Racist depiction of Obama creates outrage

When the owner of a bar in Marietta, Ga., advertised the sale of a racially offensive T-shirt depicting Barak Obama as the monkey “Curious George,” community activists took immediate action, releasing a news statement and organizing a protest in front of Mulligan’s Bar and Grill on May 13.

Initiated by immigrant rights advocates, the coalition included the Cobb County chapters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Nation of Islam, Latino Alliance for Human Rights and New Order Human Rights Organization among many others.

The bar owner, Mike Norman, has a history of placing racist and derogatory messages on his outdoor sign. In the recent period he has targeted immigrants as Cobb County undergoes a dramatic demographic change from a conservative, white, rural county on Atlanta’s northwestern boundary to a thoroughly multinational urban area.

The bar’s interior is decorated with Minutemen recruiting posters, a large display of weapons and dozens of reactionary political bumper stickers.

Two days after the successful protest, which drew national coverage, a suspicious package addressed to the “Cobb Latino Alliance,” with a drawing of a figure hanging or burning from a cross, was left on the doorstep of Rich Pellegrino’s home. Pellegrino, who had first alerted the community about the T-shirts, also was receiving threatening e-mails. Police officials are investigating the matter as a hate crime.

The newly formed Cobb United for Change Coalition (CUCC) is moving forward with plans for a Unity and Victory Civil Rights Rally this week to be followed later by a town hall meeting.

Organizers are all too aware of the notoriously reactionary history of Marietta and Cobb County stretching back to the 1900’s when Jewish factory owner Leo Frank was lynched by a mob of local prominent businessmen and public officials after being falsely convicted of murdering a young female worker.

For many years active Ku Klux Klan chapters functioned throughout the county with their headquarters located right off the downtown square in Marietta. The interstate highway running through Cobb County is named for Larry McDonald, who headed the virulently anti-communist John Birch Society, which opposed the civil rights movement and hounded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. More recently politicians such as Newt Gingrich, a major proponent of social service cutbacks, rose to national prominence representing Cobb County. Prior to the 1996 Olympic Games held in Atlanta, the Cobb County Commission passed an anti-gay resolution, declaring “the gay lifestyle” as “incompatible with community standards.” Following protest, the U.S. Olympic Committee withdrew all scheduled events in the face of such blatant discrimination.

The Georgia legislature has passed some of the most reactionary anti-immigrant legislation in the country with much of the impetus coming from forces based in Cobb County. Its police agencies cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in deporting drivers caught in traffic stops without Georgia licenses.

However, according to Pelligrino, the CUCC, composed of white, African-American, Latin@ and immigrant members, is “a historic breakthrough for Cobb County, which reflects hope for the future.” Rather than being intimidated, the CUCC is reaching out on a national as well as local level to elevate solidarity and human respect.

WWP holds Obama discussion

The same evening as the protest at Mulligan’s, the Atlanta chapter of Workers World Party held a roundtable discussion entitled “Obama, Racism and the Economic Crisis” featuring Monica Moorehead, an editor of WW newspaper; Alice Lovelace, poet and national coordinator of the US Social Forum; and Gary Washington, Teamster steward and host of a weekly radio program, The Labor Forum, on WRFG.

The lively and thoughtful discussion clarified not only why the Obama candidacy has aroused the emotions of so many people tired of racism, war and oppression but also why the election of Barak Obama would not be sufficient to make the fundamental change needed.

Moorehead referenced the struggle over the racist T-shirt as an example of how only the united movement of workers of all nationalities whether documented or not will be the key to real change. The 30 people, who filled the room to capacity—half people of color with many youth—all agreed that they wanted more opportunities to talk and learn about revolutionary politics.