Is the Obama chia pet racist?

[Prism]

I just saw an ad for it on KRON in San Francisco, and that felt . . . really wrong to me.

Edit: Oh god, I found a link.

[Warpy]

1. No, it's just stupid

[dchill]

3. Stupid, yes. But also racist.

[Warpy]

6. Oh, bosh.

[Hekate]

14. Thanks Warpy for the reality check. Chia Pets and Chia celebrities have been around FOREVER.

They're silly, is all.

[ZombieHorde]

2. Where do you see the bigotry? nt

[dchill]

4. Is there a Chia Bill Clinton?

A Chia Ozzy?
A Chia Jesus? (Cause he's white, y'know.)

[ZombieHorde]

5. They have Lincoln, Washington, a Duck Dynasty guy, Homer Simpson, etc.

I just googled it.

[Prism]

12. I never saw ads for those

Maybe I'm just catching an off advertisement, but I'm not aware of their array. So this struck me as really odd.

[ZombieHorde]

13. I just saw them for the first time after you asked.

If I hadn't googled it a little bit ago, I wouldn't have known either.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. I have a chia Jerry Garcia.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

9. There was a Chia Romney

You can still get one on Amazon

[Beartracks]

11. Clearly, chia-izing politicians is not racist.

Even if that politician happens to be black.

Oh, and here's a chia Lincoln:




And I like the shaping on chia Washington, lol:




============

[msanthrope]

22. I has one. nt

[Land of Enchantment]

25. LOL nt

[Hoyt]

8. Answer, Look at the yahoos who are likely to buy one.

[Journeyman]

10. If that's what you need it to be, then call it as you see it. . .

Don't be surprised, however, when there are others who have different priorities.

[MrScorpio]

15. As long as the same Chia standards are applied across racial lines...

I'd say, no, the Obama Chia is not particularly racist.

However... I would note that one should consider the fact that non-white Chias are actually rare. Why is that?

Perhaps we should look at this from an aspect of endemic white supremacy, where whiteness is the prevailing standard. Exclusively, images of whites, made by mostly white people, for mostly whites are what you would normally find, to the point when a non-white image is eventually offered we'd have question whether or not there was some racist intent behind it.

Perhaps the Obama Chia itself is not particularly racist, but what should we make of the fact that it represents an image of a non-white person in a veritable sea of white imagery? What other images of non-white people does the Chia company offer?

[Quantess]

16. Where are the Chia women?

I ought to take offense that women are severely underrepresented in the Chia pet industry.

[MrScorpio]

20. Damn Skippy nt

[Quantess]

21. I bet if there were a chia woman, she would be buxom, naked,

and the chia seed area would be the pubic hair region. Totally sexist!!!

[MrScorpio]

24. I could see it happening

Sexual objectification of women happens at the drop of a hat in this country.

[Quantess]

28. I know. I was 95% kidding, but there is a grain of truth to it!

I'm actually surprised there isn't a female crotch Chia pet.

[Vinca]

17. No. It's red clay pottery and green foliage.

Every chia pet is the same. Some things are just dumb or funny.

[FLPanhandle]

18. Anything can be perceived racist, if you try hard enough.

Doesn't mean it is though.

[bigwillq]

19. No (nt)

[B Calm]

23. I thought this post was about Bo Obama.

[csziggy]

26. I was going to say Bo isn't green enough to be a Chia pet

But then I realized that on the Internet you can't believe the color you see in a photo may not be the real color.

Bo could actually be blue and gold and we couldn't be sure!

[Nye Bevan]

27. If Martin Luther King was alive today,

he would be leading marches against the Barack Obama Chia Pet. Quite simply, this Chia Pet is white supremacy at its absolute worst.

[MrScorpio]

29. Sarcasm, right? nt

[MH1]

30. Doesn't even look like Obama, to me.

I would say the most offensive thing is that they did such a bad job with his likeness.

But, especially given all the points made above (lots of celebrity chias), not racist.