A Kansas Tea Party group has decided to call President Barack Obama a “skunk,” and posted on its website an image (right), along with the explanation that like Obama, a skunk is “half black, half white, and almost everything it does stinks.â€Â President Obama is the son of a black father and white mother. The Patriot Freedom Alliance‘s Thomas Hymer refuses to back away from his claim and insists it’s not racism, but “satire,” adding that is people don’t like the image, they don’t have to look at it.
“It’s satire is what it is,” said Thomas Hymer, according to Kansas’ local Hutchinson News.
“Satire in a politically incorrect form,” he said.
Darrell Pope, president of the Hutchinson branch of the NAACP, said he sees no humor in it and called it “a blatant statement of racism.”
“It’s intended to be malicious,” Pope said.
Tea party supporters can tout Herman Cain all they want, Pope said, but the skunk posting is “a statement of what they’re all about.”
The national NAACP previously has urged tea party leaders across the country to denounce any signs of racism.
Local tea party supporter Chuck Sankey agreed with Hymer that it’s satire.
It just makes a point that we’re in trouble and what’s happening doesn’t smell right, Sankey said. “That’s what it means to me.”
Regarding the reference to half-black, half-white, Sankey said, “Isn’t that the truth? What’s wrong with the truth?”
Obama’s mother was a white American, and his father was a black African.
“It may be offensive to some, of course, but in humor there is always an element of truth,” said Sankey, saying he is neither racist nor bigoted but is concerned about the direction the country is going.
If people are offended by it, Sankey said, his advice is: “Don’t look at it.”
Most, but not all of the reader comments on the Hutchinson News site were opposed to the skunk analogy, but a few were supportive.
As of today it appears the image of the skunk has been removed.
But as racist and offensive as it is, Hymer doesn’t even get points for creativity. A quick Google search reveals the website Obama Forward had the exact same post dated July 28, 2010.