A Tale of Two Photos

To contrast with the recent uproar by Brooks Simpson and his myrmidons at Crossroads over a picture posted to a Facebook Group by David Tatum, I bring you the saga of another photo posted to the Internet.

Last spring, when the opening for the Museum of the Confederacy at Appomattox approached, word got out that the museum was going to prominently feature a giant image of transvestite RuPaul in a Confederate flag gown, and a hot blast of indignation aimed at the museum made the powers that be there change their minds.

Brooks Simpson mentioned it in a Crossroads post titled News and Notes, March 27, 2012, (a post he began with a typical Simpson lie about me.  But more on that later). Later in the blog entry, he put this

Then again, perhaps the Museum of the Confederacy went a little too far in the eyes of some.  So, is this bad ...

...but this is okay?

You tell me.

And in the comment thread following the post was this:

I remembered the Confederate flag prom dress being in the news several years back, had seen several pictures of the young lady at the time, though I hadn't seen this picture. The gentleman in the photo looked familiar, but I couldn't place him, and Simpson had not identified either one. I suspected a photoshop job on the background, but had no time to pursue it right then. I had several author services jobs I was working on simultaneously, and outside of that, I was focused on the MOC pre-opening reports.

A few days later, on April 6, I read an announcement in several places online of the death of proSouthern activist Basil Dwayne "Bazz" Childress.  Some were accompanied by photos, and I recognized him as the gentleman in the photo with the young lady wearing the flag prom gown, and belatedly remembered her name as Jacqueline Duty.

This reminded me of the research I wanted to do on the image Simpson posted at his blog. An image search online brought up several photos of Bazz with Miss Duty posing in front of what appeared to be black curtains or drapes over a plywood partition. Obviously, the lil picaninny over Bazz's shoulder had been photoshopped.

Out of respect for the bereaved family and friends of Mr. Childress, I couldn't post anything on my blog about the attempt to slander Bazz at Crossroads until a reasonable period of mourning had passed. However, I could prepare for a less public showdown, should the opportunity present itself. So, I made a very confrontational webpage and had the URL handy, and the opportunity to use it came amazingly quickly.  In fact, it came the very day I read about Mr. Childress's passing, the same day I made the webpage, on April 6.

That was the day I visited Crossroads and read a post Simpson had put up the day before, titled The Fatal Flaw in Southern "Heritage." It comprised a tirade based totally on Simpson's  intentional misperception of Southern heritage.

In the comment section, the John Foskett-bot had made a couple of posts that said,

"All the elements mentioned (secession, the Confederacy, southern independence, and reconstruction) go back to race based slavery. Deal with your history folks." 

 And,

"Well, I’ll give Mr. Wallace this much – he does, for better or for worse. It’s the Connies of the planet who are living in a virtual world with their own photo-shopped version of 'Confederate/Southern Heritage'."

There it was. Tossed right in my lap.  I replied:

"Photoshopped? Funny you should bring that up, Mr. Foskett:  http://conniechastain.com/180dts/PhotoshopLies. http://conniechastain.com/180dts/PhotoshopLies.html

 You can follow the link. The page is still online. The first part of the page is a jpg image I made. Here's a scaled-down version:

Well, as you can imagine, all hell broke loose after that. Simpson's "indignation" and arse-covering were fun to watch. I invite you to follow that link,  http://one80dts.com/PhotoshopLies.html, and watch him attempt to portray me as approving of the image because I didn't say something on a comment thread at his blog disapproving of it.

A lot of what Simpson does at his blog regarding Southern heritage is odious in its fundamental dishonesty, but accusing somebody of something ugly because they do (or don't) post approval or disapproval in the comment thread of his blog, is one of the most odious.

If you follow the links in that page, you might run into a problem with the last link on the page. It links to a thread in a Facebook group that has been closed since Simpson went there looking for something to smear heritage folks with, meaning that only members of the group can see posts now. For folks who aren't members, I've reproduced the thread HERE.

Meanwhile, documented at Photoshopped Lies (and copied below)  is a comment I left at Crossroads that Simpson wouldn't let through moderation. What a surprise, huh?

When *I* brought it to your attention? You mean, like today, April 6? Andy Hall's comment posted March 27 brought it to your attention the day you put it online -- TEN FREAKING DAYS AGO. Why didn't you look at it more carefully and take it down then? You gonna try to tell me you didn't KNOW about it then? LOL! And the lies just keep on coming....
 
I made no accusation, Perfesser. I merely made a tentative assumption and asked a couple of questions about it. Hey, that's what you get for not attributing the photos you steal and put on your blog to slander people with.
 
After all, you stole a picture of me off my copyrighted blog and posted it here with the background photoshopped out. Why shouldn't I assume you have experience with photoshopped backgrounds? Or are you gonna tell me you found the pic of me with the red background somewhere online from 2004? LOL; it existed nowhere online until I put it on my blog April 1. So when I asked you to take it down here
http://cwcrossroads.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/blog-housekeeping/
 
you added a snarky graphic equating me with hooded KKKers. And THEN you go back and add it here:
http://cwcrossroads.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/so-its-heritage-not-history-a-candid-admission/
 
in a post dated March 27 -- five days before I put the graphic on my blog. And you wonder why I think your ethics are slimy?
 
One has to wonder what search term you used to find that altered image of Miss Duty and her dress, though. I did a Google image search using the term "Confederate flag dress" and the altered image didn't show up in the first 14 pages. I searched "Confederate flag prom dress" and it didn't show up in the first 16 pages...
    
So now you are foisting off yet another lie that I'm not disturbed by racist imagery because I haven't objected to the image. LOL! What you mean is I haven't objected to it in a comment thread on your blog -- or any of the places you monitor looking for material you can slander Confederate heritage folks with. Hate to break it to you, perfesser, but you're not omniscient, and there's LOTS you don't know.
   
Actually this falls under the category of you pitching a hissy fit to try to deflect attention away from the fact that you posted a doctored image for the purpose of slandering Southern heritage advocates and left it up for ten freaking days after Andy Hall brought the faked racist nature of the photo to your attention in your blog's comment thread. Now you and Andy both are scrambling to cover your arses.
   
Incidently, it's a logical fallacy, perfesser, to say that not expressing disapproval equals approval. By this token, since I haven't seen you object to NAMBLA, am I to assume that you're not disturbed by pedophilia?

So there you have it. The tale of two photos posted to the Internet and the reaction to them.  I note some of the differences... as I've already noted, David's picture was not posted to denigrate anyone, but to praise Confederates. The fake "racist" image that appeared at Crossroads in late March last year was photoshopped solely to slander the people in the image as racists.

A couple of other things I note: Andy Hall knows the drill, dudd'n he?  -- you have to deny your culpability on Simpson's comment thread and make cetain he sees it, because if he doesn't, that's the same as your being culpable.... Despite his big show of regret, changing the photo, etc., I am convinced that Brooks Simpson deliberately chose the lil picaninny photo in order to portray Miss Duty and Bazz Childress as racist. Because, at the time (March of 2012), an image search turned up several unprocessed versions of that photo long before the processed one showed up in an image search. An alternate possibility is that someone sent him the image, or the URL to it. In either case, he was all to happy to showcase it on his odious blog.
__________

Note: in the webpage "Photoshopped Lies" there are hyperlinks going to my old 180 Degrees Truth South blog.Clicking them will give you a page not found error, because I renamed that blog Backsass.  Here are the updated links:

http://mybacksass.blogspot.com/2012/04/connie-liberal-anti-racist.html

http://mybacksass.blogspot.com/2012/04/does-he-or-doesnt-he-know-hes-lying.html