Totally not-racist radio show host calls Obama a “monkey” [updated]

Barbara Espinosa

If there’s one thing conservative talk radio is good for, it’s that it serves as an ideal representation of the cesspit of bigotry that’s festering in America’s underbelly. Here’s a perfect example: Arizona-based Republican radio host for KFNX’s Hair on Fire, Barbara Espinosa, recently took to the airwaves to broadcast exactly what she thinks of the United States’s first Black president:

I call him a monkey. […] I don’t call him “guy with rabbit ears”, I call him a monkey, and I call him – I don’t believe in calling him the first Black president[. …] I voted for the White guy, myself.

Here’s the unedited audio segment (trust me, context isn’t any kinder to her; if anything, she sounds all excited about it, like a toddler learning their first swear word and running around repeating it):

Better yet, an onslaught of criticism has done little to educate her in matters of common decency, as she took to her personal blog to proudly defend herself:

To set the record straight I did use the word monkey and Obama in the same sentence. Yes I did say I voted for the white guy. Unless there has been a takeover of America and free speech is no longer allowed and I can be put to death for making a remark, I refuse to take the fifth.

Notice the typical faux-martyrdom. Of course, no-one’s calling for her head; she’s pulling the usual thin-skinned wingnut trick of trying to spin criticism as an attempt at censorship. It’s idiots like her who make the First Amendment and other free speech protections so important in the first place.

She also clumsily quotes excerpts from Wikipedia articles on evolution and monkeys, as if she were trying to make some sort of lackwitted point about how we’re all apes, er, monkeys, anyway, so what she said was really just science, hurr hurr. Of course, all she does show is how we can add science to the growing laundry list of things she’s flamingly clueless about.

But the best part is undoubtedly her chosen excuse, as presented in this comment:

The comment was prompted by the google image cartoon that was sent to me.https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=667&q=obama+as+monkey+cartoon&gbv=2&oq=obama+as+monkey&aq=1S&aqi=g1g-S1&aql=&gs_l=img.1.1.0j0i24.3479.10072.0.12675.15.13.0.2.2.2.955.4463.2j3j2j2j1j1j2.13.0…0.0.YdCME7wRnYY
With a last name of Espinosa I’m anything but racist.

Don’t you just love that stupid argument? Of course, she’s proven that she’s very much racist, and a proud one to boot. The reality is that anyone can possess any array of prejudices, including against their own demographic group(s). All it takes is the (im)proper upbringing to make anyone believe anything, no matter how self-damaging it may be. That’s why we have women who are openly anti-feminist (such as noted misogynist Vox Day’s wife) and Black people who gave rise to the epithet “Uncle Tom”. Merely being of Hispanic descent in no way precludes Espinosa from being racist towards other ethnic groups, as she’s made beyond clear, herself.

By way of a footnote, she spends half her time in the above-linked comments thread chastising other posters for “hiding” behind usernames. Of course, if she had any sense of shame left, she’d be the first to do just that, right after leaving the airwaves.

(via ThinkProgress)

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UPDATE: 06/20/12 5:06 PM ET —

News site azfamily.com has some updated information:

• Espinosa’s defensive, Wikipedia-quoting blog post has been taken down.

• She’s also on Twitter (just so you know), where she also posted in defense of her slur, though the link appears dead:

  UPDATE!!!ON YES I DID USE THE WORD MONKEY... nblo.gs/yUIce

  — Barbara Espinosa (@1Barbara1) June 18, 2012

• Finally, we have an apologetic statement from KFNX, who insist that she hasn’t been working for them for at least a month and that she certainly won’t be doing so again:

  "Barbara Espinosa does not host a show anymore on KFNX 1100, so the information is dated. She has not aired a show at KFNX for nearly a month. She currently hosts an internet show on Blogtalk radio to the best of our knowledge.

  […]

  We certainly apologize for our former relationship with Ms. Espinosa and are deeply sorry she said offensives things.

  We do not know when the comments were made, but it is possible they were made in the past while airing on KFNX, or maybe could have been said on her current internet show on Blogtalk. We also do not know who posted the YouTube video. It is an edited video (and not dated) , so it is unclear what context the improper comments were made."

It would be interesting to know what made Espinosa and the station part ways in the first place.

Edit (06/20/12 12:13 AM ET) – Minor rephrasing.

Tags: Barbara Espinosa • KFNX • Hair on Fire • Barack Obama • racism • conservative talk radio