - even if it's distasteful.

[SunsetDreams]

39. yes it is, but not according to facebook rules

[Rosa Luxemburg]

20. report it

[Ter]

24. Facebook is not MySpace

This will defiantly stay up, since the far worse Holocaust deniers group is still up. MySpace delete extreme groups, Facebook does not.

[Number23]

25. That is disgusting. You must be a very tolerant guy to have friends that would associate

with such a group.

[vaberella]

26. Let's be honest here. Many people on DU post & associate covertly with Freepers.

I've seen some of those threads and posts---not that different.

[Number23]

27. Right. And I'm not trashing the OP for being friends with someone that

would join a group like this. You can't help what your friends do.

[maryellen99]

40. my husband's 16 year old cousin joined that group

I didn't defriend him but I blocked all of his posts. I haven't seen him in a couple of years.

[Dappleganger]

28. Just an hour ago I unfriended someone because of this...

it showed up in her feed that she had joined the group. I sent her a note to let her know that I did not see how she could call herself a christian and subscribe to an obviously racist group like that. Then I unfriended her.

There's no discussing the pros or cons with someone about this. IMO if they don't see the racism they never will.

[davidpdx]

33. I think that's a pretty good response

I don't think I have anyone on my list who would do that, but if I did, I'd follow your lead.

As to the page, I think the most Facebook will do is remove the specific things that are offensive and leave the group up. I can't see them closing it down. Maybe giving them as little attention as possible is the key to make them look little and petty, which is what they are.

[Ter]

37. While those pictures are clearly racist

It doesn't mean your friend or everyone in the group is. I'm sure some just joined because the title says it's an anti-Obama group. The racists are the members who uploaded those pictures and commented on them positively.

[Lilyeye]

29. Hummm

Hopefully some posters who claim racism doesn't have much to do with some of the hate towards Obama will check out the pic in the OP.

Obama as buckwheat with watermelon, fried chicken and speaking ebonics? Post racial America my ass.

Edit:spelling.

[firedupdem]

31. Wow..I've been off facebook a lot lately but I'm going to alert on that

one. I could not be friends with the person who joined. I'll be monitoring your page closely....:) RD

[LatteLibertine]

32. And yet again

more proof that many of President Obama's critics aren't racist. Riiiiiiiiight.

We've all be dreaming up example after example, after example...

Often the same sort of cretin that is racist is also homophobic, and sexist. Just wonderful folks.

[marshall]

34. Eeeek! Did you have to join this thing to browse through the hundreds of photos

I wouldn't want my name associated with it even for a minute.

[JaneQPublic]

35. I de-friended somebody for becoming a fan of this page.

She was just a former co-worker, so it's not like it was the end of a close friendship. Still, I was very surprised that she held this view. Just the same, I don't need to see this kind of crap show up on my Facebook homepage. Next time I see her I will be telling her why I did it.

[WI_DEM]

38. 300 million people on Facebook.