Tuesday, March 20, 2012

They all feel misunderstood.

A Forbes exclusive (more of the product line can be seen here):

          Paula Smith of Hinesville, Georgia has a company called Stickatude.com. And they’re selling their own version of an anti-Obama bumper sticker that reads “Don’t Re-Nig 2012.” Ms. Smith told me in a telephone conversation on Saturday afternoon that the bumper sticker has been in their inventory since June 2010, but just in the last few days it’s started selling. The price is $3. Ms. Smith insisted that  the bumper sticker is not racist. I asked her about the “N” word, for which “nig” is the shortened version. “According to the dictionary [the N word] does not mean black. It means a low down, lazy, sorry, low down person. That’s what the N word means.”
          In Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, the word is defined as “member of any dark skinned race. Taken to be offensive.” Dictionary.com says the word “is now probably the most offensive word in English. Its degree of offensiveness has increased markedly in recent years, although it has been used in a derogatory manner since at least the Revolutionary War. Definitions 1a, 1b, and 2 represent meanings that are deeply disparaging and are used when the speaker deliberately wishes to cause great offense.”
          Ms. Smith — who has an affable disposition and a hearty laugh–said she thought the website was “dead” and up until recently none of her bumper stickers was selling at all. Another site, called Stumpy’s Stickers, was originally credited with selling the Obama sticker. Ms. Smith says however she doesn’t own that site and didn’t know anything about it. She said Stumpy’s Stickers could have linked to their site, but she didn’t sell them any that they could have re-sold. Where did Ms. Smith find the sticker in the first place? “We just found it on the internet, and thought it was cute. It’s been up there since he’s been president.”



          How did I find Stickatude.com? Clicking on Stumpysstickers.com from a story posted to Yahoo! caused a redirect to Stickatude. Ms. Smith is the official registered owner of the internet address, www.stickatude.com.
          The Smiths own a well known paint ball field in Hinesville — a town near Savannah. Mrs. Smith said customers come from all over the world. Ms. Smith said she is not racist, she just wants Obama out of office. She tells me she doesn’t have a preferred replacement candidate. “And besides Obama is not even black. He’s got a mixture of race. It’s his choice of what his nationality is. I’m a mixed breed. I call myself a Heinz 57,” she says, referring to an ancestry that’s part of French, Scottish, and German.
          “I just want someone that’s going to help the United States and not give it other countries all the time. And stop giving the immigrants the benefits that most Americans inside their own states can’t even get because they’re giving it others who don’t even live here as an American.
          “I do find it amazing and entertaining that one of our stickers has become a racist thing,” Ms. Smith told me. I asked her if she thought the “N” Word was a bad word? “No,” she said, ” because I don’t use it. I have kids here around me that are black kids. I call them my own kids. I’ve helped black families…to guide them in the right direction. Paintball is one of these things. We like to laugh and have a good time. That’s our way of life.”

     Just like the fellows selling Obama Waffles. 

     And the couple selling Obama sock monkeys.     Pinnacle

     Or the guys at Mulligans in Marrietta, Georgia, who thought the Curious George Angle was cute (so did Limbaugh).



     On a completely unrelated note, David Weigel assures us stupid people can only do so much damage as voters.

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