An email sent by Walt Baker, CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association to some friends, members of the press and a public official, compared U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama to Tarzan's chimp Cheetah. Two photos at the bottom of the email show the First Lady alongside the chimp.
Not long ago another amateur comedian, Rusty DePass, a South Carolina GOP activist, compared Michelle Obama to a gorilla in an entry on his Facebook account. He thought the folks would find his juvenile jest amusing after hearing that a gorilla had escaped from the Riverbank Zoo in Colombia.
It defeats the imagination to understand why someone in Baker's position would fire off an offensive email of this sort on the assumption that others would find it amusing. To describe it as bad judgment is an understatement.
The photo of Baker above, I suppose could be compared to an android or possibly a spock-like creature with the pointy tops of the ears covered with hair. However most people would think twice before pairing Mr Baker with Mr Spock or other extraterrestial in such a mean fashion.
In the course of offering an apology, Baker characterized the chimp/First Lady photo-pairing as "political humor" and seemed miffed that anyone might find the comparison offensive. That Baker doesn't appear to entirely get the objectionable nature of the comparison, makes you wonder if he was kidding when he said: "I have never considered myself bigoted, or racially insensitive or a racist."
The intent of these chimp/gorilla comparisons is almost certainly a political put-down and appeals to puerile minds who find childish comparisons of this sort amusing. Mr Baker's email contacts didn't all share his taste in humor.
Butch Spyridon, president of Nashville's Convention and Visitor's Bureau was at the receiving end of the email. To his credit he was "embarrassed" by it. He described the attitudes expressed in the email as both "appalling and unacceptable".
Spyridon said that Baker's marketing firm, Mercatus Communications, had lost the contract to help promote the city's new convention center.
Nashville's mayor Karl Dean said in a statement that the email was "offensive" and "does not reflect who we are as a city and our values".
NY Daily News - here
