A Conversation About This Meme

The following conversation is edited from a Facebook thread that occurred as a response to this meme. No parts of the conversation from these two participants have been edited out; only Facebook labels, timestamps and such. Minor spelling errors have been corrected, as well.

Critic: This is racist, and it's not because of the girl on the right.
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My Reply: It's not racist.
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Critic: How? How can you not see that as racist?
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My Reply: What's racist about it?
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Critic: It's a fake picture of a middle eastern woman attaching a suicide bomb vest to a child.
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Critic: Everything about that is racist.
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My Reply: Children aren't used as suicide bombers over there? When did "Middle Eastern" become a race?
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Critic: Your explanation of why it's not racist is hilarious.

It's racist because the picture depicts and implies that it that is a commonly done and that the cases of it happening are accepted. Neither are true. Don't get me wrong, there are some fucked up people.. but while they get the majority of the press, they're a minority. Middle Eastern is an umbrella term like African, Asian, or Caucasian. Since your picture said they were refugees I went with middle eastern instead of Arab/Turk/Persian, etc. I also refrained from using the word Muslim because not only does the Koran NOT advocate the actions of terrorism, but because Muslim isn't a racial identity (even though it's used that way in the US).
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Critic: Also, this pic would be the same racist view if it was a white guy with a dead minority in the background and the white guy held a gun and had the Confederate Flag. It would be inaccurate and would stereotype an entire race for the actions of a minority.
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My Reply: Are you aware that 15 Confederate flag supporters in Georgia who appear to be guilty of disorderly conduct have been INDICTED for TERRORISM? IN GEORGIA, USA. They didn't blow anybody up, chop off any heads... they mouthed off to a group of blacks who were screaming at them and who had thrown rocks at their trucks. The DA in Douglas County, Ga. said they threatened the blacks, but that is alleged and yet to be proven. Anyway, since when is a threat terrorism?

Still, they are charged with FLIPPIN' TERRORISM. Wake up.

The meme is propaganda, Mr. S----. It isn't even about the kids depicted, but about OUR FLIPPIN' GOVERNMENT -- about what it wants us to believe. I created it to illustrate a chilling and disturbing trend in this country about who the government is setting up to be TARGETS as domestic terrorists. The symbolism may be a touch excessive, but not by much. Besides, that is the way symbolism works, has to work to get people to think.

Do you follow the news? Are you aware of the Justice Department's OFFICIAL new emphasis on "domestic terrorism." Have you seen the fabrication that the feds are putting out, claiming that America is in more danger from "domestic terrorists" than Islamic jihadists? Talk about excessive and extremist.... And it's not new. That official conditioning has been going on for years.

Quote: "During his two terms in office, Obama’s government has issued report after report saying that groups such as Tea Party groups, patriotic Americans, nativist groups, and even our soldiers are possible domestic terrorists. ... Earlier this month, Obama’s government announced that it was joining a new effort with the UN to allow international police agencies to help program how American cities respond to terrorism."

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/15/obamas-department-justice-opening-domestic-terrorism-office/

When was the last time you saw a right-winger fly planes into skyscrapers, or a Tea Partier behead somebody? When was the last time you heard of a Southern heritage activist blowing up a building full of innocent people, or shooting up a military base or recruiting office?

In any case, it has already begun with the Georgia case.
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My Reply: As for your scenario -- "Also, this pic would be the same racist view if it was a white guy with a dead minority in the background and the white guy held a gun and had the Confederate Flag. It would be inaccurate and would stereotype an entire race for the actions of a minority." -- that is EXACTLY what happened with Dylann Roof.

He was not a Confederate heritage activist. There are pictures of him with a small Confederate stick flag -- circumstances of the pics and who made them unknown. As a Confederate heritage advocate, I can tell you, there's a lot more to it than holding a stick flag for a photo. But because of those suspicious photos, Confederate heritage from one end of the South to the other is under attack and in the cross hairs for destruction.

Monuments to Confederate heroes that have been standing for more than a century are being removed. In several particularly idiotic political moves, city councils and county commissions across the South are denying history by having Confederate flags and/or their images removed from city or county logos.

Stupid retailers are cutting off their noses to spite their faces, removing Confederate merchandise and denying income from them, to jump on the PC bandwagon.

Here in Pensacola, our ultra-politically correct mayor took it upon himself to remove the Stars and Bars -- the First National flag of the Confederacy -- from the City of Five Flags displays, which is a brand of the city dating back to the 1940s, originally intended to blend history and tourism. If you are unfamiliar, the five flags represent the NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS that have governed Pensacola since the 1700s -- Spain, Britain, France, the Confederacy and the United States. Idiot mayor replaced the NATIONAL flag of the Confederacy with the FLORIDA STATE FLAG. Mangled the "national flags" concept of the brand for political correctness, over an incident that had nothing to do with Pensacola, or the Confederacy or the history of either one. This is the kind of PC hysteria would be annoying, except that it is increasingly charged with very serious consequences.
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My Reply: This recent trend in all its manifestations is what that meme is intended to encapsulate.
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Critic: Any action with the intent to cause panic is Terrorism.
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My Reply: Further, you said, "Muslim isn't a racial identity (even though it's used that way in the US..." It is used that way in the US by political correct types in the government and most especially in the media to label as racists those who criticize Islamic destructiveness.
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Critic: I know its propaganda. But saying that as an excuse is like agreeing with everything Joseph Gerbels said
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My Reply: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” There was no violence or force against the black group in Georgia. Look at the videos; they are furious, not terrorized....
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Critic: Muslim isn't a race.
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My Reply: Propaganda is what it is and always has been, long before Goebbels and the Nazis showed up. Please, don't go there.
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Critic: You went there by using it as a defense. What's wrong? They're both racist propaganda.
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My Reply: I believe I established in these comments that Muslim is not a race, but people in the US who object to Muslim violence, destructiveness and threats are called racists.
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My Reply: No, my meme is intended to illustrate government's use of imaginary "racism" to control people. Hence the title "In Obama's America...."
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Critic: It was racist because you said refugee. Which in the current climate is Middle Eastern.
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My Reply: Current climate.... sheesh. "Refugee" is no more a racist term than Muslim is. Stop seeing racism everywhere.
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Critic: No your meme is about how the government defines terrorists and refugees. I'm the one who called it a racist
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Critic: lol
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My Reply: Well, you are certainly entitled to your indoctrinated opinion.
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Critic: I see it where it is. How about stop ignoring it.
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Critic: As are you.
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My Reply: Since no races are depicted in the meme, and you admit that, I think you are seeing racism where it doesn't exist.
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My Reply:  What the meme recalls is that the Obama Admin has consistently shown reluctance to call Islamic terrorist attacks in the USA Islamic terrorist attacks... from Nidal Malik Hasan (who shouted "Allahu Akbar" while shooting up Ft. Hood) to Alton Nolen (who called himself "Assalamu Alaikum" and apparently had converted to Islam) to Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez (who shot up the Chattanooga recruitment office because he was "depressed") to Chris Harper Mercer, who at the very least admired ISIS. The meme illustrates FIRST how ridiculous it is for our government and the media to not recognize Islamic terrorism as Islamic terrorism -- or any foreign terrorism as terrorism.

The meme illustrates SECOND the chilling implications for Americans in the government's partnering with the Southern Poverty Law Center to focus on "domestic terrorism" as the greatest threat to the country. You don't even have to do something violent to be called a terrorist if you're a conservative, a Christian or a patriotic American.

Look at the different responses -- by the government, the media and the popular culture -- to the Charleston and the Roseburg shootings; nine dead in Charleston, targeted because they were black; nine dead in Roseburg targeted because they were Christian.

It's regretful that you don't see the the purpose of the meme -- what it encapsulates and illustrates. You're letting your PC indoctrination about "racism" get in the way. Unfortunate...that's what keeps a lot of people from seeing what the meme is attempting to illustrate.

Since you seem to need explanation for the meme, the little suicide bomber symbolizes the government's indiscriminate admission of immigrants, particularly "refugees" -- from ANYwhere -- without proper vetting (Europe is doing the same), which means no telling how many criminals and terrorists are coming in with no checks whatever.

Remember the news reports of tens of thousands of children brought to the USA from Central America a few months ago? The individual circumstances of those children went largely unvetted... The meme illustrates the government's unwillingness to acknowledge the very real threat of terrorism inherent in its refusal to enforce immigration law. A PC indoctrinee would interpret it literally, as you have, to keep from seeing that implication.

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(I will have some observations about this in the comments section.

Incidentally, there have been 2,384 shares of this meme on Facebook, as of this writing. The vast majority of sharers are unknown to me, not on my friend list, and are apparently not heritage activists. Some are probably against Obama's policies, and others are just good Southerners who aren't into causes. ~CW)