First of all, let me just clarify something in regards to this week’s Dustinland:
I’m not saying ALL of the people who aren’t voting for Obama are racist.
I’m just saying a lot of them are.
You know it and I know it. We all talk about it in the real world, even if nobody talks about it on TV. No matter how much is at stake, no matter what the issues are, many people made up their minds as soon as they saw a black person running for president. Some people will admit it, but most won’t. And those are the people you see on TV, the people who hate Obama, but can’t really say why. You can feel that hatred bubbling to the surface. Look around online on conservative sites like Freerepublic.com and you barely have to read between the lines. After Obama spoke at the DNC, there were plenty of quotes like: “He is an angry black man.” Not just “an angry man.” An “angry BLACK man.” And we all know what that’s really code for.
So here’s the question: How much of a role will racism play in the election? There’s really no way we’ll ever know for sure. Let’s just hope it’s less than some of us fear.
Dustinland - The Blog 
whoa…
Saying even one person who won’t vote for Obama because s/he is a racist is…really messed up.
And Freepers are far right nut jobs who are not representative of anything other than themselves -they don’t represeent a single other person who isnt voting Obama.
Reminds me of a few weeks in high school I spent working as a cashier one summer – a customer was taking a long time to pack up their shit and leave the register area and I couldn’t take the next person yet. Well next was a black woman who said I didn’t ring her up 10 seconds sooner because she was black. This comic is just as insane .
Love the Birdys this week though.
(I hope thiscomment isn’t being truncated by my iPhone, I can’t scroll up.)
So wait – you’re telling me that it’s “insane” to say that there are people in this country who aren’t going to vote for Obama because he’s black?
Hey, I’m not accusing any one specific individual. I’m just saying it is going to happen. To deny that is simply ridiculous.
Thanks for the great comic, Dustin. I live in the south, and this is absolutely true. I have seen it all my life. Down here, people say they are leery of Obama or he “scares them.” How can anyone be more scary than McCain/Palin? Yes, racism is at the core for 90% of people down here. I am not sure that they even know it though… FOX news has made their hate feel so righteous. I know that this is the election of my lifetime. If we choose wrongly, I fear America will not have another chance. I hope Obama is right… I hope the American people get it this time… and vote out these folks. But if they don’t, sadly, I think the country deserves what it gets. Sorry for the rant, but as a christian, I am sick of this evil party and admin and all their “Christian” minions in the south.
What you’re saying is that if someone doesn’t vote for Obama, it is because they are a racist.
Sure, there will be some people won’t vote for him because he is black. And some people won’t vote for McCain because he’s Irish, and won’t vote for his ticket because his VP choice is female.
But really, there are hundreds of more important reasons to not vote for Obama other than the color of his skin.
Black voters back Sen. Obama 94 times more than McCain. They also backed Obama far more than Hillary Clinton.
It seems people want to elect a leader who is like them and supports their culture and values. We should accept and tolerate this instead of demanding that people comply with artificial liberal ideals.
Being tolerant and open-minded means accepting that other people might choose differently than you. Everyone has the right to their opinion and this should be respected instead of reducing politics to “racism” and other childish name calling.
Great comic.
Also, I believe that Europe will be happy if you elect Obama. If mccain wins… the world ends.
My 64 year old brother recently passed away, but through the fight for the nomination he sighed that he guessed it would be Hillary, and he hated her. When it began to look as if Obama had a shot he told me he’d vote for Hillary because he wouldn’t cast his vote for a black as president. He was a life-long New Yorker. The only good thing I can say about his political views is that without saying much about it to me, he seemed to have ruled out voting for any Republican after observing what had gone on in the Bush administration, tho’ until this year he always favored the Repugs.
Dustin, you are RIGHT on, as usual! This ol’ Grandma and Grandpa have said this from the very beginning! The poles are scaring us to death! (Here in our Arizona Retirement Community . . . it is easy to see the handwriting on the wall) When will our voting public WAKE UP and start thinking? It really isn’t all that difficult! We’re hoping for the younger generation to pull us through!
No. People don’t vote for him because of this guy.
http://www.atlah.org/broadcast/ndnr07-28-08.html
Wow, I guess are you incapable of recognizing your own hypocrisy.
You “hope” that race isn’t going to play as big a part in all this as you think it will, and then you go ahead and draw a totally racist cartoon in order to get people upset about it! This is no less than the fourth time, between radio, tv, and internet that I’ve heard it suggested that anyone who does not like Obama is racist. Are we trying to elect a president through mass guilt tripping??
Maybe it’s Obama’s obsession with civil service that bothers me:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/service/
Or maybe it’s his (and Biden’s) unwavering support for adopting the UN’s “poverty fighting” global tax and adding an additional 0.7% tax burden to our entire GDP:
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obamas-global-tax-proposal-up-for-senate-vote/
Or maybe the fact that Joe Biden has publicly called for a national draft makes me not want to vote for Obama. :
From 2005: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2005/06/12/539/08690
From 1988:
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Joe_Biden_Homeland_Security.htm
Maybe Biden’s tight-as-a-glove relationship with the telecoms and MPAA/RIAA as well as his support for ever increased domestic surveillance bothers me?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cnet/20080824/tc_cnet/83011357831002416338
Ok, enough articles, let me just list a few one-liners about why else I don’t support Barack:
– Phony anti-war candidate
– Nutcase mass murderer Brzezinski in campaign
– Supports Gore’s economy killing carbon taxing
– Supports increasing retirement age to 70
– Obama blood related to both Bush and Cheney
– Obama and Biden: Yes on FISA
– Biden: Yes on PATRIOT Act
If I wanted to spend the time thinking I could increase this list by two or three fold. I’m not voting for Obama not because he is (half-)black, I’m not voting for Obama because I actually see through his smooth-talking, overly utopian B.S. rhetoric. The guy is a fraud, a con-man. There is no change with Obama, not for the better anyway.
Wow Myke – did you really just waste that much time on that post? Did you not read what I just wrote? Here, let me quote myself:
“I’m not saying ALL of the people who aren’t voting for Obama are racist.”
All I’m saying is that a lot of people are. Even if only 1 out of 100 Americans won’t vote for Obama because of his race, that’s 3 million people. That’s a lot.
What an unbelievable load. I won’t deny that some people–a lot of people, in fact–won’t vote for him because he’s black. But Every single thing in that comic could and has been said about other candidates. Well, ‘ceptin the muslim thing but…
Religion isn’t altogether unusual to attack. JFK and Kerry’s catholicism, for example. Lieberman’s jewishness.
It isn’t uncommon for people not to vote for someone because they weren’t the first choice.
A candidate not having enough experience is a common criticism.
Theresa Heinz-Kerry and Hillary Clinton were huge targets and people hated them.
It’s not anything out of the ordianry for a candidate to be called far left or far right, an extreme liberal or extreme conervative.
They’re on about Sarah Palin and her pastor. But guilt by association is nothing new, either.
And saying a candidate is out of touch with the avergae joe isn’t unheard of–the same argument was used against Gore in 2000 by W.
So why is it automatically assumed anyone who levels these critcisms of Obama is a racist, a closet Klansman? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve seen in days. And I would say again that people think nothing of the fact that people say they’re only voting for him because he’s black. Bottom line on that argument is you’re voting for a candidate based on the color of his skin. That’s a racist action. So where’s the comic showing people showering praise on Obama and then showing the fact they’re only voting for him because he’s black?
Eh…whatever. The Obamists will never see any fault with this idiot, no matter what he does. And they’ll make any excuse for him, despite his many flaws.
You know, because of dumb@$$ f^(|<tard comics like this that imply anyone who doesn’t support Obama is a racist I tend to have doubt in some of the poll numbers we see. I think a lot of people are simply afraid to say they aren’t supporting Obama for fear of being labeled a racist. After the 2004 election I read an article suggesing a similar reason for why Kerry was leading in the polls on election day and they got his @$$ handed to him by W. Said that basically were afraid of being labeled anti-American by not supporting Bush so they lied to the pollsters and said they were voting Kerry but really voted Bush. Similarly, right now I think maybe people are afraid of being branded racist so they say they’re voting Obama when they really have no intention of voting for him.
I put way much less time into my post, which actually contained useful information, compared to your cartoon that insults everyone who isn’t a member of the Obama-cult.
Ok, let’s say that 3 million people won’t vote for Obama because he’s black. I don’t necessarily agree with that number, but let’s run with it.
How many of those 3 million awful racist people are Democrat who would vote for Obama if he weren’t black? I’d say a lot closer to zero than a million.
Now, how many people are going to vote FOR Obama simply to avoid that nagging feeling inside their soul that they are somehow racist? I’d say a lot closer to a million than zero.
The media and bloggers such as yourself are going to try to play the race card not to avoid losing racist votes, but to gain race-guilt votes.
Oh and just to enforce my point that the race issue will actually favor Obama and not harm him….
He purposely scheduled his acceptance speech to be on the anniversary of MLK’s great speech and purposely staged it at Invesco field so that the background would match up with a famous line from that same speech.
How obvious could he get with the whole race thing?
Obama is NOT MLK, and Obama is NOT JFK!
I find it funny how certain claims seem to trigger a standard response right away, no matter how much they are modified.
Dustin obviously said not all of the people who won’t vote for Obama are racist. Furthermore in the comic he shows what are some of the (with a high probability) phony reasons they use instead of just saying “He is black, I don’t want a black man.”
Still, what he says is handled the same way as if he had said “Everyone who doesn’t vote for Obama is racist!”
Talk about overuse of a message destroying its valid points (eg, liberal webpages, TV, radio,…)
I think this election will show very well how racist the every day American still is nowadays. Not talking KKK racism just little every day things. You’re white and have a daughter? Would you let her go out with a black man, for whatever reasons? Works in the opposite direction, though. I’m quite sure an awful lot of the black US citizens are only planning on voting for Obama because he’s a “bro”, no matter his political standing.
This election will most definitely be very interesting.
Best comic yet. I’ve been saying the same thing for months. Every thin contrivance of criticism the right comes up with is just code for “He’s black”.
There are a lot more closet racists out there than most people think…
this is spot on. While I’m sure there are people who won’t vote for him because of his policy issues (aka really rich people and/or defense contractors) there are plenty of people who won’t vote for him because he’s black. The point is this: if that’s the reason, why are you afraid to admit it? I live in the south, and I know people who say: “I’m not voting for that guy because he’s black” — although they don’t use terms that are that friendly. Disgusting but honest. all I’m saying is this: if you’re a racist, own it. Hell, be like Westmoreland and call him “uppity”. wow. people actually voted for that guy as well.
I do agree that there will be people who do not vote for Obama because he’s black. Unfortunately, racism that steep as still alive in this country, though I like to think it’s better better.
However, I think you’re ignoring a big issue: Many more people are going to vote for Obama ONLY because he is black, but for no reason. Many people at my college have unabashedly stated this. “Obama is black, and it would be cool to have a black president, so he gets my vote.” How is that any better? It’s not. People should be voting on who they think will do the best job running this country, not voting (or not voting) for someone based on the color of their skin. Either way, it’s wrong.
I personally haven’t decided who I will be voting for. I wanted to vote for Obama, but I am worried that he will not be able to handle the gigantic mess that will be handed to him from the Bush administration should he win. He is very inspiring, but now I need to decide if we need an inspirational leader, or a leader who knows what to do to help turn the country around. It’s experience vs inspiration. Both candidates can do wonderful things for this country, it’s just a matter of how they go about it. I still haven’t decided what I want.
Anyway, I can’t convince people to actually vote based on policy or to actually look at what the candidates stand for before hugging the party line for dear life, but I don’t think that the amount of votes Obama gets this election is a measure of racism. You would have to assume that every person who doesn’t vote fo rhim did it because he is black. And to be honest, that’s completely false. We’ll never know the real intentions of these people, though I have no doubt that racism plays a role for many of them.
Oh, by the way, I started reading your comics a couple of weeks ago and really enjoy them, though I disagree with some of what you say. I’m glad that webcomics are becoming more common – people can get out their opinions in an entertaining matter without having to worry about offending the syndicates, etc. Try getting this comic published in a newspaper.
All right, let’s do a little thought experiment. The current administration is so bad that even the conservative Economist magazine says it’s “calamitous” and an example of incompetence and cronyism.
Then along comes a white Democratic candidate who has tons of charisma, worked to help the poor after college, then Magna Cum Laude from Harvard, worked in the campaign of highly respected Senator Paul Simon, enacted bipartisan legislation in the Illinois senate and 2 important reform bills since reaching the US Senate. Against the scandal-ridden, 72 year old serial adulterer with a campaign full of lobbyists whose idea of foreign policy is to sing “bomb Iran”, he’s a shoe-in. People are glad for a change.
Same situation, same candidates, but the new guy is black instead of white; suddenly it’s a close race.
I can’t see any holes in Dustin’s thesis here. How apparent this is to you will depend more on where you live than anything. I can understand the argument that black voters will probably favor him automatically, but this isn’t about the net effect of Obama’s race; it’s about how racism still runs deep and mostly hidden in our society.
I grew up in West Virginia, famous for obesity and a poor education system. While I’m lucky that my immediate family votes based on open-minded, issue-based reasons, everywhere you go you meet people are are… uneasy about Obama in a very vague and non-specific way. They’ll dodge giving specific reasons and revert to tired or debunked statements uttered without conviction. I’ll happily agree to disagree with anyone who has any legitimate form of disagreement with Obama as MyKe has stated, but around here it isn’t the case.
This is a perfect example of what I run into: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-q4MDQ0cDI
Before you write off my state as a bunch of ignorant rednecks, I would like to say that when I spent the summer interning for a major company in McLean, VA the beltway was no better, if not worse.
My fellow associates there had plenty of legitimate reasons to vote Republican that I could easily accept. Favoring business, deregulation, etc., but several more were quiet on the issue, at least at work.
Once the day was over and we were enjoying a few drinks, things got uncomfortable. A sizable portion of the group would start making off-color jokes, testing the waters to see how others would react. Before long, people were cracking jokes about the election being “n”-rigged and other topics I won’t print here. Needless to say I was uncomfortable.
These people were well-educated and behaving exactly the same as the backwoods hillbillies I run into back home. Again, I’m not saying everyone is racist, but there are many, many more than you might think.
It’s incredibly easy for a racist to hide their opinions in public, but it’s an entirely different issue when you’re in the privacy of the voting booth.
It’s true. Anyone who doesn’t vote for Obama is a racist. Just like everyone who doesn’t vote McCain/Palin is a sexist.
Well, since I don’t agree with any major party candidate at all, I actually might support Obama because he looks so bad-ass. And isn’t 95 years old or a globalist.
I am not American (Canadian!) but if I were I would vote Obama. I know whatchu talking ’bout though, because my mom “doesn’t trust him” and can’t pinpoint why. I’m not saying my mom is racist, but, yeah, it’s because he’s black, and because of his name.
Politics appear to be more hot-topic and flashy down south than they are up here, so I won’t say much more because I’m afraid of being attacked via comments, but I just wanted to say that I enjoyed and agree with this week’s comic! Also I keep meaning to start reading your blog, but sometime after college I got this mysterious thing called a “life” and I’m still trying to adjust. I neglect my own blog something awful these days!
Wow now I’m just saying random things. The end! (p.s. I can’t remember if I sent you an email or not but I mean to say congratulations on getting married… ten years ago or whenever that happened.)
Wow… I’ve never seen such long posts on here. Maybe if you draw it as stick figures next time people won’t take it too seriously. PS – @MyKe … all great reasons to vote for him.
This topic has got me thinking and talking about it with other people. Here’s our perfect ticket:
President: Sean Paul – black, Jewish, and all cool.
Vice President: the tranny who plays Beyonce in the video for Cazwell’s new song “I Seen Beyonce at Burger King” – will supply “female” and gay representation
Campaign song: “It’s Me Bitches” by Swizz Beatz – has the topics of utmost importance to most Americans and will give undecided voters a subltle push.
Bonus: Secretary of State: Chingy – just for making the song and video “Dem Jeans.”
But seriously, the better candidate should win. If a more qualified person is passed over due to racial prejudice that would be a travesty – especially when the alternative is John McCain.
I’m not that into politics – I’m just bored.
I don’t care if the next president is black, white, yellow, purple, gay, dead, a cat, retarded, in a coma, etc, as long as it’s not another republican. America has barely survived 8 years, it’s not going to survive 12.
So, you know, black power!
I believe race will play a big part in this year’s election, and I did honestly enjoy the strip (thanks Dustin, I know exactly what you tried to accomplish with this strip, and I appreciated it!!!).. However, I think (and I am hoping!!!!) everyone will study and know what each candidate stands for and votes according to what they can bring to this country. I lean towards the Democratic ticket, but I still keep my ears open to listen to what the Repubs have to say. At this point, with the Stock Market barely keeping afloat, oil prices all over the place, AND the never-ending wars in Iraq and Afganistan, we can’t afford the ‘same-ole’ of anything, we need an overhaul of the whole government it seems.