Note to Young Skinheads

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When will bigots come up with slurs our children can relate to? From the Raleigh-Durham News and Observer:

Gov. Beverly Perdue asked for—and received—the resignation of NC Alcoholic Beverage Commission Chairman Doug Fox on Tuesday, just hours after newspapers provided Perdue’s office with a copy of a racist photo illustration sent from Fox’s e-mail address after last November’s election.

The e-mail included an altered photo of the White House that turned the South Lawn into an enormous watermelon patch. The phrase, “There goes the neighborhood …” was printed above the photo.

The e-mail was sent from Fox’s law firm address Nov. 14—10 days after Barack Obama was elected president. The message, which had been forwarded multiple times by others before reaching Fox, contained no text other than the subject line, “how true.”

This is an outrage! How are young non-black racists supposed to figure out such dated racial slurs? We all know that kids today don’t know much history, like the name of that cold country to our north and the hot one to our south. Now you expect them to be familiar with minstrel shows?

Young skinheads: Demand that your elders have the common decency, and KKK Kommunity spirit, to update your racist imagery to reflect the times. What’s next? An email replete with references to ‘coons,’ ‘pickaninnies,’ and ‘jungle bunnies’?

C’mon neanderthals. You can do better than this.

[H/T: My man, John Schwade.)

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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