Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> Discriminations

Legal Commentary

: Discriminations

Monkey Business In The Obama Campaign

Linda Ramirez Sliwinski is a Trustee of the Village of Carpentersville, Illinois. She has received a $75 citation for ?disorderly conduct,? and probably won?t stand for reelection.

According to an article in the Chicago Tribune,

Ramirez Sliwinski said she saw two boys climbing a tree next door to her home about 1 p.m. Saturday and asked them to stop. The mother of one of the boys called police after Ramirez Sliwinski referred to the children, ages 8 and 9, as monkeys.

Ramirez Sliwinski, who is Hispanic, was issued a citation alleging that she violated a village ordinance prohibiting disorderly conduct. The ordinance bans conduct that disturbs or alarms people, and one of the boys told police he was scared by Ramirez Sliwinski's comment, Police Cmdr. Michael Kilbourne said....

The mother told police her son and a friend were playing in a tree in front of their house in the 0-99 block of Sparrow Road when Ramirez Sliwinski came outside and told them to quit playing in the tree like monkeys, Kilbourne said.

Ramirez Sliwinski, who has been an opponent of efforts by some on the Village Board to crack down on illegal immigrants, said she meant no racial undertones by her comment.

Because Ms. Ramirez Sliwinski is an Obama delegate to the Democratic Convention, this ?monkey business? presented an ideal opportunity for Sen. Obama to demonstrate his post-racial leadership by intervening to calm roiled racial waters, by telling everyone in effect to ?chill? and not manufacture racial insults out of innocent backyard comments. And, sure enough, he did intervene, putting on display once again the judgment, character, and willingness to stand up to extremists in his camp that we?ve come to expect from him. As the Chicago Sun Times reports:

Moving to nip in the bud some potential bad press, White House hopeful Barack Obama?s campaign persuaded a delegate to step down after she was ticketed for calling her neighbor?s African-American children ?monkeys.?

Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, a Carpentersville village trustee, was elected as an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She sports an Obama sign in her front yard.

In The Speech Obama said, now famously:

I can no more disown [Rev. Jeremiah Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother ? a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

But he showed no hesitation whatsoever in disowning his loyal delegate, Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, who uttered no racial or ethnic stereotype. As the Sun Times noted,

Ramirez-Sliwinski admitted she used the word ?monkeys,? but said she did not intend racism. She said she was only trying to protect them from falling out of the tree.

?Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski said she saw the kids playing in the tree and didn?t want them falling out of the tree and getting hurt. She said she calls her own grandchildren ?monkeys,?? Kilbourne said.

Increasingly, Barack Obama appears to have less backbone and political courage than ... Bill Clinton. Every time he is presented with a ?Sister Souljah moment,? he lines up in defense of Sister Souljah.

Full post as published by Discriminations on April 09, 2008 (boomark / email).