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Quote: from I never forget at 10:49 pm on Nov. 14, 2008

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I wouldn't dismiss it as just a joke.

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Why not?  When somebody says "I'm gonna kill you" after you played a joke on them, would you ever consider taking the statement literally?

Obviously the analogy doesn't totally fit as Obama hasn't done anything personally to the man, but the fact that his statement isn't to be taken literally still applies.  You can see this by his vocabulary - notably, how he says hunters (instead of something more general, which he does so to create an image) and goes as far as to use the word nigger (which, if it were to be serious, wouldn't use such frivolous terms).

Not saying, though, that it shouldn't be looked into with some precaution, but that it shouldn't be overblown at the same time.  Doing so gets us into the whole "guilty until proven innocent" mindset, as if he can prove his intent over something which has yet to happen.

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Like I said, I wouldn't take it too seriously.

Why would I personally not dismiss it as a simple little joke? The blatant encouragement of racism, and attacking against the future president. I wouldn't say it's just a little joke. Saying Obama is going to make reparations mandatory, or something a long the lines of that. Which would be silly, maybe as a little joke. However this was encouraging murder, based on race. That's why I personally wouldn't brush it off as a stupid little joke.

However I wouldn't call treason on him, and put him on trial either. I'm just saying I wouldn't call it a little joke.

Now like others have said. The school has a reputation to maintain, and potentially improve. If they were to simply ignore it at this point it would look like they're in favor of this. If they were to do that, well that would be horrible publicity, and would make the school, it's staff, and it's students as a whole look racist. I personally know that it was just one person, but that'd probably be how the media, and the majority would view it.