Representation Of Barack Obama Through The Use of Discriminatory Strategies in Gulett's 'Wag The Dog':A Text Analysis.

(1)

ABSTRACT

Rasisme acapkali dijumpai di Amerika, walaupun negara ini sering

disebut sebagai negara dengan keanekaragaman ras. Salah satu teks yang

menarik perhatian penulis adalah “Wag The Dog” karya Pastor Morris Gullet,

yang merupakan tanggapan terhadap pengangkatan Barack Obama sebagai

presiden Amerika. Dalam teks ini, Pastor Morris Gullet menampilkan Barack

Obama secara negatif dan rasis. Analisis ini ditujukan agar pembaca dapat

mengetahui bagaimana penulis mengemukakan pendapatnya dalam sebuah teks

untuk membuat representasi mengenai seseorang. Untuk itu, penulis

mengaplikasikan teori representasi dari Stuart Hall dan strategi diskriminasi dari

Flowerdew dkk. Keempat kategori strategi itu adalah negative other presentation,

scare tactic, blaming the victim dan delegitimation.

Berdasarkan hasil analisis, strategi diskriminasi yang paling sering

digunakan adalah predicting threat to interest and privileges of the dominant

group. Menurut hemat saya, strategi tersebut banyak digunakan karena teks ini

muncul dalam situs sebuah organisasi rasis yang sangat mengagungkan

dominasi kaum kulit putih. Dengan demikian, penerapan strategi tersebut akan

(2)

APPENDIX

Wag The Dog

This was written by Pastor Gulett while he was in ZOG's custody. It is my honor to

start posting his thoughts and messages- November 8th - 2008

After a long drawn out campaign, that for the democrats started 2 years before the

actual election, cost millions upon millions of dollars, pandering to the wants and

needs of blacks, Hispanics, America's workers,women,students and yes even

Israelis. All of this paid off big time for President elect Barack Obama. It didn't matter

that he was a left wing socialist and in his agenda it was shown to include a

"Redistribution Of Wealth" that is ; taking from those who have and, give to those

who have not.

In other words take from the whites and give to the non-whites. Such as was done in

Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe and was also done in the Nation of South

Africa. The only difference here in America will be,that it will not be completed quite

so violently as in the affore mentioned countries. Unless of course it is absolutely

necessary. But most likely it will not be that necessary because thus-far white

Americans have been perfectly willing to simply hand over access to our nations

wealth to those who have contributed very little if anything over the years to the

(4)

to devise the technological advancements needed to glean from the earth her

precious commodities.

Allow me at this time to point out that while whites ruled in South Africa and

Rhodesia, both nations were highly productive jewels of the African continent.But

once the white ruling class there bent to political pressure from the United Nations

and permitted the negro a vote in the electoral processes of the two neighboring

countries. Whites being outnumbered by the blacks eleven to one, naturally the

negro gained control of the nations political system. And along with that came

control of its police and military forces.

When that took place the white farmers who produced so much of those nations

wealth were systematically murdered, their wives and daughters raped and black

control of those two nations farming industries, the ultimate effect. And as a direct

result of black control, the Negros of South Africa and Zimbabwe are starving and

are now being fed by white Americans who provide the majority of the financial

ability of the United Nations. That is correct, just two weeks prior to our Presidential

election it was announced on National Public Radio that the United Nations was

being petitioned for a 140 Billion Dollars to feed the Negros of Zimbabwe.

The United States for years has been sending food supplies to South Africa to feed

their Negros. So we can take a look at these two examples of blacks ruling over an

Aryan Society and the socialist agenda that is being carefully implemented here in

the United States, with government control of farming and industry.

The recent banking and housing crisis, the collapse of the stock market and the U.S.

(5)

Not to mention our continued unguarded Mexican border that attributes to the flow of

millions of illegal non white aliens into our nations heartland. Then there is our

Nations continued involvement in foreign affairs, namely the Middle East, our close

ties to the terrorist state of Israel, not to mention our continuing and rapidly growing

trillion dollar debt to communist China. We can see the direction this nation is rapidly

taking and its direction is downward.

Now make no mistake about it, Barack Obama will go down in history as one of our

nations most successful presidents. The powers that be, The Jews who control

international finance and the Zionists who control our nation’s governmental bodies

will not allow President Obama to fail. That would put too much of a wrinkle in the

false notions of the equality and the idea that "diversity" is our: greatest strength, as

the saying goes.

Oh no, our countries first black president cannot be anything but a shining glowing

example of success. That is, as long as he continues to do the bidding of the Jews.

As long as he holds true to form and continues the policies of multiculturalism,

diversity, equality and the ongoing Machinations already working in U.S. foreign

policy such as our unending, blind support for whatever Israel wants to do to its

enemies in the Middle East. Then Barack Obama will be assured, great success.

However; If he falters on the deal, and does not do just as his handlers say, then he

will be eliminated. Another boogieman will be fabricated just like James Earl Ray

was. An "evil white man" will suddenly appear on the scene and take care of the

problem.

But make no mistake about it, Barack Obama just several months prior to the

(6)

arrayed in a Jewish Yarmulke and paid homage to his Jewish masters by

participating in the ritual bobbing of the head at the wall of wailing in Jerusalem He

made certain that the Jews knew that he understood just where his power was to

come from. Without this posturing assurance, Barack Obama would have never

been voted in as President. And unless he continues throughout his Presidency, he

will not make a second term and if his insolence is bad enough, then he'll be

eliminated. But no matter what, his Presidency will be made to shine and he will

become a hero for the continued Hoax of equality.

So in light of the latest turn of events, and the continuing downward spiral of

America, a once great white Christian nation, we have only our collective selves to

blame. Had we adhered to the Christian Law, the law of Moses, written by the hand

of God on Mount Sinai, and not permitted the stranger to dwell among us, mixing

and mingling, marrying our Sons and Daughters, allowing them to give birth to

Mongrel offspring such as our current President Elect. Then we would not be

suffering the retribution of the Fathers hot anger. Our Nations economy would not be

in such peril. There would be plenty of opportunity for working Americans. Our

educational system would not be at an all time low, the worst it has ever been. Our

wives, sisters, mothers, Sons & daughters would be safe to come and go as they

please. Our borders would not be over run with millions of illegal aliens eating up our

nation’s sustenance and wreaking havoc upon the American populace.

Were this country still ruled by God Fearing Christian Men and not the likes of

selfish, greedy men like George W. Bush, who set the stage for the social democrat

Barack Obama to seize the presidency. Because face it, after eight years of faulty

(7)

digress, I was saying that were this nation still ruled by God fearing Christian men,

then our nations resources would not go to feed third world aliens who hate the

mention of the name America. We would not be funding wars for that Anti-Christian

nation in Palestine we know of by the false title of Israel. No real Christian would pay

homage to the Jew by putting on that little prayer cap and bobbing at that wall in

Jerusalem. The Jew is Christ. How can a Christian pay homage to the

anti-Christ? Or better question still, why would he?

Our people, and I mean white people, must learn the roots of their true identity. The

white nations of the world are the real descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel,

referred to in the New testament scriptures as "the lost sheep of the house of Israel",

who all eventually embraced Christianity, calling themselves by a new name,

Christian. So therefore the title of "Christian" only fits an Israelite and only a racially

pure white man was permitted citizenship within the congregation of Israel.

So Barack Obama claiming to be a Christian is equal to me claiming to be a

Neurologist. I haven't the credentials to carry that title, just as Barack Obama being

a mongrel hasn't the credentials to rightfully carry the title of Christian. Barack

Obama is essentially an Arab. Since the word "Arab" is a Hebrew word meaning ,

To grow dark, to grow dusky, to mix, to mingle, a mixed multitude, a mongrel race.

And furthermore since today's modern day so called Jews are in reality the racial

lineage of Esau, Jacob-Israel’s twin brother who despised his birthright and took his

wives from among the Daughters of Canaan, mongrelized his blood lineage and

became the father of the Edomite nation whom God said he hated. And they

(8)

So in effect these we know of today as Jews, just like Barack Obama are in fact

Arabs, just as much as any Arab in the middle east who bows to Allah and follows

the teachings of the Koran and calls himself a Muslim. A mongrel is simply a

mongrel and are cast off from being one permitted in the congregation of YAHWEH.

This is why it is the Edomite Jews who are behind this drive to diversify and create

multiculturalism, because they are a diversified race. And racial purity was a

commandment to be honored and kept among Israel. Barack Obama is an

Arab-mixed breed mongrel so it makes sense in this world that he would also proliferate

the ancient Babylonian custom of diversity and multiculturalism. The Jews have

been carrying forth this doctrine since the days their Father Esau took his wives

from among the Canaanites. This is Esau's plan for reclaiming his birthright. To

diversify true Israel and breed out of existence and into being a mongrelized society

of Arab, Jewish, Canaanite, Edomite, mongrels.

Our people must get back to the scriptures starting with the book of Genesis to

discover all of the things I've mentioned and to learn their true Identity as Sons and

daughters of YAHWEH. And in effect identifying the adversaries of our Holy Race.

The scripture tells us to let your yay mean yay and your nay mean nay. It says that a

double minded man is unstable in all his ways. It says that light cannot have

fellowship with darkness. The word of God says we are to be a separate people

unto YAHWEH, a Holy Nation dedicated to him and him alone.

He tells us not to be in league with the Anti-Christ and yet we prop up the Anti-Christ

at every turn, this is why our Nation has been made to suffer. Because of

disobedience to God and the alliance that we have with the anti-Christian state of

(9)

condition of our nations leaders, their political maneuvering with our economy and

the job market, an out of control legal system that continues to let those in positions

of power and wealth free from the laws the rest of us are persecuted by. This is what

we get for our insolence and disobedience.

No matter what strides Barack Obama makes during his term as President it is not a

blessing to you White man for this President Elect to bear rule over you. It is a

curse, the result of transgression according to the scripture. The Book of

Deuteronomy in Chapter 28, Verses 43 & 44 states that "The stranger that you have

permitted to remain among you will get up above you very high and you will come

down very low. He will become the head and you will become the tail."

Well, I ask you; "Can the tail wag the dog?” We had better hope so, because we

must shake this dog from this seat of power, and then drive the rest of the dogs from

our midst, for the establishing of the Kingdom Of Heaven. The scripture says to not

give that which is Holy unto the dogs. And here we have handed the highest seat of

power in our Nation and possibly the world over to one of those very dogs Christ

warned us about.

His word says "Be Ye separate, come out from among them and touch not the

unclean".. But here in America we allow our children to wallow in it. If you don't

understand, just observe the filth your children watch on television some time.

God Help Us.

(10)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In our daily lives, we are familiar with attitudes or opinions which show

discrimination towards others. Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of

different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex

(Oxford language dictionaries online). People usually discriminate against others in

order to show a group identity. This group identity forms representation. The

strategies for the realization of representation are the choice of words and relation

between clauses (Hall 16).

The ways people discriminate against others are different one from another.

People can show their discriminatory attitudes either blatantly or subtly. Through a

blatant way, people can do practices such as making separate bus seats for whites

and blacks which happened in Alabama years ago (Alabama Moments in American

History). Through this regulation, the government directly showed discrimination

towards blacks. The other way to show discrimination is through subtlety. One of

the subtle ways is through texts published in mass media, which voice

discrimination through certain strategies so as to make it accepted as the truth. I am

interested in analyzing a text of this kind because I want to expose one of the many

(11)

their opinion blatantly; thus, by analyzing a text, others can become aware of the

meaning of that text.

The topic of white supremacy is also interesting for me because, up to the

present time, it is still a problem in American society. Although the United States

has Civil Rights and Liberties, promising freedom, justice and equality, I still find a

certain number of people who show discrimination of other races and regard

themselves superior to others.

When people express their discriminatory belief through a text, they involve

the usage of discriminatory strategies within that text. According to Flowerdew et

al., there are four major discriminatory strategies. These strategies are negative

other presentation, scare tactics, blaming the victim and delegitimation. These

strategies are applied in order to create group identity and to practise “othering

others”. One of the texts that involve discriminatory strategies is Gullet‟s “Wag The

Dog”. I use the theory of discriminatory strategies to reveal Gullet‟s thought about

other races. My purpose in writing this thesis is to make the readers aware of the

aim of a number of texts around them.

Text analysis has various purposes. Based on those purposes, we can find

different types of text such as recount, instruction or procedure, argument,

discussion, narrative, anecdote, report, explanation and description (Paltridge

109-111). In this thesis, I choose an argumentative text because it usually presents

arguments „to take a position on some issues, to justify, to persuade the reader or

listener that something is the case‟ (Paltridge 109). Therefore, by analyzing an

argumentative text, I can find out how a text producer presents his or her opinion to

(12)

In this thesis, I discuss a text which was made by Pastor Gullet. This text

was made when he was in jail for committing a crime. Pastor Morris Gullet is the

leader of Aryan Nations today, one of the country's best-known enclaves of

anti-Semitic and white nationalistic groups in the United States. The main belief of his

group is that white people are superior in every aspect to all others; therefore, he

believes that white people must secure their existence by not mixing with people

from other races (http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/aryan_nations.asp?xpicked=3&

item=an). The text was made on the 8th November 2008. It was written as Gullet‟s

reaction to the victory of President Barack Obama on the 4th November 2008. In

order to have appropriate data, I took this text from the official website of Aryan

Nations.

My topic belongs to text analysis and I discuss about how “the others” are

represented by Gullet. However, I specify the discussion of “the others” to the

representation of Barrack Obama, as the text was produced in reaction to his

presidency. I choose to discuss this because the text contains a number of

sentimental views on other races which lead us to the sense of othering others.

Therefore, the significance of my study is to make readers realize that a person can

create a text and apply discriminatory strategies in order to create certain

representation of someone.

Based on the significance of my study, I formulate the title of my thesis as

“Representation of Barack Obama through the Use of Discriminatory Strategies in

Gullet‟s Wag The Dog, A Text Analysis”. It is expected that my analysis of text will

contribute to the world of linguistics, especially text analysis.

(13)

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1. What discriminatory strategies are applied in Gullet‟s text to represent

Barack Obama?

2. In terms of discriminatory strategies, how does Gullet‟s text represent

Barack Obama?

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

1. To show what discriminatory strategies are applied in Gullet‟s text to

represent Barack Obama

2. To show how Gullet‟s text represents Barack Obama in terms of

discriminatory strategies.

1.4 METHOD OF RESEARCH

Firstly, I began the research for this thesis with library research by reading

some books related to text analysis, such as Flowerdew et al. Discriminatory news

dicourse: some Hong Kong data and Martin and Rose‟s Working With Discourse, to

be aware of the basic knowledge of text analysis and discriminatory strategies.

I browsed the Internet for the data. I also searched the Internet for

information about the ideology and some information related to Pastor Morris

Gullet. In order to get the appropriate data, I took most of the information from the

website of Aryan Nations (www.aryan-nations.org). Finally, I drew a conclusion from

(14)

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

The thesis is presented in four chapters. The first chapter is the Introduction,

which consists of the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problems, the

Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis.

Chapter Two consists of the Theoretical Framework, which is used to explain the

approaches to analyze the data. Chapter Three is the Analysis of the Text.

Subsequently, the analysis will be concluded in Chapter Four. At the end of the

(15)

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this thesis, I discuss one text which is entitled “Wag the Dog” by Pastor

Morris Gullet. As this text is produced as a response to Barack Obama‟s being

elected the president of the United States, I focus my discussion on the

representation of Barack Obama. The conclusion which can be obtained from the

analysis is that Barack Obama is negatively represented. Being different and as

someone from the black race, Barack Obama is metaphorically described as a curse,

a dog, and also ironically called as a shining glowing example of success. He is also

attributed as a left wing socialist and a hero for the continued “Hoax of equality”.

Three negative labels, an Arab, a non-Christian and a mongrel are attached to him to

create an identity for Barack Obama who does not belong to the white race.

The strategies of scare tactics are also applied in the text. By mentioning that

Barack Obama as a leader of the country is going to have policies that are harmful

for the whites such as redistribution of wealth and unending and blind support for

Israel, the text predicts the threat to the privileges and interests of the whites.

Besides, some threats to the public order and political stability are also mentioned,

such as the opposing political party Barack Obama is from and his policies that

(16)

representation of Barack Obama as he is potrayed as someone who contributes to

America‟s financial loss.

In the text, Barack Obama is also blamed as the party who has created bad

impacts on America. He introduces the idea of diversity and multiculturalism which

destroy the whites‟ purity as a race. His economic policy brings problems such as

crisis and debts to America. The United States‟ problems in the economy are also

mentioned through the use of distortion. The text informs us about Barack Obama‟s

presidential election which has spent a lot of money in conducting the campaign.

Some of Obama‟s policies are considered to burden America as well as the white

people, for example, allowing millions of illegal immigrants to enter America, the

bailout policy and the big debt can threaten the stability in America.

As the writer comes from an anti-Semitic organization, Obama‟s

representation in this text is also related to the Jews. Based on the text, Barack

Obama is reported to win his presidency with the help and support of the Jews. It is

shown from his honour to the Jews and his obedience to whatever the Jews‟ will is.

Thus, the text applies the delegitimation strategy to show that Barack Obama tries to

win the Jews by performing a Jewish ritual. This is considered against the Christian

law as the Jews are seen as anti-Christs. The text also refers to and quotes some

parts of the Bible to mediate and magnify voices opposed to the minority group.

Therefore, it can be concluded that having Barack Obama as the president of

the United States is the same as bringing America into a destruction. Barack Obama

can cause perilous economy, lack of employment, and low quality of education in

America. As a black person, his being the president of America is improper as he is

not from the holy race. He becomes a curse for America because his presidency

(17)

In terms of discriminatory strategies, I find that all strategies as put forward by

Flowerdew, et al. are applied in the text. Thus, the text is highly discriminative and

shows the writer‟s negative attitude toward the “other”. Of the four strategies, the

strategy most frequently applied is predicting threat to interest and privileges of the

dominant group. It is applied in four data. It is often used because the writer of the

text is the leader of a white nationalist group, a group that focuses on whites‟

importance in American society. Therefore, he tries to persuade his readers that his

opinion is correct by mentioning things that can keep the whites from being the

dominant race. The application of the strategy is right on the target as the text

appears in a website dedicated to maintain the whites‟ existence.

The instrument for analysis in this thesis is discriminatory strategies by

Flowerdew, et al. There are other linguistic instruments that can be used to deepen

the analysis of the text. On the other hand, the method of analysis used in this thesis

can also be applied to other texts. The text analysis can also be elaborated further to

be a discourse analysis by analysing other texts related to this text and applying

other theories such as Teun A. van Dijk„s critical discourse analysis theory to find the

writer‟s ideology.

(18)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

References:

Childers, Joseph and Gary Hentzi, ed. The Columbia Dictionary of Modern

Literary and Cultural Criticism. New York: Columbia University

Press, 1995.

Flowerdew, et al. Discriminatory News Discourse: Some Hong Kong Data.

London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2002.

Hall, Stuart. The Work of Representation. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 1997.

Paltridge, Brian. Making Sense of Discourse Analysis. Brisbane: Merino

Lithographics, 2000.

Electronic Publications Adl.com. 2005. 5 Sept 2010

<http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/aryan_nations.asp?xpicked=3&ite

m=an>

Dictionary.com. 2010. 5 October 2010

<http://dictionary.reference.com/>

Gullet, Morris L. “Wag the Dog.” 8 Nov 2008. Aryan Nations 88. 2010. Aryan

Nations. 20 Sept 2010.

<http://www.aryannations88.com/PASTORScorner2.htm>

Jally, Sut. “Stuart Hall Race – the Floating Signifier.” Media Education

(19)

41 Maranatha Christian University

<https://www.msu.edu/course/ams/280/hall3.html>

Maddox, Ben. “Virtual Travels: An Educational Design Journal.” 21 Jan 2008. 25

Sept 2010.

<http://blogs.nyu.edu/blogs/rbm2/ectblog/2008/01/hall_s_1997_repr

esentation_mea.html>

Merriam-Webster.com. 2010. 3 October 2010

<http://www.merriam-webster.com/>

Newton, Jay. “A Long Campaign, And a Changed Barack Obama.” TIME 2 Nov

2008. TIME. 2010. 12 Nov 2010

<http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1855677,00.html>

Oxford language dictionaries online. Electronic database. Oxford: Oxford

Universty Press, 2010. 3 October 2010

<http://oxforddictionaries.com/>

“The Montgomery Bus Boycott.” Alabama Moments in American History. ADAH.

11 January 2011

<http://www.alabamamoments.state.al.us/sec55det.html>

UN.org. 2008. 15 Nov 2010