Comments regarding Michelle Obama AIBU to feel like this is a bad dream...?

[Destinysdaughter]

"A West Virginia county worker was fired after penning a racist Facebook post calling first lady Michelle Obama an “ape in heels”.

“It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels,” posted Clay County Development Corporation’s then director Pamela Ramsey Taylor to Facebook following Donald Trump’s presidential win last week.

Underneath Taylor’s post, Clay’s mayor, Beverly Whaling, voiced her approval: “Just made my day Pam.”

The racist post, now deleted from Facebook, caused an uproar, with thousands of horrified voters calling on the local mayor to be fired.

Ramsey, a well-known figure in town, was fired from her role as head of the government-funded non-profit organization." ( The Guardian ).

So, my AIBU is am I unreasonable to feel both in shock and despairing that it's ok for a respected woman to say this publically and for another influential woman to agree with this? And this isn't a private conversation in a cafe, it's the fact that they feel so confident in their views to express them in a public forum! I feel embarrassed and ashamed for them. But also really fucking angry. How dare they talk about an intelligent articulate professional woman this way, just because she's black...?

Take, I'm so sorry. I'm a white woman and feel nauseated by this. I can't even imagine how sickened you must feel as a woman of colour.

Michelle Obama is a beacon of light and no one, and definitely not some disgusting racist scumbag, can take that away from her. She shines all the brighter because of darkness like this.

Allow this to salve the wounds Like the Brexit shenanigans, I find Twitter humour is the only thing getting me through this...

The fact that Steve Bannon, a White supremacist is going to be one of Trump's advisors in the White House is horrifying as well.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/14/steve-bannon-white-house-racism-fear?client=safari

I can't add anything but another outraged voice. The irony of it, classy, beautiful and dignified is a perfect description of Michelle Obama (along with caring, intelligent, etc....) Sometimes I feel rather sorry for Melania in all this, I would hope she is just as disgusted by such comments .

I also really, really wished it hadn't gone viral - I really want to believe Michelle Obama wasn't aware of it- she's such a wonderful person. It's such a heinous thing to say or publish.

Well Trump's campaign was endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan and that has a wide following the the south. Trump making hideous racist and sexist comments to the whole world had given permission to others to do likewise, has encouraged the prejudiced and ill educated to vent their vile thoughts. Probably most of the police officers who have shot black people without just cause are applauding these women's views.

So sorry everyone, perhaps I should have filtered that before I hit post. I'm just so disappointed.

We all should be outraged, but the fact is that I'm not surprised, angry or outraged, just deeply disappointed.

It is horrific and I understand your wish to discuss but I think you should ask for your title to be edited. This title will be very distressing for some.

What disgusting people

Michelle Obama has had many terrible awful racist and sexist comments made about her and she has always risen above them and carried on being a great First Lady and supporting her work with young women and girls let's hope she keeps herself in the public eye she is going to be greatly missed

This is what the world looks like now. And what matters is that we keep calling it out. That these people keep losing their jobs. And that those of us who don't think this is ok keep pushing back.

I phrased that badly. It will be very distressing for all right thinking people - but for some people it will be even more distressing.

Yes agree get the title changed It doesn't really need to be mentioned what was said as google will inform you

Has anyone seen the state of Ms Taylor? I'm not usually one to point out someone's physical flaws...but in the case of this woman, my rules go out of the window.

Ms Taylor looks an awful lot like a potato wearing lipstick....and I'm sure she's about as bright.

not ok, my error.

Hi
We've amended the thread title
Thanks
MNHQ

It's utterly depressing. I think it's a sign of the times we live in that these women thought it was ok to express these repugnant thoughts. The US has just elected a president who has been openly racist and sexist throughout his campaign. Perhaps it's not surprising that these dreadful women thought that racist bile was socially acceptable in today's America. Shame on them, but shame too on everyone who helped to create a political climate in which they felt able to voice their hatred.

These sort of people are a nightmare ... abusive twats whose life goal, it seems, is to make life intolerable for anyone not blonde/blue eyed. I used to get told I look like a monkey too :( most recently this year (I'm 40 now) . I'm not black, I'm mostly Irish but I know that all the hateful things they say about others would equally, and has been so many times in the past, applied to us too if they achieved their life dream of an 'all white' society.

It's even more terrifying when they getting encouragement and funding from 'the top'

Yuck. Hopefully their friends and family drop them too.

Absolutely vile behaviour from both women involved in the post. I'm glad to see so many people expressing their disgust. That being said,I am truly starting to feel afraid for my (Asian) children. What kind of world am I sending them out into?

Disgusting. She is an amazing and a hugely motivating woman.

I know several people who started a pro active campaign of encouraging people to call and email and demand that Taylor was sacked. The one good thing that is coming out of this election that people are ready to stand up, get involved and be heard. I hope that this feeling lasts.

Yuck. Hopefully their friends and family drop them too.

^^ While I am in complete agreement that the things these two women said were offensive and rude and ignorant, I feel very uncomfortable with people who wish them hate.

Seriously, who hopes someone loses their friends and family? Why not just hope they educate themselves and change their mind?

Really aggressive outraged righteous mob sentiment, directed at two patently stupid but otherwise irrelevant people, is also a display of ignorance.

That being said,I am truly starting to feel afraid for my (Asian) children. What kind of world am I sending them out into?

I really worry about this too. My 11yo dd is mixed race. For most of her life, she has lived in a wonderfully diverse bubble where kids of all ethnicities and religions just played together without a second thought. She knew about racism, but not in a way that touched her world. The last few months have been different. Her dad was racially abused outside our house the day after the referendum. Her Muslim friend's mum had her hijab pulled off in our local town. She has been following the US election with enormous interest. And she saw the news tonight.

I feel as if her innocence has been taken away. We live in such racist, misogynistic times. I wanted to shield my daughter from all that, but realise it's not possible.

Not quite irrelevant, being the mayor and all. Presumably an elected post, we can but wonder what her campaign materials would have been like.

My FB feed has been filling all week with examples of hate crime from graffiti on Latino church signboards, to black people being sent messages covered in nooses, to a gay man who had his head split open on election night, because he was in a trump bar. Like what happened here in June (and continues) but worse, and then there are guns. Hopefully it will die down when they have had their turn, but this will go on till January 20th.

Both absolutely revolting and ignorant bitchesa and I'm glad to hear they're both now out of their jobs. A reply to the original post was "did you really just say that" Taylor proudly replied "yes I did " I hope they both become Pariahs.

And yet these disgusting people still claim to 'not be racist'. I, too, feel as if I'm in the middle of a bad dream this year.