This article interested me as over the years I received lots of Bush/Monkey picture comparisons via email. I was even surprised I never heard more outrage about the continual comparison; felt sorry for his wife. Our free society always has ribbed Presidents and always will. Unless, that's what you wish to tackle-cruel,political satire across the board for every politician- stop addressing our current President as different. He's tough, he's strong, he's our leader and these things are part of the package, unfortunately.

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 I have already sent a response regarding the Monkey book placed among the President Obama books. Now I am rethinking that the store's lack of responsibility should be questioned further.  I now agree that B&N was very irresponsible to allow anyone without authority to display anything that does not uphold the integrity of the store. Therefore I must reconsider my acceptance of what seem to be a flimsy excuse for a lack of vigilance of who has authority over the show cases. Therefore, I am in support of boycotting B&N for their carelessness in the handling of their showcase.

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 Okay, I *MIGHT* buy that a customer pulled a fast one at this store. But the last quote by Keating -- "...Once we discovered this, four days later, it was immediately removed."

Come on now, it took you FOUR days to notice the display or to take it down????????????

Whatever, I won't be shopping at Barnes & Noble

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 If their premise is true, that a customer did this (and I can easily believe that because it is very easy to access those displays), then why in the world would we boycott them? How do they deserve blame for this? If a racist statement is painted on a subway train, do we boycott the subway?

I understand investigating it, and publicizing it, but I do not see how we can jump to blaming B&N for it, given their denial and their apparently quick action to fix it once noted.

I mean - in that situation - what *should* they have done?

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 I was appalled by this display.  I feel strongly that Barnes & Nobles should apologize...I don't believe a customer would risk changing their window display.

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 This is nothing like the New York Post cartoon. Barnes and Noble was the victim here. The company said it is taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again. What more do you want?

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 The essence of this issue is that too many people refuse to admit that black people have a right to be furious at stereotypes that never seem to go away because all people are afraid to really talk about feelings, economic differences, class hierarchies, and diversity of thought...Why can't B & N accept as valid the outrage and do something actively to generate dialogues in their stores about why they exist and how to break them down...stop being defensive, accept responsibility and move toward a better place

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 That makes it even worse.  They allowed this display to be in the window for four days before it was even noticed.  If I was running a business, at least every morning if not every night I would check out my storefront.  If that is not a store (corporate) policy; they should consider making it one.  This is unacceptable.  I am sorry that I did not see this, before I purchased the Steve Harvey book from one of their stores.  No more will I visit this store.

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 I am amazed that it took Barnes and Nobles' management and employees four days to discover this offensive display. Was the subject of the their main store dislay "invisible" to them as they walked out their door or was the association of a monkey with an African American so "natural" to them, they did not see the inherent foul play in the display? In any event, I am sure the email campaign caught their attention because many people of many ethnic and racial backgrounds who received the email were persuaded to stop giving our business to B&N.

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 In this instance, I believe that Barnes and Noble had no part in placing the monkey book among the books of President Obama.  I know first hand that there are a LOT of people who are still angry that he won in the first place.  This is the sort of thing that gives them a small taste of satisfaction.  A white friend of mine received a cartoon of Barack Obama shining Sarah Palin's shoes.  So there are many images out there that we are not even aware of.  I encourage everyone to let friends/family/co-workers know that this is wrong and we are no longer going to keep quiet about it.  If change is going to be more than just a buzzword, we have to be proactive.  This country can be so much better.

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 I don't think that B&N is trying to pass off responsibility if they truly didn't know, but I'm surprised such a major retailer isn't having someone check the display window more regularly.

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 you know, Barnes and Noble as a corporation are not stupid. And placing that combination of books in a window is stupid.
I could believe easily that some customer or teenage  employee thought it would be funny.
They removed it. You can't hold them accountable. You cannot ask any more than removing the display, and if it was an employee, the employee.

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 OK... I believe B&N when they say they would not knowingly allow this to happen.  Speaking from my "I" voice, I have always found them to be a big supporter of Diversity and very inclusive of their products and offerings.  I think it makes perfect sense that a customer could and would do this. I am offended by anyone who would do this to a public display, but a boycott of B&N is overreacting.

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 I would like to see a follow-up story saying what B & N will do to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future. Now that this idea is out there, don't you think we will see it happening again at other bookstores in some form or fashion?

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 Racism will always exist in the hearts and minds of racists' people. How sad is it that here, where President Obama's story is possible, here, where Africans were made to be slaves, here, where our blood was shed and still is in defense of our nation, that we, African Americans, Blacks, Colored, etc. are still not respected nor acknowledged for continuous contributions to our nation. Consumers, organizations must hold B&N accountable. Sot, it took them four days to notice this display. Yeah, right?

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 While the "the Butler did it" defense is believable, if not plausible, I am willing to grant the store as much. How the display could stay up for four days before being corrected, or rethought is tough to fathom.

On the other hand, yes it is possible that the book with the chimp on the cover just happened to be placed in the center of the display by a "customer", or maybe even a cleaning contractor over night. My problem with this theory is that usually the cash registers are always between the customers and the display windows.
This is indeed, "a puzzle, inside of an inigma, all wrappedup in a mystery".

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 I'm sorry - they can blame a customer if they want to, but there is no excuse for it taking that long to discover - and how did a customer have access to the display window without anyone noticing.  I saw a similar thing at a store in SC, where on an in-store display there was an Obama book next to a book with a monkey on the cover - I thought it was just an example of an incredibly poor judgement and lack of thought on someone's part, but now I'm beginning to wonder.  

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 I wouldnt doubt for a minute that some racist zealot slipped that book into the display; an act of guerilla political action if there ever was.   I've never known B & N to be anything but good stewards of the public trust and I'm as cynical as they come.  I wouldn't blame B & N; thats a straw man.

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 Why would people believe in corporate racism? I do think that the NY Post cartoon was inappropriate and offensive, but may have not been purposely so. As for the B&N issue, would it make sense for a large corporation to change their advertisement to something offensive and obviously racist when it would decrease their sales? Corporations only care about one color and it happens to be green. This is by design. The display window is obviously the work of a person, not a business. It only takes one person to drop a book in a display. I am African American and I do not believe that this is something to blame B&N for except that it took so long for them to notice. Boycotting would be stupid in my opinion. I think we are so conditioned to be offended that we forget to analyze the situation.

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 I can understand the initial outrage one might feel when seeing the "monkey" book in a display of OUR first Black President, but any rationally thinking person should have questioned the accusations that claimed it was the responsibility of that B&N and/or the national company. To this very day I know what the sting of racism and bigotry feels like, but that does not mean that I will start screaming 'bloody murder' and immediately start demanding resignations and boycotts every time an incident like this occurs.  I refuse to act like the "monkey" that they want me to be by displaying rage and anger BEFORE taking the time to understand the situation.  Too often when things like this occur, OUR folks start sending viral emails across the world demanding boycotts and such...BUT how many fo OUR folks do you think actually follow through with that action.  I am NOT saying that we should ever ignore things like this, but we must stop doing things like getting angry at silliness only because that is what we are expected to do.  Whose to say that the initial email wasn't sent by a white person, for instance.  And how do we know that a Brotha or Sista didn't put that book in the window just to "start something."

Unchecked reactions perpetuate ignorance...ESPECIALLY in professional environments...

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 Jumping on this kind of distraction will keep us and our President from solving the real problems he inherited.  Racism is a cancer in America and just like it's counterpart in the human body, we have yet to find a cure.  However, if we ignore the racists as long as they are non-violent, and focus on helping President Obama address the substantive issues of the day, we will make progress.  I want Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Steele and their like minded friends to continue their discordant drum beat.  For if they do, I believe there will be a ground swell of citizens: Rebublicans, Democrats, Independents, etc., who will say, I may not agree with President Obama, but America is better than the rhetoric of the negativites.

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 I am an African American male. I spend lots of time in the B&N store in my home town. I enjoy the coffee shop and the most of all the books. I think the management of B&N would be just plain stupid to condone such behaivor. The store manager where I go is an African American female. If the management is so narrow minded than we had better start from square one.  

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 Wow,

In the minds of B & N management in Coral Gables Florda, 4 days is an "immediate" time frame to remove a book from an advertising stand? Its no wonder the management of many corporations is faltering these days!!!

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 I'm of the opinion that if you ignore it, it will go away.  We have more important things to worry about than whether or not someone thinks the President is a monkey.  We should be at a point where words don't offend....especially in this instance.  So some ignorant person/people drew a pitcure/put a book in a display window.  Does it take awy from his achievements?  Let's move on.  I think constant coverage and highlighting ignorance only perpetuates it.

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Exposing racism is not promoting it -- and I think the person who took the picture did a very good job of questioning the entire Barnes & Noble Company.  

I found their response to be weak to the point of insult. It did not match the magnitude of the insult of this racist act and thereby exposed a corporate lack of empathy. Competitors with empathy will overtake companies without empathy -- every time.

There is no white analogue to the insult of comparing Black people to monkeys. Nothing reaches that level of insult or the intent behind it. White people involved with slavery regularly compared Black people to monkeys in order make their business in slavery appear more acceptable by denigrating and denying the humanity of the people they enslaved.

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 The window display in the mall near me is open to anyone walking by, therefore it is plausable that anyone could have placed the book in the window. My questions is why did the person take a picture of it and send it to everyone they know? They should have walked into the store and questioned why the book was there. All they did was promote racism by sending the picture.

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 My initial thought was anger, but once I calmed down I felt managment at the store was negligent in not checking their property daily.  Four days is a long time.  However, perhaps B&N may want to take this opportunity to display more books on prejudices, biases and our lack of sensitiity.

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 As much as I try to remain positive and give the benefit of doubt to B&N, it is very, very difficult to believe that someone did not notice something of this magnitude. I am certain that we all have been attracted to  businesses because of the window display. It speaks volumes for that business. In business, a store front window is not there for the employees to see out of. It is there for potential customers to see into. To attract, display and entice traffic to that business. To say that, of all the traffic throughout a 4 day/96 hour period; (employees,management,delivery personnel, and customers)did not notice something of that magnitude is absurd and preposterous. There is more to this than what B&N is leading us to believe. I wonder if the entire staff is still gainfully employed? If something derogatory in nature was displayed on the owner or founder of B&N, would it have taken days before it was removed. We need not kid ourselves, B&N is reprehensible for this pathetic act.  

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 I am always amazed that when one black individual in this society exceed the majority's perception of black success, in this case the Presidency fear appears to render some impotent of logical thinking. I do not believ that some customer took the time to add to the B&N display. The equation is simple people of consciousness should simply stop buying book at B&N. It is really stunning that these folks do not have brain cells that are working with any degree of clarity, or evolution if they did they would understand that the monkey represent us all. If we do not as people with values respond when these fools strike the hate continues to spread unchecked. Racism is alive and well here in the good old USA.

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 Come on-- Four days!Inexcusable!
This may be the work of one racist on staff, but to allow the pic to be hang that long -- B&N should throw themselves on the sword Big Time, saying, 'We Totally Screwed Up and we hope the public will be charitable enough to accept our apology'. Anything less is useless. To those dismissing this outrage with,'We have more important things to worry about'-- Oh really?! Do you have a Black child who lives in that town who walked by that store and saw that window?! It's easy to dismiss the damage done when you can't relate.

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 No one had the courage in 4 days to remove the monkey book?? Why do we need approval to defeat racism, evil, hate....

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 As a college administrator I was quite disguisted with the display of the monkey book around our 44th President of the United States,Barack Obama.  However,my first instict was to realize that there are just ignorant individals in this world.  However, it is my opinion that Barnes and Nobles is responsibile for whatever is displayed in their store.  If this display was posted for four days it tells me that they were not very observant.  This is benign neglect and shouldnot be tolerated.  At the end of the day, history has been made.

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 B&N should be encouraged to host a series on racism and invite authors who've written great books on the subject.  Howard Zinn, Cornel West, Helen Zia, Rinku Sen, john powell, manuel pastor, deepak bhargava are only a few of the many authors of color who are very articulate on this issue.

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 As an African-American, I am distressed that more time, blogging, and outrage have been spent on the individual, clandestine B&N window incident than the blatantly racist, corporately-sanctioned NY Post incident.  What does that tell you?  We continue to major in the minors! We need to stop talking about it and start being about it!  For God's sake, find Black-owned and operated bookstores to patronize. Enough is enough!! Can we get on with the business at hand?  How about quality education for our children, affordable health care, jobs, housing, AIDS?  Where is our collective outrage on these issues? If I get just one more email from a friend asking me to boycott B&N, I think I'll puke.  We have given the individual who committed the act far too much media attention.  We need to be more selective about choosing our battles so that we don't lose the war.  Racism in America has not ceased simply because we have an African-American President.  The election of President Barack Obama served notice to covert racists that America wants a change.  As a result, the covert operatives have been forced to step up their game. Let's not lose sight of the fact that the real war is going on in the Congress and the Senate.  Let's be more vigilant about what really matters.  Monkey book aside, President Barack and First Lady Michelle are STILL IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!

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 Lets think about this  . . . Was it wrong to have the monkey display?  YES.  Was it a corporate decision?  I highly doubt it.  It was most likely an employee or customer trying to be funny, which it is not.   Now to take four days to remove the monkey book, that falls on the manager of that particular store -- Not on B&N.  Racist people will do whatever they what, whenever they want to make a statement.  So, Do I blame B&N?  No.  I blame the specific manager of the store.

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 I think it's quite sad that someone would do this given the recent issue with the ny post. I find it hard to believe that people walk past that store all the time and for 4 days, not one person mentioned anything to an employee. I think we all know how fast emails like this spread. I do not believe that this book was in the display for 4 days. My suspicion is that the display had been up for 4 days and at some point much later, someone added the book.
While I find it offensive that someone would do this, I also think we are reacting to it exactly how they wanted us to react. Perhaps we should treat this like I would respond to my 2 year old. Praise the good behavior and ignore the bad behavior. Eventually the bad behavior goes away.

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 I am from Cabinda, Southern Africa. These are some of the many problems that still shutter the american society. Racism is still out there and fully alive. It has simply taken different forms and shapes. I went to school in the US and I witnesses many racist attitudes. Unfortunately some US citizens tend to take this very same attitudes in many overseas locations in corporate world. The government needs to take a new and different attitude in addressing racist atittudes or remarks. It must be tough, strong, immediate with visible message/punishment.

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 To address the comparison of the satires depicting Bush as a monkey...

There is one slight difference.  The difference is the history behind the image for a particular group of people in this country.  It's like the N word.  I do not think it's much to ask for a little common sense.  Until Bush is compared to a pig then I personally am not buying that this act was not a big deal.  

And it is also striking that a store would not take the time to make sure the displays are at least neat.  I cannot believe for one second that they don't go around and check to make sure that things are in place.  Those displays are there to attract your attention so you will buy more products.  So you mean to tell me they don't care about what makes them money?  That's bull. It wouldn't be so bad if it was a day or even two but more than that speaks volumes.  

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This is proof that we live in an age where there are individuals who are chronically mentally and emotionally stagnated in their own lives. This is also proof that bias behavior is not acceptable on any level. Further we as individuals need to take more responsibility when faced with bias behavior. For example, if I would have seen the book on the display I would have just took one of my two hands and removed the book off the shelf and replaced it with another Obama book that was not already on display. Lastly, we as individuals, consumers, and human beings must be willing to be the example by using our own two hands to make positive change that would enhance the world around us. I leave you with my own quote below:"Point at a fallen tree and everyone will look, but try to move a falling tree and people will help you push.".