A few days ago (May 30?), famed shock comic Kathy Griffin released a photo of her holding a mold of Donald Trump’s head. The fake head was covered in presumably fake blood, and she had a 1,000 mile stare into the camera.
Basically, she had a Jon Snow moment.
The conservative leaning world had an incredible outrage, as would be predicted. Yet, I can’t help but feel like it’s mock outrage. Like it’s just them complaining to complain and because some liberal woman openly thinks their losing (by almost 3,000,000 votes) President is crap.
I want to break this down into two areas:
Area One
The blood is so freaking fake, guys. If you decapitate someone, it bleeds from the neck, not from the implanted mink hairpiece.
Area Two
She didn’t go to far.
Yeah, I said it. And if you want to stop reading here because you think I’m full of shit and don’t anything, fine. Stay ignorant.
There are two directions humor can take: kicking up and kicking down. Kicking up is a peasant making fun of a king. It’s a person at a disadvantage poking fun at someone who can take them down. Kicking down is a person in a position of power making fun of those underneath them. It’s a bully disguising their hurtful comments as humor.
Area two-point-three
Let’s take a look at some evidence for this false outrage, as the news organizations manufacturing this controversy are playing into the fragile emotions of the GOP’s base.
First: Barack Obama received actual lynching threats.
I will remind you, twice-legitimately-elected President Obama is black. And black people were historically (as recently as May 20,2017) lynched. A lynching is a terrorist in-deed-but-not-name action which serves to warn an entire group of people — in this case black people, to remain underfoot.
Let’s see some of the “art” pieces that came out during Obama’s presidency, shall we?
Yeah. Pretty historically disgusting and racially charged.
But, aside from a few people I knew who quietly condemned these, there wasn’t any outrage against this in the mainstream media, in the GOP or even on Fox News (they were too busy giving air to conman Trump’s assertions that Obama wasn’t a legal citizen).
But one (female) comic has a terribly made up and bloodied head of their beloved eggshell-fragile emotional leader and she’s a TRAITOR DON’T YOU KNOW!
Area Two-point-six
Black people were historically hanged. This happened. It was a warning to other black people. This is as indisputable as the Civil War being fought for states rights to own gah-damn slaves. We do not, in this country, have a history of beheading white people who renege on paying their workers (I’m tempted to say ‘maybe we should’ but I don’t feel like dealing with the hate mail — besides Bannon’s no longer in power so I don’t really want anyone…um…Iron Throned…).
Let me reiterate: the effigies of Obama have real, historical precedent and served not only as a message to the President, but as a message to all black people, and arguably all colored minorities.
The poorly cast head of Trump has no historical precedent, serves only as a message to fellow liberals and Trump’s family of “screw this guy”. That’s all. It obviously wasn’t a threat, as it meets no legal definition of it. It was just marketing for a message. Simple as that.
Obama’s effigies in alleys and parks, in my opinion, went too far. Their effects drudged up recent history of white supremacy (and look, their daddy Bannon was in office for a few months!) and reminded black people of the danger they face daily. Anyone who doesn’t understand that is ignorant, either willfully or not.
Griffin’s public photoshoot with Trump’s poor-semblance (I just used “poor” and “Trump” in a sentence — that’s treason!) is just effective marketing and branding. Trump knows a thing or two about that.
Area two-point-eight
Bonus clarification, before I wrap this thing up:
Look at the Obamas’ reactions to the original effigies. It was silence.
Look at the Trumps’ reactions. It’s bullying.
Their actions lack as much class as their décor.
Area two-point-nine: the conclusion
Presidents have been having their image violated since we’ve had presidents. Period, end of story.
Obama was the first to have historical ties to his.
Trump is the thinnest skinned to be tied to his. And seriously, that blood was wack.
I think this whole thing is hilarious. The photos are pretty meh, though I found them hilarious because I knew exactly what they’d bring. And they delivered like Dominos to a college campus.
This outrage over a mediocre photo session is absurd, overblown, and hiding actual problems. So get over yourselves, pseudo-angry denizens, and go do something with yourselves.
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