Racism alleged in Wall Street Journal editorial on (Obama appointee) Butler

[Newsjock]

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A state senator, a former state Supreme Court justice and a Wisconsin lawyer accused the Wall Street Journal of racism Thursday for referring to an African American judicial nominee as "the White House Butler."

A Thursday editorial ripped President Barack Obama for appointing former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis B. Butler Jr. to the federal bench. The editorial, headlined "The White House Butler," took issue with the appointment because of Butler's rulings and because he was twice rejected by voters in statewide elections.

Madison attorney Jon Axelrod asked the paper for a retraction and apology.

"Not only do I strongly disagree with the contents of the editorial as deliberately misleading, but it is totally inappropriate to demean Judge Butler because of his race by comparing him to a butler, an occupation unfortunately stereotyped as predominantly African American," Axelrod wrote the paper. "You owe this distinguished Wisconsin jurist an immediate retraction tomorrow as well as an apology."

Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/70566252.html

[Best_man23]

1. More News Corp Yellow Journalism for you

I stopped reading the FOX Street Journal the day Dow Jones sold to Murdoch.

[DallasNE]

4. Exactly

Murdoch has turned the WSJ into an opinion rag unworthy of review.

[izquierdista]

2. Repubs don't have a lock on the humorless

I see Mr. Axelrod won't be getting the boxed set of Monty Python this holiday season.

[Igel]

3. Butlers are primarily "stereotyped as African American"?

Silly me. I usually view them as British, lower class with fake upper crust accents.

Must be those white British African-Americans he has in mind.

Jeeves speaking in jive. I wonder how Bertie would sound?

[sudopod]

6. I think it's specifically the context of White House butler

Most of the housekeeping staff at the White House has been black throughout the nation's history. Here's a interesting article that discusses the history of these workers and African Americans in the WH in general:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28109794/

And one former White House butler (IRL) witnesses history:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/3917319/Former-White-House-butler-on-past-presidents-and-the-hope-Barack-Obama-brings.html

[tritsofme]

5. Are we sure it had nothing to do with his last name being "Butler"?

Don't think this had anything to do with it?

I was actually unaware there was a stereotype of black men as butlers, I always thought of a Jeeves or an Alfred myself.

File this as one of the weird ones.

[boppers]

7. Two searches:

http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=1&q=Butler+-Gerard
(The actor dominates "Butler" image searches, hence, removing it.)

"Butler": Not a black thing. However:
http://images.google.com/images?q=White+House+Butler

Slightly different results, there. While clicking through, turns out that it's also a common RW racist slam to call Obama the "White House Butler".

[truthisfreedom]

8. It's obviously a plausible denial thing.

The writer snickered to himself as he wrote that title, knowing he could just shrug later and say "but his name is Butler, that's all I meant."