I’ve been wrestling with myself over whether to comment on the photo above, which is getting lots of play in the conservative media (especially in the D.C. area) and none at all in the Axis news sources. To begin with, I have been wondering whether the sign is a fake. The alleged message that is causing all the ruckus is on the back of the sign, and something else is on the other side that I can’t quite make out. Odd.
Winsome Sears is the Lieutenant Governor in Virginia and was widely regarded as a rising star of the GOP when the conservative black woman was elected, but she has been regularly thrashed in the polls compared to her Democratic opponent, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a pro-abortion Pelosi acolyte whose shtick is to pose as a “moderate” since compared to so many of her thoroughly whacked-out woke colleagues, she is one.
Is that message on the back of the sign really racist? It is unquestionably stupid, and proposes a dubious analogy, but is referring to a candidate’s race inherently “racist”?
I tend toward regarding that message as Golden Rule-based, as in “How would you feel if a law prevented you from using public facilities?” I suspect that Sears could deftly explain why the two situations are not equivalent, but by the admittedly low standards of political signs generally, I’m inclined to give that one a pass.
The other issue being raised by the sign in some quarters is the age, gender and race of the woman holding it. Many have commented on how the loudest protesters against the National Guard’s efforts to reduce crime in D.C. are white seniors, and white senior women especially. Why is this? Aging hippies? Is it because seniors are the demographic most likely to watch cable news, and thus are most susceptible to MSNBC brain (and ethics) rot?
Ethics Alarms 
I believe the other side of the sign reads, “Hey Winsome, you have a gender neutral bathroom in your house.”
And it’s still not an appropriate analogy.
you can read the other side of the sign through the cardboard. It says hey winsome. You have a gender neutral bathroom in your house.
The wordage on the back side of the sign has all the hallmarks of being a bad photoshop hack. They tried to hide it, but I know how the software works on a professional level and know what details to look for.
P.S. The backwards words you can supposedly see through the card stock paper also looks like a Photoshop hack job.
Here’s an example of another Photoshop hack…
Here’s a comparison of the Photoshop hacks…
It’s not ‘shopped, there are other pictures of the sign around, one article featuring an interview with the lady. The artifacts are the lady correcting a misspelling, really heavy jpeg compression, and/or a screenshot of a video while paused.
The sign neatly represents all the Left’s delusions about conflict with conservatives: that they’re on the “right side of history”, that trans rights are following the progression of last generation’s civil rights, and the objections to this growth are purely prejudicial.
The fact conservatives are judging the speech in the frame of it being racist is precisely the problem. The left isn’t advocating we return to segregated bathrooms, they’re saying conservatives want to, and the message is “Winsone, join our side and leave the racists!”
Similar messages are only racist when a conservative expresses them. It’s a speech ending tactic. It’s precisely why freedom of speech ought to encompass racist speech.
WallPhone wrote, “It’s not ‘shopped, there are other pictures of the sign around, one article featuring an interview with the lady.”
After reading that, I went in search of additional evidence and I found some.
1. The top photo below was captured from a section of a video, you can see the blurry front side of the sign on the left.
2. The middle photo below was captured from another section of a video.
3. The bottom photo below was captured from a still that was in the video.
Here is a link to the video where I captured these photos.
I was clearly incorrect with my initial assessment of the sign being a Photoshop hack; however, if there hadn’t been any additional evidence to prove that this sign actually existed, I would have stood by my original assessment. I’ve seen politically motivated Photoshopped signs at least a dozen times online and used as memes and far more often than not , they get proven to be false.
WallPhone was right and I was wrong and I’ll add this experience to my knowledge base. Thanks WallPhone for inspiring me to do more searching.
P.S. Note to WallPhone; you can easily add effect and filters in Photoshop that give the same kind of really heavy compression visual effects as you get from jpeg photos or a paused video.
I think you give this lady and her placard too much respect. Signs that indicate that Republicans are racist do not deserve a detailed analysis, and a well-argued response. The mind of the lady carrying this placard has been sealed shut completely. You can either ignore her completely, flipping the bird, or return the favor by calling her a racist. My preference is for the first option, with the third option coming in second.
I fully agree with your initial impressions, and shard that same impression myself! I changed that opinion after finding the other, more clear, examples.
Walking in a street protest like this is something I would not do, and one of the main reasons is the embarrassing quality of the messages on the placards. Most protests have the persuasive quality of an angry toddler stamping his feet at the supermarket.
This placard gets a lot of attention because it touches race. Is the placard racist? Does anybody honestly care? Maybe the fracas about this placard is how unserious we have become about anything that touches race, as all allegations have racism have descended to the level of schoolyard taunts. We all know who started this nonsense and why, and it now it resembles the Centralia underground fire, with no knowing how to put it out.
My impression is that the press is fanning the flames, by paying coverage to protests that are not newsworthy at all. I visited a Promise Keepers conference once, with over 10K attendants. The TV news crews only covered a very small protest of about ten people against this conference and in favor of abortion rights.
I was embarrassed by the various conservatives calling it “racist”. It’s not; it’s just a (bad) analogy, trying to compare not wanting men in private women’s spaces to excluding blacks from public facilities.
It might make sense in a nudist colony.
Sorry, this shit (if real) is totally racist. And if we pull the lens back further, isn’t. It’s racist in the way white progressives in particular, tend to be racist. She is using the race of her target to alienate the target, a quick and dirty trick I’ve experienced from white progressives a multitude of times. And yet, this is common behavior of anyone, because the human tendency is to inflict the most damage psychologically, while making the least effort. Insults via a one-word summation of how shitty the other person is, is the economy of behavior at it’s finest.
Here we all know this lady is saying, “hey Blackie, my people have always had more freedom in this country than you, and don’t your forget it!”
She is also saying, “I’m way too lazy to try and talk with you face to face or find ways to share my genuine concerns with you or your team.” This lady apparently gives a shit, but only as far as she can be inconvenienced. Apparently an attempt at compromise and understanding, speaking personally, or going beyond yelling and sign making, is just too much damn effort. Getting racist is the easiest route. And she has triumphed beautifully.
“but only as far as she can be inconvenienced.”
Oh, the deeply viscid irony!
PWS
The whole kerfuffle has put the Democrats on the defensive on the issue of race, which is quite a feat in a gubernatorial campaign.
“including Republican attacks on our transgender community.”
Hilarious! When Lefty gets their t!t caught in a ringer, they deflect.
Pretty damned weakly, too; they must deem their target audience as comically undiscerning!
PWS