Today’s daily dose of insanity comes to us from California:
CULVER CITY, Calif. (KABC) — A graduation card sold at local stores has been pulled from shelves after a civil rights group raised concerns about the content. The group claims the card’s micro-speaker plays a greeting that’s racist.
It is a graduation greeting from Hallmark that says, “Hey world, we are officially putting you on notice.”
Members of the Los Angeles NAACP did take notice. As characters known as “Hoops” and “Yoyo” banter on, African American leaders hear offensive language.
“And you black holes, you are so ominous. Watch your back,” the card vocalizes.
“That was very demeaning to African American women. When it made reference to African American women as whores and at the end, it says ‘watch your back,’” said Leon Jenkins of the Los Angeles NAACP.
When Hallmark was reached by phone, they said the card is all a misunderstanding. The card’s theme is the solar system and emphasizes the power of the grad to take over the universe, even energy-absorbing black holes.
The card company says the card speaks about the power the grad will wield.
“The intent here is to say that this graduate is not afraid of anything,” explained Hallmark spokesman Steve Doyal.
But that’s not what some people heard.
“You hear the ‘r’ in there. ‘Whores,’ not, ‘holes.’ The ‘r’ is in there,” said Minnie Hatley of the Los Angeles NAACP.
Hallmark sent Eyewitness News a transcript of what the card says, but Hatley says that the actual audio raises questions.
Watch the report and you decide:
Yep, the Los Angeles NAACP is officially insane.
wow. people need to calm down. waste of time frying a fish this small.
Wow, talk about selective hearing. Not only is it PAINFULLY obvious the character says “holes”, the “you better watch your back” line wasn’t even directed at those black holes. “And you planets? You better watch your back!”
I guess it’s been a slow month in the Black outrage department in Los Angeles.
Ok, that’s just nuts. When I hear the term “Black Holes” the only derogatory thing that comes to mind are some jokes regarding my ex-wife.
they’ll go after the books and make sure every reference to the term of blackholes is gone. this is what happens when you’re looking for something that isn’t there and reading too much into something. you can easily come up with the outcome you want.
If anyone downloads a black hole app for their iphne, please don’t test it!
–I hear “hole” spoken fast, not “whore” or “ho”, but that’s only me.
–But they could probably prove the matter one way or another by simply slowing down the recording. It sounds to me as if they used the same method to make the card as was used for doing the voices of The Chipmunks–speeding up normal speech; that raises the pitch of a voice.
–But I doubt the professional witch hunters of racism would be interested in doing that. It might show they were running their mouths before they knew what they were talking about.
“If anyone downloads a black hole app for their iphne, please don’t test it!”
You mean this one?
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/black-hole/id373321512?mt=8
We had something similar happen in Dallas about a year or so ago. A councilman referred to one of the bureaucratic offices as a “black hole”, and another (black) councilman made a big deal about how that was a racist comment. To my knowledge, he never recanted, even after being told about what a black hole actually is.
Amazing. Don’t they have anything constructive to do in this world?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-akk3gog34&%20feature=related
can someone make the naacp understand that white people are long over the slavery days and maybe they should move on? they only make theirselves look racist.
i must have listened to it 10 times and i hear the “l” and no r at all.
That’s because it’s not there.
When I was in high school, I had to sign a permission slip in order to read Mark Twain’s book Huckleberry Finn, because the ominous n-word shows up constantly in it. Apparently some parent found it offensive, not realizing that Twain’s work was instrumental in improving the lot of African Americans.
Liberals need to realize that this knee-jerk politically correctness demeans the cause of racial harmony. It makes people think of minorities as always on the attack and creates and furthers false stereotypes. It also helps really bad conservative reactionaries, who can claim “political correctness” whenever they push forth racist filth, of which you don’t have to go too far in conservative quarters to find.
You know it really is depressing, Doug, to look at politics and see nothing but fools. I wish I had someone to root for.
Those cards are always hilarious, by the way! Always a hit for the wife!
What a setback for women and blacks and educated people everywhere. And Michael, this stance by the NAACP does not represent the liberal viewpoint. Their stupidity on this issue instead points out how pathetic our science education in this country has become. I am a liberal, woman Ph.D. scientist who teaches college chemistry as a second job because I am passionate about education, and this story makes me want to hang my head and cry.
RIDICULOUS!!!!STUPID!!!! This may be one of the dumbest things I’ve seen yet! NAACP looks like a bunch of fools!
@ Loudoun Insider: You better watch out with that “always a hit for the wife” comment…some
dumba** is going to think you mean that you beat your wife, even though it’s very clear that you
don’t mean that.
I personally won’t shop at Walgreen’s or CVS, or ever purchase another Hallmark product again,
because they caved in to the ridiculous demands of the NAACP. By the way, is it even PC to call
black people “colored?” doesn’t the “C” in NAACP actually make their name a racist name?
I wish these morons would just go off themselves, so we wouldn’t have to deal with their stupid
complaints any more.
Wow, nothing better to do, NAACP?
I’m not sure about the card itself, but it’s too bad you’re all so scared of the NAACP. They’ve done lots of good work over the years — sure, they’re not above criticism (got some problems with women’s issues), but comments like this:
“can someone make the naacp understand that white people are long over the slavery days and maybe they should move on? they only make theirselves look racist.”
…and those implying the NAACP are scary totalitarian censorship fanatics, and calling people who complain about racism “witch hunters”, are just ridiculous. Just because you, [fellow] White people, don’t see racism, doesn’t mean it’s not there. Maybe the card thing was a misunderstanding, I don’t know, but either way, making this one incident into anti-NAACP propaganda is unforgivable.
And no, us Whites aren’t “over” racism. We still enforce it. With comments like the ones in this thread.