14.7.09

This is Not OK

I saw this late-night on an infomercial.

Apparently, it was pulled from stores back in April after a bit of controversy. Now they must figure that the kind of people watching a midnight re-run of Monk won't be as politically mortified. I can't tell if this is intentionally racist, unintentionally racist, or not racist at all. But I'm pretty sure its not o.k. by any standard. Sure, president's can be monumentalized, but preferably not in Chia form.

4 comments:

Casey said...

Are you kidding me!?! -- I fucking love this thing.

Insignificant Wrangler said...

/sigh

colualiu said...

I don't know. I thought i would be offended by it, but if I saw it on someones desk at work the thought of it being racist wouldn't have even crossed my mind. Unless the actual infomercial was in poor taste I cant see a problem with it. I might even get one for myself if not for my choice of a uncluttered workspace.

HairFlipEmpress said...

Wow. That was the very first thing I said when I seen this post. I agree, I am not sure if this is intentionally racist or not, but I have to admit I was offended at first glance. Something has got to be wrong with an Obama chia pet whose afro just grows higher and higher as you keep it properly nourished.
But is it really fair to jump to the conclusion that this is racist? What if this is a good, honest commemorative item? Sure, there are MANY other ways one could have chosen to make money in celebrating our current president, but what if this was just an idea gone wrong? As humans, we are always so quick to get offended when we do not agree with something. I guess that is the downside of media and internet and all else that is related. Intentions can get misinterpreted even if they mean nothing but good.
Still, I am rather offended. I was just offering up a different perspective. This is not okay.