Being a witch doctor takes more than just melanin.
Recently this image, depicting President Obama as a Witch Doctor has caused quite a few heated discussions. Left and right, people are debating whether or not this picture is racist.
Absolutely it is. It's an utter shame that, in a society where children are encouraged to reach for their dreams no matter how unlikely or outlandish, we are sending the message that one has to be black to become a Witch Doctor.
It saddens me that in a country where rags to riches is the order of the day, where kids are told that they can grow up to be anything they want, there are unspoken racial limitations.
How many little white boys are girls are watched the news last night, only to have it thrown in their face that there are certain things they can never be because of their 'racial handicap'. How many suburban children grow up and are virtually forced into lives as doctors or lawyers because they have been indoctrinated since birth that if they want to be good dancers, athletes or very tall, they have to be black?
Luckily, there is hope. One white boy did grow up to reach his dream. Mac Rebennack, also known as Dr. John the Night Tripper.
This man has spent most of his life traveling the world, trying to spread the word that any man, no matter his race, creed or color can do any job. Even that of a voodoo priest or witch doctor.
Dr. John has chosen to chronicle his struggle with prejudice and racism through song, and has produced more than twenty albums in his long career. The first, titled Gris Gris, recounts one man's solitary journey to voodoo priestdom. It's a tale of perseverance even though those around you don't believe in what your doing.
The album peaks at the song I walk on gilded splinters, showing that anyone, no mater the color of their skin, can indeed achieve their dreams.
And what about this man? Ajamu Bunyip, Kenyan witch doctor, expresses wishes that the president would have consulted him before using his image.
Dr. Bunyip says, "I just hope he understands that being the president does not qualify him to make medical or metaphysical decisions.
So there you have it. Not only are the pictures of Obama as a witch doctor racist, they are false and irresponsible.
If you have any questions please e-mail me or stick them up in the comments section.
Comments
Sad how everyone is out to get you. Please read up on what a witch doctor is, and then you will realize that the term comes from England in the 1840's and was about white doctors.
Damn. Paul can't doesn't recognize a joke when he sees one.
Paul- I'm quite certain no one is out to get me, but no worries.
I appreciate your attention to entomological detail. I'm a bit of a linguistic anthropologist myself. People like you and I may want to replace Witch Doctor with the more technically correct Sangoma. However, I'm writing for everyone, not just the hopeless pedant crowd, so I'm going to keep the less obscure albeit less accurate term.
Have a good one.
Dr. Ajamu Bunyip is actually Australian. You're probably just confusing him with the Ajaba mystics of Kenya. It's easy to do, since Dr. Bunyip is clearly adopting African attire in an attempt to contact Dark Continent spirits via dreamtime.
While I don't find the picture racist, I do feel it's quite bigoted. To associate respectable Witch Doctors with the Democrat party’s socialized medicine scheme is unconscionable.
Stereotypical whites...look at capital one commercial or the white caveman commercial..whites used to live like that back in 50 BC before Julius Ceaser asked them to come out of the caves and taught them how to light a fire. Until then the ancestors of today's whites were running around half naked in the jungles of Germany. For a detailed treatise read Germania by Tacitus.
George seems to be a little screwed up on his time line and “white” ancestry, as well as his spelling.
I would consider Caesar a “white” and he certainly wasn’t living in a cave. The Romans, along with all of the so-called barbarians, had been forging metals for quite some time before Caesar was born so “whites” were pretty familiar with fire long before 50 BC.
Regarding our “white” ancestors, when did they all become Germanic? Greek and, later, Roman historians seem to lack consensus as to whether the Germanic tribes were actually a "race" or if they were off-shoots of the Celts and/or the Gaels. The Francs seem to be unrelated to either. There likely is a fair amount of blood from Italy and Hispania coursing through those “white” veins as well.
I’ll need to research that German jungle thing. If there ever were such, I’m pretty sure that would be eons before Caesar’s time.
This does not surprise me. It saddens me. It makes me angry. But it doe snot surprise me.
I think some Americans who are living in PNG must have done that to counter attack his interferences with the health system in US
We have alot of them in PNG...like SIL
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