Is this poster racist?

[KillerGremlin]

http://media.www.chicagoflame.com/me...-3755924.shtml

Firas Alkhateeb was your typical, anonymous college student until a few weeks ago, when someone took artwork from his Flickr account and created a national controversy out of them. Alkhateeb had taken a cover of Time magazine featuring Barack Obama and transformed him into Heath Ledger's Joker. Someone else then took his image from Flickr, added "Socialist" underneath, and plastered it around southern California. The Flame caught up with Alkhateeb last week for an exclusive interview.

Flame: Where were you born? On Facebook, you list San Mateo as your hometown but everyone calls you "a college student from Chicago."

FA: I was born in California (the San Francisco Bay Area) and lived in that area (San Mateo area) for 7 years. When I was 7 I moved to Chicago and have lived in Chicago and the suburbs since.

Flame: Critics have alleged that your spoof "depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery [and] is mean-spirited and dangerous." What do you say to your critics?

FA: I think I saw that quote in the Guardian newspaper from the UK two weeks ago when the story first came out and they didn't know who was behind the original photoshop. A lot of the people who have problems with the Obama-as-Joker image are people who would enjoy Bush-as-Hitler images or something similar. The great thing about art - particularly political art - is that it can be a very effective medium through which to propagate an idea. Just because someone doesn't agree with a particular point of view expressed, doesn't entitle them to label it dangerous. What good is our First Amendment if we can't express political viewpoints? Everyone has a political ideology and to each his own. If someone else wants to overreact, it's not my problem.

Flame: Are you at all interested in suing anyone for marketing the picture you made on t-shirts over the Internet?

FA: I can't comment on any legal issues about the poster, as all of that is still ongoing.

Flame: In one article, you are portrayed as supporting Obama -- in another, you say you didn't vote for him and didn't want people to know about the picture you drew because you don't want to offend the "very, very liberal" Chicagoans who support him, but then other stories add that you are a big Kucinich fan. Can you clarify your political views?

FA: I support Obama in that I want him and his efforts to succeed so the nation can get out of our current economic situation. I don't agree with alot of his domestic policies and didn't vote for him (or anyone) as a sort of protest against the electoral system that had given Obama Illinois pretty much before the election. Me "supporting" Dennis Kucinich has been blown way out of proportion. I agree with some of his ideas, but certainly not all. I've been described as a far leftist as well as a conservative, but the truth is I'd consider myself moderate and avoid supporting either political party - instead, I support or oppose individual issues.

Flame: What inspired you to study history?

FA: I don't have a concentration in history yet, I just transferred into the major and fall will be my first semester in the program. I've spent three years in civil engineering before this. I'm studying history because it's something I have a passion for and really enjoy reading about.

They don't really address his intentions for making the original picture...I still don't see the Joker/Socialist connection. I think this whole thing has been blown....err...overboard.