Virginia Republicans Condemn Zombie-Obama Email

What’s Halloween anymore without political/racial controversy?

Loudoun County’s GOP committee, a Virginia-based Republican group, sent out a Halloween-themed email that depicts President Obama as a zombie with a bullet-hole through his head.  The focus is not solely on Obama in the email—his is not even the largest image shown, actually—but rather, the committee takes an equal opportunity stab at the entire Democratic Party, showing Pelosi with a deformed face and most of the campaign supporters as fellow zombies.

Immediately, Virginia Republicans condemned the email in “the strongest possible terms”. Chairman Pat Mullins said in a statement, “The disgusting image used today on a mass email has no place in our politics. Ever.”

It first appeared on the blog, Too Conservative, and was intended to advertise the GOP group’s presence at a parade Monday evening. The message read, “We are going to vanquish the zombies with clear thinking conservative principles and a truckload of Republican candy.” The leader of the group, Mark Sell, released an official apology.

“The Loudoun County Republican Committee yesterday sent an email to its members that represented a light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday. Apparently, some individuals have interpreted an image of Barack Obama that appeared within the email as intending to portray the president as a victim of violent crime. Nothing could be further from the truth, and we deeply and sincerely apologize to the president and anyone who viewed the image if that was the impression it left.”

Furthermore, Sell says the LCRC “deplores any effort to display, suggest, or promote violence against the president or any other political figure.”

I’m not about to argue that this wasn’t in bad taste—it was. It was an unsophisticated attempt at humor gone wrong. What is more interesting than the email itself, in my opinion, are the reactions it is receiving, even after the apology was issued. Some are jumping to the conclusion that it is intended upon being racist, but I honestly don’t think that’s the case. A comment on The Washington Post’s article read:

“Gawd, is everything racial? Agreed that the bullet hole is distasteful, but racial? I think anything done to the image of Obama satirically is quickly judged as racial because that card is easily accessible. It’s funny how quickly people use it—how top of the mind race is to liberals (especially the White ones with the guilty complex). BTW, I’m a woman of color.”

On the other hand, in a thread above this comment, a black man (who insists on writing BLACKMAN for emphasis every time the term is used) is about to throw down with a conservative woman, arguing that Obama will be the next MLK Jr. Or something.

Relax. It’s not about race. Nothing about this is racial. There cannot be a substantial argument that states if, hypothetically, Obama were white, then the image would not have shown up. He’s being compared to a zombie based on the way this particular Republican group views his ideals. What’s more, the other images in the cartoon are of white people, also being shown as zombies. And every zombie is a member of the undead, so it’s not like Obama is the only one who is in that state and happens to be in the company of white living zombies.

Being white isn’t an automatic defense mechanism against political cartoons—look at George Bush. The December 2007 issue of People magazine shows him on the cover depicted as the ‘Stupidest Man Alive’. And the November 13, 2000 cover of “The Nation” had him depicted as Alfred Newman with his center front tooth missing. Not to mention the thousands of cartoons showing him as a monkey.

In fits of passion, people have lost sight of decorum. But that’s nothing new. Why was Obama depicted as a zombie with a bullet hole in his head? It’s not because they’re encouraging assassination—and certainly not because he is black—it was done for three reasons:

a) The attempt was to get across the LCRC’s views regarding Obama’s policies using seasonal humor.

b) According to every single zombie movie ever, the way to get rid of a zombie is to shoot him in the head.

c) It’s Halloween.

So yeah, it failed big time. And it was very distasteful. But it should be made clear that there was no subliminal message of deep, burning, all-consuming hatred; the LCRC isn’t wishing Obama dead. He’s not even the only one on the stupid message. Finding a hidden meaning in the email that doesn’t even exist is allowing yourself to be worked up over, literally, nothing.

But people are going to argue about anything over the Internet. If you were to YouTube a video of Josh Groban singing his little heart out, there are people fighting over there too.

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