“Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican, created a stir with an ad where he tells the camera: ‘Just remember what really matters is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and being with friends and family.’
Behind Huckabee is a white, cross-like object that the governor has said is a bookshelf (on it lie a few holiday decorations). The object has set off speculation from pundits about whether it’s supposed to be some sort of subliminal message.” — Quotation from the Concord Monitor
A cigar is just a cigar and a bookshelf is just a bookshelf, except when the bookshelf doesn’t hold any books and it’s lit in such a way that a floating cross is formed by the intersection of pieces of wood.
It’s disingenuous for Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, to claim that the image of the floating cross wasn’t intentional.
Huckabee’s advisors minutely examine every frame of every commercial; it’s beyond belief that the offending cross wasn’t discovered — if it really was an accident.
Most pundits have referred to the cross as a subliminal message promoting Christianity. The floating cross is the very antithesis of a subliminal message; it’s an “in your face” proclamation of Christianity. The whole freakin’ commercial reeks of Jesus; there is nothing subliminal or subtle about Huckabee’s profession of faith in Christ.
If Huckabee’s commercial featured the governor sending a Morse Code message by blinking his eyes saying: Mitt Romney believes Satan and Jesus are lovers — that would be an example of a subliminal message.
It’s as if Huckabee is saying, “I’m going to cross the line between the separation of church and state and make a commercial all about Jesus. And to rub it in, I’m going to have a huge cross in the background.”
What a sad state of affairs when most of the presidential candidates have followed Huckabee’s lead and made their own Christmas commercials. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state?
REFERENCE:
 Editorial Review
Book Description: More than 15 years have passed since Joe Barndt wrote his influential and widely acclaimed Dismantling Racism (1991, Augsburg Books). He has now written a replacement volume – powerful, personal, and practical – that reframes the whole issue for the new context of the twenty-first century. With great clarity Barndt traces the history of racism, especially in white America, revealing its various personal, institutional, and cultural forms. Without demonizing anyone or any race, he offers specific, positive ways in which people in all walks, including churches, can work to bring racism to an end. He includes the newest data on continuing conditions of People of Color, including their progress relative to the minimal standards of equality in housing, income and wealth, education, and health. He discusses current dimensions of race as they appear in controversies over 9/11, New Orleans, and undocumented workers. Includes analytical charts, definitions, bibliography, and exercises for readers. About the Author: Joseph Barndt has been a parish pastor and an antiracism trainer and organizer for 30 years, much of the latter work being done with Crossroads Ministry in Chicago, which he directed for 18 years. He is the author of Dismantling Racism (1991, Augsburg Books), the best-selling predecessor to this new volume. He lives in Chicago, Illinois. Reader Review: In recent years an ideology that Sociologist Eduardo Bonilla Silva from Duke University calls “color-blind racism” has permeated United State’s popular culture. Most white Americans now report in surveys that race is no longer a feature of U.S. political, social and economic realms. As if they lived in two separate but unequal nations, particularly Latinos and African Americans note the intractability of race and racism in this country. The explanation is simple: in a white supremacist country unless you are a person of color you don’t “see” racism because that is not part of your daily experience. The color-blind ideology that permeates our major institutions puts a veil over the eyes of white Americans (and some persons of color) blinding them to the reality of racism in this country. Incidents like the racist comments of Don Imus or the recorded racist diatribes of Duane “Dog” Chapman, host of A & E television series are then dismissed as anomalies rather than just the tip of the iceberg. Fortunately, Joseph Barndt is one white male who is not color-blind, this book is an outstanding contribution to understanding race and racism in this new era. The main strength of Joseph Barndt book is that he provides a logical, reasoned, and theoretically sound analysis of institutionalized racism in the United States today which allows us to make sense of the racism of the 21st century. Even more outstanding is that he is able to accomplish this without the exclusionary jargon of many previous treatments of the subject. This a carefully organized book, and one that can and should be used in classrooms around the nation. This will become another classic from one of the most articulate white anti-racist intellectuals of our time. More Reviews: Understanding and Dismantling Racism: The Twenty-first Century Challenge to White America (Facets) |
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