MUNCIE, Ind. — On her Facebook page, Jeannine Lee Lake recently posted photographs of racist collectibles she says she photographed at U.S. Rep. Greg Pence’s antique mall.
The objects included antique coin banks of Black males with very dark skin, oversize red lips and bulging eyeballs, as well as banks of what Collectors Weekly calls “one of the most enduring Black stereotypes” — mammy, a “motherly and overweight black woman who is visibly happy in her subservient position.”
Lake, a Democrat and an African American running for Republican Pence’s seat in Congress, called out the congressman and his wife, Denise, who runs the mall, for “profiting from hate.”
That set off a debate on Facebook, of course.
Pence defenders said that “if you do not like what is offered…Don’t frigging shop there!!!;” “Its history;” “these items are found in all antique malls.
We are getting to a point where that everybody being offended over everything has gotten out of hand.
These items that draw from a period in history. To say it is racist or stereotyping is wrong as this what these figures represented at that time. There are enthusiasts of the old south that do enjoy these figures not from a point of racism, but a point of history from the era.
Would I buy them no, and if they are highly collectable as the story states, and purchase too by African Americans as well, then if you are offended, DON’T BUY IT!!!
We discuss this and more on Davin’s Den this Tuesday August 4th. 6:30-9:30 est. go to davincomedy.com, click live broadcast and you are there. We will also be live on the Davin’s Den Face Book page as well.