GA Bar Owner Sells Shirts Depicting Obama as Chimp

For those still too ignorant to comprehend why some white people hate Barack Obama perhaps this story will enlighten you.

Group protests at Cobb bar, calling Obama T-shirts racist. Mulligan's selling shirts with 'Curious George' picture

By CHRISTIAN BOONE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/13/08

Marietta tavern owner Mike Norman says the T-shirts he's peddling, featuring cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with "Obama in '08" scrolled underneath, are "cute." But to a coalition of critics, the shirts are an insulting exploitation of racial stereotypes from generations past.

"It's time to put an end to this," said Rich Pellegrino, a Mableton resident and director of the Cobb-Cherokee Immigrant Alliance. He was among about 15 people who protested outside Mulligan's Bar and Grill Tuesday afternoon against the sale of the "racist and highly offensive" shirts.

"There's no place for these views, not in this day and age," he said.
Word of the controversy drew native Mariettan Pam Lindley, 47, to show up in support of the protesters.

"I don't want people to think this is what Marietta is all about," she added, pointing at tavern.

Two protesters, who stationed themselves near the tavern entrance, approached Norman and asked him to stop the T-shirt sales. He told them he won't and asked them to leave his property, though the confrontation did not escalate.

Just down the street from Marietta's famous Big Chicken, Mulligan's has carved a provocative niche in an increasingly multicultural area, thanks to its owner's ultra-conservative political views. If you live in Marietta, it's impossible not to know what's on Norman's mind, as he posts his views on signs in front of Mulligan's.

Among his recent musings: "I wish Hillary had married OJ," "No habla espanol -- and never will" and the standard "I.N.S. Agents eat free." "I'm saying out loud what everyone in this town whispers," Norman said in an interview before Tuesday's protest.

Whatever residents think of the signs, organized opposition to his blunt commentaries -- ongoing for 16 years -- had been nonexistent. No longer, says Pellegrino, who, though familiar with Norman's politics, said he was still surprised by the stark imagery of the Obama T-shirts.

"There's a lot of people hurt by this," he said.

Norman said those offended are "hunting for a reason to be mad" and insisted he is "not a racist."

Norman said he sees nothing wrong with depicting Obama as Curious George. "Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George," Norman said. He said he did not design the shirts himself but bought them through a Web site.

He said he views it as just coincidence that the character on the T-shirt is a monkey. Norman also said proceeds raised from sales will be donated to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Nation of Islam and the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials were among the organizations represented at Tuesday's rally.

"Mulligan's is promoting and selling racially offensive T-shirts, and Marietta and Cobb County residents and taxpayers abhor and cannot condone, any longer, this type of divisive and incendiary behavior in our community," said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of GALEO.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association has come out against Mike Norman and says that they will be refusing all donations from him and his establishment.



People like Mr. Norman rarely have an original thought. I'm sure he got the idea for the t-shirts by listening to Rush Limbaugh in March of this year.

Racist incidents give some Obama campaigners pause

njqt466:
The biggest outrage to me in this story is not that Mr. Norman is such an abomination as a human being, it's that he has the face to say he's NOT A RACIST!!! I reminds me of a book I read a long time ago called The Loss of Innocence by Sheldon Kopp. In it, he talks about how emotional dishonesty is really what evil is.
I guess I'm just getting old, but I feel so disheartened lately about the state of affairs in the world. Perhaps the Reign of Bush has just worn me down, but I feel hopeless much more often than I would like. I want Mr. Obama to win the election so badly, and yet I fear what some evil creature might do to him.

Hmmm. Is it racist also, that George W. Bush has also been depicted as a chimp, and called "Chimpie"?

I've seen both, lotsa times.

Preposterous! Curious George is white!

A white man can just as easily resemble a chimp.

George W. Bush or Chimpanzee?

I think I know where Mr.Norman got the idea but looking at his other musings I would say his t-shirts are racially motivated. Not cool.

glad i dont live in georgia

I can't wait for Vivendi Universal to get hold of this for copyright infringement.

Well, I agree, but I think the reaction is also a bit knee-jerk...

In other news, if George & Obama both look like chimps, does that mean George & Obama look alike???

Probably not, but it's also not very accurate.

The 'Alfred E. Newman' was.

I was listening to Tom Lykus today and the did an hour on this Obama Monkey Tshirt.
There's pages of stuff insulting our closest relatives.
here's one and a quote from it.

I was born year of the monkey. Lucky for me


Google Image Result for http://www.flyingsquirrelbaby.com/images/home/rotate/frontpromo_lrg_curious.jpg

"
Here's more ammo... (none / 0)

Bill Clinton: A young W.C. Fields (Nose what I mean?)

George H.W. Bush: "Read my lips!" "WHAT lips??"

JFK: Howdy Doody on steroids

LBJ: "You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog!"

Hubert Humphrey: His head once appeared as a baloon in the Macy's parade

Bill Frist: A gay Mr. Rogers

Tom DeLay: The only reason Groom & Clean is still in business

Mitt Romney: Give him a pipe and he's a ringer for Norm Appleton (for all you Old School National Lampoon readers...)

Nixon: ...too easy... "

DC Deep,
Perhaps if you were a member of a group of people who have been oppressed for over 300 years, you wouldn't see reactions to such things as "knee jerk". I suspect you are a white man. I am a white woman, and just like I don't think men have any business telling me what it's like to live as a woman, and to define my experiences for me as either acceptable or unacceptable, I don't think white people have any business telling African-Americans what it's like to live as a black person.
That's like telling someone with appendicitis that he or she is not really in pain because you've never had appendicitis and don't know what it feels like.

Once again...ANYTHING CAN BE VIEWED AS RACIST! as we live in America,the land of the offended.

I truly believe Mr norman just has one helluva sense of humor,trust me...marietta ga is bout a stones throw away from hotlanta and a mixing pot for all races,being racist would be social suicide.sense of humor folks.

Interesting. I read through the entire story and couldn't see anywhere an explanation of "why some white people hate Barack Obama." What I read seemed to be a manifestation of that hatred but not an explanation for it. To comprehend why some people hate Obama would suggest that concrete reasons by these people are offered. They are not offered here.

Exactly what I was thinking. What a double standard.