Man, am I late to this party.

There’s this Barack Obama/Joker poster that’s going around, and at least one writer has called it out as being more than kinda racist:

The poster, which bears a very superficial resemblance to Shepard Fairey’s famous Obama Hope illustration, has been pasted on freeway supports and other public surfaces. It has a bit of everything to appeal to the drunk tank of California conservatism: Obama is in white face, his mouth (like Ledger’s Joker’s) has been grotesquely slit wide open and the word “Socialism” appears below his face. The only thing missing is a noose.

Well, that settles it. Poster=racist.OK, just kidding.  It’s a little more complicated than that.

I don’t think the guy who made this intended to be racist (just stupid), nor do I think the right wing is spanking themselves chafed over it because they’re racist (just behind-the-times dorks.  Dark Knight came out, like, a geologic era ago).  I give everyone 100% benefit of the doubt.  Hell, I’ll even laugh at the guy who says the poster misses the point because the Joker was an anarchist, not a socialist.  The (stupid) point of the poster is that Barack Obama is a socialist joker.

Having said all of that, this poster is immediately and strongly evocative of blackface minstrel shows.  Hey, it happens, like when some ad guy accidentally snaps a picture of something that looks like a dick.  But, there it is.  Care, or care not, ’tis a fact.