Patterico and Glenn pick up on an allegeldy right wing, racist photoshop effort depicting Barack Obama shining Sarah Palin's shoes. Paterico notes that the photo was recently circulated by a registered Democrat, which leads to a bit of headscratching as to motive.
Patterico closes with a question - is the photo racist? Personally, I am from the "there are no small roles, only small actors" school - if someone is putting a sincere effort into an honest job, then the job is not demeaning, regardless of its social status. On the other hand, there are certainly some racial overtones of servitude to the shoe shine imagery. Maybe that could be solved with a follow-up photo of Sarah cleaning Barrack's clock.
When in doubt, I turn to Wikipedia, which is reliably leftish and unlikely to cheerlead for my Neanderthal right-wing views. And whom do we find among famous shoeshine boys of history? The Godfather of Soul, James Brown. But more to the point, we find the Godfather of Talk Radio, Rush Limbaugh himself. Hmm, Rod Blagojevich also appears on the list, so maybe this Barack image is more offensive than I realized.
I am going to take a flyer here and opine that when Rush gets out of the hospital he won't be agreeing with the notion that shining shoes is a demeaning job for blacks only.
DON'T SHINE ME ON: Horatio Alger wrote a rags-to-riches story about a shoeshine boy that eventually made it to the National Music Theater Network in 2001. I infer that in the original story the kid was white.
best shine I ever got was at the Birmingham, Alabama airport. An elderly African American gentleman who would talk the news with anyone and do it old school.
The man usually had 3-4 people waiting at any given time between probably 8:00am and 5:00pm and made a fortune on tips. There is no dishonor in honest work.
Posted by: matt | January 02, 2010 at 10:32 PM
The most famous shoe shiner of my era was Underdog.
The next one I can readily think of is Joe Pecsi's character in Goodfellas.
Here is my take on the Johnson issue.
If Johnson sees a white shoe shiner he MUST be thinking "hey, look, a white guy doing a black guy's job."
he's admitted as much.
And if he sees a black shoe shine he must think, "yep, that's about right."
Posted by: bigfurhat | January 02, 2010 at 10:38 PM
bigfurhat -- That brings to mind an old comment of Jonah Goldberg's: There's a mindset that, while watching Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies, sees the murdering, bestial, pig-faced minions of Sauron and Saruman and says "Neat! Orcs!" Then there's a mindset that sees the murdering, bestial, pig-faced minions of Sauron and Saruman and says "OMG! Blacks!"
Which mindset is racist?
Posted by: Rob Crawford | January 02, 2010 at 11:04 PM
Rob Crawford,
If I remember right, the first season "MI-5" (aka "Spooks") episode with the infiltration of a leftist group is not too bad. However, I especially recommend another episode (Jonathan Aitken inspired) that features Hugh Laurie. You will recognize it from the opening scene, in which the security services interview a once prominent politician now resident at one of Her Majesty's prisons.
Posted by: Elliott | January 03, 2010 at 12:12 AM
Tony Bennett does a great version of Irving Berlin's "Shine On Your Shoes" on this Album Steppin' Out from about 15 years back. If you click on ">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00137VV7U/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk6"> this link and hit the little play button you get about 30 seconds of it, and he and the Ralph Shearing band are rockin'!
Posted by: daddy | January 03, 2010 at 12:24 AM
Wow, searching for that old (obviously racist) rumor that Irving Berlin stole some of his tunes off an old shoe shine boy, I came upon a link which said that Woody Guthrie was originally a shoe shine boy, and that his first band was "The Corn Cob's", which ties together both this link and the Senator Nelson "CornDog" link.
Amazing what a little googling can do.
Posted by: daddy | January 03, 2010 at 12:32 AM
--it starts right at the tippy top of the Chicago gutter--
Just watched Preston Sturgess' first film again, The Great McGinty.
The Chicago Way with belly laughs. I recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh and a civics lesson in Barry and Rahm style politics.
Kind of like Miller's Crossing if the Coens didn't revel in violence, were funnier and more talented.
Posted by: Ignatz | January 03, 2010 at 12:42 AM
Can't a woman shine shoes? Isn't this sexist?
Posted by: Harrison | January 03, 2010 at 03:43 AM
Good job Rocco.
Dick has been fighting with him about coming on the air. (He agreed- Dick wants some particular protocol - blah blah blah) so I hope I get to interview him.
Posted by: Jane | January 03, 2010 at 08:07 AM
" Or BO with a bone through his nose.
Nope, no racism whatsoever."
Tally Ho!
Posted by: Semanticleo | January 03, 2010 at 10:32 AM
Good Luck with that interview. His position statements are on his website here. The only issue I can see conservatives objecting to are his pro choice beliefs. But, compared to Kennedy, Brown's a winner! He's against amnesty, opposes cap and trade, he's a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army National Guard (almost 30 years), has an A+ rating from the Gun Owners Action League but most of all, a Brown victory will save this country by killing this anti constitutional health care bill. We can do it but we need everyone's support and help.
Posted by: Rocco | January 03, 2010 at 11:26 AM
I hear he's doing the Jim Brodi and Margery Egan show on 96.9 fm tues morning at 9:00. I hope Dick didn't blow it for you.
Posted by: Rocco | January 03, 2010 at 11:38 AM
Dick gave up on him last week - and I doubt he has seen anything that has gone viral.
I watched local news at 11:00 last night. Not one word about the race, Martha's funny money or anything that has to do with it - on all 3 stations from what I could tell.
I dunno - that may help - since the democrats won't get all riled up.
Posted by: Jane | January 03, 2010 at 11:50 AM
I think we will see some of congress become vulnerable from a lack of support on the left as well.
The Senate legislation is rightly perceived as a sell out to the insurance industry by the public option supporters.
Dems are damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Posted by: J. | January 03, 2010 at 09:24 PM
Wasn't "Shoe Shine Boy" a domesticated K-9 in the classic Underdog cartoon series of the 1960's?
Posted by: steve manning | January 04, 2010 at 10:17 AM
It strikes me, however, that when I see something like this being held up by a lefty as evidence of how eeeevil us righties are, I'd like to see some indication of a righty's fingerprints on it. Otherwise, I'm inclined to think cui bono?, and decide it's just as likely a put-up job.
Forget who "did it". The interesting thing is the .... um ...... defense? This is such an obvious stereotype. "Honest work"? Please.
"There are none so blind ....."
Posted by: TexasToast | January 05, 2010 at 10:10 AM
"Honest work"? Please.
Honest work is something we admire. You should too - if it weren't for the honest workers, from whom could you progressives steal?
This is such an obvious stereotype.
What is, the progressive who has contempt for honest work, the progressive who pretends to be hypersensitive about racism, or the progressive who thinks an attempt to portray honest work as demeaning should be forgotten if it turned out a Democrat did it, but a defense of honest work is an admission of racism if it comes from a conservative?
Posted by: bgates | January 05, 2010 at 10:34 AM