Hey, the NJ "corporate casual to weekend menswear" shop owner whose anti-Obama Halloween window display—with photoshopped witch doctor Obama—is not backing down from criticism, even if he's getting death threats. Bill Skuby told the Asbury Park-Press, "It’s becoming a racial issue. If this is racism, then it’s reverse racism. I think they’re as racist as they accuse me of being." But the 66-year-old Spring Lake businessman says it's not racist—because he's got a biracial relative!
In an interview with the Star-Ledger, Skuby used his race card and showed a photograph, "The middle one is my granddaughter... My son married a girl that had a biracial kid. She is every bit a part of our family as the other two in this picture. I'm not racist. And as long as my grandchild doesn't think I'm a racist, I'm perfectly fine with all of this."
However, the former NJ state political director of the NAACP, Walter Fields Jr., told the Star-Ledger that it's racist, "The imagery [Skuby] is using is wholly racist. It's the type of thing we saw 50 or 60 years ago at the height of segregation... You can express your opposition to the president in other ways, and we can do better as a nation."
Fields added, "[Skuby] could have all black children, and he could still be a racist. People use the notion of a blended family as an excuse for their racism. You can love your family member and still be a racist, because your family member isn't a threat to you. African-Americans in a position of power are certainly a threat to some people. So it doesn't wash that because [Skuby] has a biracial grandchild, he cannot be a racist. That is too simplistic of a rationale. You could harbor feelings that you're not even aware of because you're blinded by your racism."
Skuby just hates Obama, "My feeling about ‘Obamacare’ and all this other stuff — at some point you have to stand up to how you feel and I feel this is wrong and awful. I think this guy has just taken down a path we could never recover from."
