Because you needed a lecture

There is nothing so obnoxious about "progressives" as their smug sense of superiority, as Kyle Moore demonstrates with a pompous lecture about "racist iconography."

It seems that an enterprising vendor of sock monkeys -- a common sort of stuffed toy -- decided that, by putting the toy in a blue suit and pinning an "Obama" button on the lapel, he could cash in on the election season:

TheSockObama™ is hot, hot, HOT on the campaign trail and needs your support more than ever. America’s love affair with TheSockObama™ deepens with only a few months to go before the election, so we can’t waste any time.
We don’t get enough of him at his public speaking events. Now you can have your very own TheSockObama™ 24/7!
Prop him up, pose him, squeeze him. Take him with you everywhere you go.
Fall in love with your chosen candidate all over again.

Clearly, the merchant is pitching this $29.99 children's toy to people who like Obama, but this doesn't prevent Kyle Moore from lecturing:

Simian depiction and derision of black people is nothing new. Indeed, just the history behind such a practice is enough to ink it into the vast racist lexicon. But the specific mechanics as to why it is such an abhorrent racist practice should be lost on no one.
In the universal present sense, it’s a matter of subjugation through dehumanization, a practice that has its historical roots that crawl all the way back to when the first white person saw the first non white people and called them savages. In a way, such subjugation, the intellectual practice of reasoning that a person can be less than a person, partially justified invading a people’s land, butchering them, enslaving them, etc.
Why not? They’re savages or monkeys. Update the practice to a time when there are mixed societies, where laws should provide people of all color with the same rights and priveleges, again the imagery and the underlying intent behind it continues to justify heinous behavior against people of color.

Never mind that Obama is a Harvard Law graduate and a U.S. Senator whom no one would mistake for a monkey, or that this is a children's toy advertised as an expression of "America's love affair" with the candidate.

Kyle Moore must demonstrate his moral superiority to you, by lecturing you about "subjugation through dehumanization," as if you are too stupid to know better. And if you don't share Moore's histrionic indignation? You're probably trying to "justify heinous behavior against people of color."

You insensitive bigots see a cuddly stuffed toy; enlightened people like Kyle see an incitement to lynching.

This election campaign will quickly become tiresome, if for the next 140 days these lecturing liberals are going to seize on every perceived slight against the Democratic nominee as a pretext to harangue Americans about subconscious racism.

UPDATE: The monkey merchants reply to a liberal blogger who sent them an e-mail:

Thank you for your email and your forthright feedback. No, this is not a joke, and our intention is not to offend.
Our objective is three fold:
1) Provide a cuddly toy for the millions of Obama fans to take a little piece of their favorite candidate home with them.
2) Have a means for children to become a part of the political process with a cuddly plush toy all their own.
3) Contribute a pivotal article of presidential election memoribilia.

Lame. A true capitalist would answer:

"We don't care whether you are offended or not, you Marxist scum. We're all about profit. As P.T. Barnum said, there is no such thing as bad publicity, and if being demonized as racists helps us sell these toys at $29.99 a pop, who cares? (Especially since these toys are being made by child labor in Malaysian sweatshops and our net cost is about 79 cents per unit.) We hope you'll keep up these idiotic protests long enough to attract the attention of major television networks. Then we'll be rich, rich, rich, you socialist fool!"

Greed is a far more humane motive than hate.