Late Saturday night, as I searched for some historical images for a new history book I’m illustrating, I saw that Google had finally honored farm labor icon Cesar Chavez with their “Google Doodle.”
My first thought (and tweet) was, “Brace yourselves for anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant, anti-Cesar Chavez racist hate from internet Christians on their Holy Day.” Faster than you could pull up a thousand images of the Mexican-American hero on Google Images, the harsh comments started rolling in.
As I called it, a few hateful internet Christians declared jihad on Google because it’s not a Jesus Christ Doodle or their main religious figure, the Easter Bunny (historical image below).
How else would one remember a global religious celebration that’s been going on for a couple of thousand years? Somewhere out there one of these folks is thinking “Cesar Chavez?? Why aren’t they honoring Jesus Christ? It’s his birthday too!”
The Internet Christians’ church is apparently a search engine. Holy Christ!
Honestly, I’m surprised at the strong backlash against the Cesar Chavez Doodle on Google since there’s usually so little racial resentment online. Hashtag Sarcasm.
Since many of the hateful tweets attacked Google for celebrating “strongman Cesar Chavez”, I soon realized many of these genius zealots were slightly confused, and had misdirected their religious hatred towards the wrong brown man, recently deceased and not yet risen Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. So far, noone is upset that the boxer Julio Cesar Chavez was honored, but stupidity runs deep.
The first thing that tipped me off to the fact that right-wingers don’t really pay attention to the news, or “facts,” were tweets saying that Cesar Chavez (a well-known Christian activist who renounced material wealth) had “died a billionaire.” Uh, OK. Time to put down the internets and pick up a book. And Facebook doesn’t count.
Some complained that Cesar Chavez not only wasn’t Jesus, but on the Google Doodle looked different. I thought he looked much more like the historical Jesus than say, the British Surfer Jesus on History Channel’s miniseries The Bible.
Hey, dummies, Cesar would want you to go celebrate Easter and get off the Internet, seriously. Lost in all the hateful outrage and confusion with a certain Venezuelan leader, is that Jesus was the OG Commie. You know, help the poor, renounce materialism, share the wealth… Could he have been Kenyan?
So, last time I checked Google was a search engine, not a church, although I do worship it occasionally for the wisdom it spouts just when I need it. But they can honor whomever they want, and if a couple of Easter egg graphics make Christians feel all spiritual and such, I’d advise them to reconsider their religion. The Bible does not teach us to hate gays, or to worship a Google Doodle. It’s true, I Googled it.
The angry Christians who are threatening to boycott Google because of their anger will go right back on Monday to Googling porn.
I want to wish a Happy Easter to all the Cesar Chavez haters because Cesar would have wished them the same thing.
And to ignorant right-wingers, the ones who don’t pay attention, I want to wish them a “Happy Hugo Chavez Day.”
Screencap via HuffPo Latino Voices.