Richard Cebull

So what?

I'm having a hard time seeing what the big flap is about this.

Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull apologized Wednesday for sending a racist email about President Obama from his office to a few friends.  "To say it's inappropriate and stupid is an extreme understatement," Cebull said Wednesday afternoon in his courthouse chambers in Billings.

My first thought was, "Everyone is having such a fit, what was the joke?"  It took awhile but I did find it.  Are you ready, brace yourself. The Tribune said the email text read as follows:

"Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.
"A little boy said to his mother, 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?' His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'"

Why is this racist?  I really want to know.  Is it racist because it mentions race?  Is it automatically racist because it is about the president?

I get why its in bad taste.   Commentators aren't saying Judge Cebull should be removed from office over "bad taste" or even slander.  They are saying he's a racist.  Forwarding an email to 7 people "proves" it.  I don't see how.  I also don't see why he should be kicked out of office over this.  After all there is currently siting on the US Supreme Court a judge, who refuses to recluse herself on a case, even though she was one of the lawyers who worked on legal basis for the for the Obama Care law.  In my mind that is a much larger breach of ethics, and an impeachable offense.  Yet we don't hear a peep out of the media on that.

There’s this comment on Judge Cebull’s Wikipedia entry:

Cebull acknowledged that the content of the email was racist, adding that he did not consider himself racist because he hardly ever goes to Klan meetings anymore.

Why is it OK to take a pot shot at the judge, but not the man of questionable, everything, including his origin, now in the White House? Is it racist to still call it the "White House" with a half black illegal occupant?