Canyon County, Idaho

Commissioner Sends Racist Email Using Official Account

Why aren't our leaders outraged?

By Jill Kuraitis, 12-10-08

  The dress.
  The dress.

Canyon County Commissioner Steve Rule used his government email account to distribute an email on Dec. 2 comparing Michelle Obama to a poisonous black widow spider.

NewWest.Net/Boise obtained a paper copy of the email and has confirmed it was sent electronically. According to its header, Rule received the email as a forward, then used his official county email address to forward it to 26 people, including many at their Canyon County government email accounts.

The email has two photographs: one of a black widow spider, and one of Michelle Obama holding her older daughter’s hand, taken on Nov. 4 at President-elect Obama’s acceptance speech in Chicago.

Mrs. Obama’s dress has a distinctive red pattern on its front. The spider’s red mark resembles that pattern.

The email reads (emphasis, punctuation and capitalization reproduced exactly):

The Black Widow….
This spider, one of only a few poisonous spiders in the USA, can be found all over the states of Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
The spider release a neurotoxin into the victim that, if not treated, can cause death!

The Black widow hooks-up with the male then sucks the very life out of him after mating!

She’s very easy to spot…

The female has a very wide backside is Black, and has a red hour glass shaped marking on her belly…

You can find this spider in:
Closets
Wood piles
Under Beds
And soon…..
THE WHITE HOUSE!!!!!!

While it’s true that Mrs. Obama’s election night dress has been widely discussed on the internet, many writers comparing its markings to a black widow spider, most of it is about the fashion impact of the dress and its comparative beauty or ugliness. There is also discussion from the racist conspiracy theory nutjobs, some of it frightening.

Mrs. Obama’s dress looked like it had fireworks on it to me, but I also thought it was hideous, and still do.  The rest of the designer’s collection isn’t on my Glamour “do” list either.

But none of that matters. It’s just a dress.

Mr. Rule’s email, however, isn’t just an email.

There’s no getting away from the impact of language and symbolism to transmit culture, and the email transmits the culture of racism.

The racism is communicated by both overt techniques – the blatant comparison of Mrs. Obama to a poisonous creature, for example, and semi-covert techniques – pointing out that the spiders have a very wide backside (compounding the racism with bold, underlined type), and unnecessarily emphasizing that the spider is Black. 

That such a scary creature will now reside in the White House – and that’s apparently an alarming thing to the senders – uses the covert language of fear, under the lame cover of “humor” - to spread its racism.

There is more symbolism in the email, but I’ll leave that to readers to find. But don’t get me started on how offensive it is to include a child in the photo.

Let’s all remember that the English language uses the color black to indicate evil intent – the Black Knight, black-hatted cowboys, for example, and white to indicate moral purity and lack of evil intent – angels are white, brides wear white and so forth. There are hundreds of examples of this symbolism in language.

I called Rule for comment, and Canyon County communications officer Angie Sillonis called back with this statement from him: “I found the red marking on the dress shown in the email very similar to that of a black widow spider, and that made it humorous to me. If that has offended anyone, I sincerely apologize, and all concerned parties can be assured that I will not use a county computer to forward emails that are not directly related to county business.”

I asked to speak with Rule directly so I could ask follow-up questions, but he has not responded. 

Rule’s intent may be good, but his statement qualifies as a non-apology apology.  That he is still willing to say he found the email funny indicates he doesn’t get it. That he doesn’t say, “I shouldn’t have sent that racist email, and I hurt people, and I am sorry I added to the problem of racism in Idaho and I’ve learned a lesson” instead of the common dodge of “if that has offended anyone” is disappointing.

The real symbolism of a black widow spider concerns its behavior of killing and eating its mate, and the email implies Michelle Obama would follow the spider’s example.

I have a feeling that’s not what was meant.

This latest example of racist language and behavior in Idaho - and from an elected official, no less - is more than embarrassing. It’s outrageous and beyond.  I don’t like living in a place where these things are swept under the rug, or excused as “humor”, and I especially hate it when negative responses are described as “overreacting.” I don’t like telling people I live here.  That has been taken away by yet another prejudiced Idahoan.  It’s not as important as more hurt piled on to minorities, but it is another reason to be indignant.

The insidious labeling of anyone not white, conservative and religious as The Other is a plague spread by ignorant people with closed minds and hearts.

Where is the leadership from elected officials?  Where is the expression “this is unacceptable” coming from the lips of the mayors in Canyon County, or from Gov. Otter?

Since it isn’t coming from them, it will have to come from us.



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