PARK CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) — When a sock monkey doll dressed up to look like presidential candidate Barack Obama was offered for sale on the web by a Utah couple, it caused a cyberspace firestorm. Writers on “progressive” blogs and forums decried the racial implications and urged readers to flood the responsible party with emails and phone calls.

Unfortunately, many of those calls and emails were directed at the wrong guy. You see, there are two David J. Lawsons in Utah. The man who came up with the “Sock Obama” doll is David J. Lawson of West Jordan. The man who got a good share of the hate mail was David J. Lawson of Park City.

David J. Lawson of Park City is a real estate agent. He has nothing to do with the controversial doll. The Park City Lawson said, “The problem is with the internet. Once it’s out there in cyberspace, it’ll be there for 100 years. My picture from my website ended up in these blogs saying that it was me. I don’t know how to take that off. The damage has been done.”

It is a case of mistaken identity that may never be completely wiped away. Worried about his reputation and his business, Lawson has been responding to every email with a letter that his attorney helped compose. In essence it says, “You got the wrong guy.”

And incidentally I went to the seller’s link and found a message saying:

An Apology

We are very apologetic to all who were upset by our toy idea.

We will not be proceeding with the manufacturing of this toy.

Thank you.

GD

The human race began in Africa. When humans first appeared in Europe, they were Africans who migrated northward from Africa. Therefore, Africans colonized Europe.

There’s no navies and armaments to show you because it has all since turned to dust.

History lesson: Carthage got about this far in their efforts to colonize Europe before being defeated. And by defeated, I mean crushed, destroyed, annihilated, what have you. It’s kinda tough to be a colonizer after you just had your ass handed to you. To use this example to defend Yolo’s statement, and I quote, “Let us not forget that the African colonized Europe hundreds of years before Europe colonized Africa,” is pretty ridiculous. What’s even more ridiculous is you insulting my knowledge of history afterwards. You people have got to be fucking kidding me with this shit.

The slim amount of territory that northern Africans claimed — who were essentially part of the modern world during the times of the Romans and beyond; and were sometimes prompted by rulers in Asia — is nothing compared to the colonization that Europeans took part in. This is the comparison that Yolo made which you and other people have ridiculously defended. And as I have mentioned before, we’re not even discussing the tribal, central African nations which would be referred to when one talks of traditional African culture. Those are where the slaves came from. hence the prejudice and racism that followed, and hence the reason for Kyle’s post and this comment thread. As I asked before, show me the armaments and navies gathered up by these people and marched across a couple continents to support Yolo’s statement that Africa colonized Europe. You can’t because that shit never happened.

But thanks for your attempt at a history lesson.

And look, for all the argument going on here, I do wish I could have been more a part of it, I honestly didn’t expect it to get as much attention as it did. But I’ve been busy.

Still, I see a lot of people going off track on this, and the Other McCain who linked in did as well. I can understand some of it. I was a little put off to find that a term I used frequently was sexist, and I didn’t like the way I found out, but the fact of the matter was, that I was in the wrong, and while I had my say, I also took my lesson and moved on.

Why people are going back before the birth of America in history is absolutely beyond me. Whether the remark about the “First white people seeing the first non white people” was accurate or not really isn’t relevant because it doesn’t change the root intent of the practice, and in this instance, far more contemporary history, for instance, say, AMERICAN history, is more specifically suitable to this specific issue.

That being that simian imagery has been often used to subjugate black people. It’s not that hard to understand, really. The Other McCain made the ridiculous point that no one would mistake the Obama’s for monkeys, and everyone recognizes that they were both educated in ivy league schools and were highly accomplished.

But it’s not a matter of MISTAKING black people for simians, it’s a matter of intentionally delineating them as something less than human despite whatever achievements they have made. It’s essentially saying, “I don’t care if you got a fancy harvard law degree, and are a US Senator and are the Democratic presidential nominee, you’re still no better than a monkey that flings its poo and drinks its own urine.”

And believe it or not, that is why I haven’t ever used the monkey imagery for Bush (I don’t think I ever have, anyway. I do welcome anyone to search the archives for an instance of me doing it). While I do not think that doing so is racist, just the fact that it would be racist if applied to a black person has always, at least in memory, made me uncomfortable.

Finally, while I admit that the speech was a little condescending, my intent was to also be clear. I don’t like it when someone just flies off the rails and tells me that something I said was inappropriate without due explanation, and so that is exactly what I sought to do here. Whether the post angers people or not, my hope was that at the very least after people were finished reading it, even if they DIDN’T know that this practice was inherently racist, they do NOW so that they can avoid it in the future.

I don’t understand why people don’t get this.

But as a staunch defender of free speech, people are free to defend it, do it, whatever, but I’m also free to call them racists, and I and my friends are equally free to boycott the sale and production of such items, and take what steps are necessary within the confines of our free speech and expression to discourage such behavior.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a novel I’m supposed to be working on.

Did Africans take on the Roman Empire, Byzantines, Holy Roman Empire, the Mongols, the fiefdoms of the Middle Ages

Yes, no, no, no, no, and no.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilcar_Barca

See also: Hannibal Barca; Carthage

Your relative ignorance of history aside, the Obama doll is obnoxious, contemptible, and racist. Perhaps the only thing more insulting than the doll is the merchant’s “wha’?! Wha’d'I’dooooo?!” explanation: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/06/poseur-alert-1.html#more

(and, ew, do I feel dirty for linking to Sullivan.)

But really, Tas, you totally boned that one. Best to leave the history lessons to others.