Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude Watch, #77

A student GOP leader has resigned after the Pennsylvania Progressive blog publicized racist rhetoric he'd posted on his Facebook page:

The leader of a statewide group of college Republicans has been forced to resign after posting racially insensitive comments about Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on the Internet.

Adam LaDuca, 21, the former executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans, wrote on his Facebook page in late July that Obama has "a pair of lips so large he could float half of Cuba to the shores of Miami (and probably would.)"

LaDuca, who previously had called Martin Luther King Jr. a "pariah" and a "fraud," also wrote: "And man, if sayin' someone has large lips is a racial slur, then we're ALL in trouble."

Said as if there's no qualitative difference between "he has large lips" and "he has lips so large he could float half of Cuba to the shores of Miami," and as if there's a relevant reason to comment on Obama's appearance, and if there's no historical context in which making exaggerations about African-American features was used to demean African-Americans, and if it's not factually untrue in the first place.

I mean, I looked through hundreds of pictures of Obama to try to find the fullest-lip image possible, and the above is what I came up with. He's not exactly Gina Torres or Angelina Jolie or Rosario Dawson—


—each of whom provide a lovely example of luscious lips. Obama's not in the same league, which just serves to highlight the racism of LaDuca's comments. (When Obama's smiling, as he is in most pictures, LaDuca's comments seem even more absurd.) Anyone looking at Obama objectively wouldn't see lips so strikingly large as to warrant comment. Only someone looking at Obama through the lens of racism sees the big-lipped caricature their bigotry has taught them to see.

Just to be perfectly clear, LaDuca's comments would have been totally inappropriate, even if Obama's lips were extremely full. But the fact that they're not underscores the real motivation for these asinine and intolerable comments.

[Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude Watch: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-One, Thirty-Two, Thirty-Three, Thirty-Four, Thirty-Five, Thirty-Six, Thirty-Seven, Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Nine, Forty, Forty-One, Forty-Two, Forty-Three, Forty-Four, Forty-Five, Forty-Six, Forty-Seven, Forty-Eight, Forty-Nine, Fifty, Fifty-One, Fifty-Two, Fifty-Three, Fifty-Four, Fifty-Five, Fifty-Six, Fifty-Seven, Fifty-Eight, Fifty-Nine, Sixty, Sixty-One, Sixty-Two, Sixty-Three, Sixty-Four, Sixty-Five, Sixty-Six, Sixty-Seven, Sixty-Eight, Sixty-Nine, Seventy, Seventy-One, Seventy-Two, Seventy-Three, Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five, Seventy-Six.]