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The racist right is over in Europe. I understand the president's popularity over in Europe isn't a good as it was in 2009, but however they really had to keep this nonsense to a minimum.
The Huffington Post reports that a Belgian newspaper is under fire for an image it printed showing President Barack Obama and the First Lady as apes.
The progressive newspaper De Morgen is being accused of racism for the image along with an article it published just prior to Obama's visit to the Netherlands Monday morning.
The image clearly depicts the couple as two apes-- an editorial decision that has been slammed as "stale racist drivel."
The article was reportedly a satirical piece that also joked about Obama selling marijuana. The newspaper packaged the photos as if they had been submitted by Russian president Vladimir Putin, Metro said Sunday.
The picture was joined by a message reading, “Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia. He sent us this attachment at our request, and chose to send pictures instead of text 'because he doesn't have a lot of time',” the Independent said.
While the article has many readers outraged, there are also readers who have come to the newspapers defense. "It was a joke," one Reddit user said.
"In their defense, there are tons upon tons of pictures and t-shirts with Bush drawn as an ape," another user wrote.
@usembbrussels Today's De Morgen (a Belgian paper) has this photo of POTUS and Michelle as apes: pic.twitter.com/aAF2UAORgB
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) March 22, 2014
@IjeomaOgud @demorgen it says "Putin was asked to write an article on Obama. Due to time constraints he sent these pictures" #notfunny
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) March 22, 2014
De Morgen apologizes but Van Springel (the satirist) thinks that satire ought not to offend. He is shocked by the outrage #DeMorgen, #Obama
— chika unigwe (@chikaunigwe) March 24, 2014
De Morgen apologized for the image in its Monday edition, admitting it was guilty of "bad taste."
"When you consider the fragment apart from its context, which is a properly worked out satirical section, then you don't see the joke but just a picture evoking sheer racism," the newspaper said. "We wrongly assumed that racism is no longer accepted, and that in this way it could be the subject of a joke."
Unigwe, who lives in Belgium, went on to tweet in depth about the controversial spread, noting that the fault lies with Belgian society moreso than De Morge.