( CNN ) -- Posters portraying President Obama as a witch doctor may be racist , organizers of Tea Party protests say , but they reflect anger about where he is leading the country . A Tea Party rally protester holds a sign with President Obama depicted as a witch doctor . The posters , showing Obama wearing a feather headdress and a bone through his nose , have been popping up in e-mails , on Web sites and at Tea Party protests for weeks . The image has stoked debate and cast attention on the rallies , which have drawn people Tea Party organizers describe as on the fringe and not representative of the overall movement . Their general viewpoint , leaders say , is that there 's been too much federal government intervention , particularly concerning health care and taxes . The witch doctor imagery is blatantly racist , critics contend . Others remind that presidents get made fun off all the time , and the election of a black president has only made racially charged political satire more sensitive . While not denying the crudeness of the image , Tea Party organizers stressed that those who carry the signs are a few `` bad apples . '' Watch how poster put spotlight on racism » . `` That [ witch doctor ] image is not representative at all of what this movement is about , '' said Joe Wierzbicki , a coordinator of the Tea Party Express , a three-week series of protests across the country . The anger the image portrays , however , `` says to me that a lot of people in this country are angry about the direction that the administration and Congress are taking us , '' he said . `` And you 're going to see a wide expanse of those people , '' he continued . `` Some are going to be more extreme . Most of them are going to be in the mainstream of American politics , as evidenced by Obama 's falling poll numbers . '' An incendiary image such as witch doctor detracts from any hope for a cohesive message at the rallies , where many appear not to be associated directly with either the Republican or Democratic parties , said W. Joseph Campbell , a media professor at American University . And previous infringements of good taste do n't make it acceptable to Photoshop the president into a witch doctor . `` It 's true that presidents before have had to endure some rough stuff , and there 's nothing wrong with satire , '' Campbell said . `` President Bush was morphed into Hitler . That was not excusable either . Just because it 's happened in the past does n't mean there is n't a line and it ca n't be crossed . '' As a politics and African-American studies professor at Princeton University , Melissa Harris-Lacewell typically advocates discussion about the racist overtones in images or language bandied in public discourse . `` But I 'm concerned in the age of Obama , too many of our public conversations about policy have been limited to a kind of investigative effort to determine whether opposition to him is based on race or substantive disagreement , '' she told CNN . `` The problem is , it can be both . '' Harris-Lacewell points out that Obama made his African father a part of his campaign narrative . Now his critics are trying to mock that heritage . `` This witch doctor image is racist in a very specific way because of his proximity to Africa , '' she said . `` You can imagine there would have easily been a time when [ Jewish New York Mayor Michael ] Bloomberg would have been portrayed in anti-Semitic ways . You can go back to political cartoons when Irish Democrats were mocked , Italians were lampooned . '' Spelman College history professor William Jelani Cobb , who has written extensively about race and politics , points out the original Boston Tea Party was driven by colonists who frequently declared that they had been `` enslaved '' by the king of England . The men who led that revolt dressed up as Native Americans when they dumped the tea into Boston Harbor in 1773 . Hard to pin down and a seeming catch-all for general anger at the government , the modern Tea Party movement is grounded the belief that the federal government should stay out of state business . But `` states ' rights is also an argument with a history tied to racial segregation during the civil rights ' era , '' Harris-Lacewell said . And so it comes full circle . Cobb said Obama 's election has also rekindled the historic rancor some whites feel against successful blacks . `` There is lots of connective tissue here , '' said Cobb . `` The Atlanta race riot of 1906 was partly about this . The upsurge of riots at the beginning of the 20th century was driven in part by the fact that blacks were perceived to be moving up in society -- at the expense of whites . The Atlanta race riot , which left 25 black people and two white people dead , was sparked by a series of false news reports about black people committing crimes , inciteful rhetoric from white politicians and an overall fear by whites that blacks were starting to make progress socially and politically in the south . `` Now we have a black president , which means , on its most basic level , that a black man has more power than any single white citizen in this country , '' Cobb said . `` Whether people want to admit it or not , I suspect the Tea Party crowd believes that the currency of whiteness has been devalued . '' iReport.com : Share your thoughts on race and politics . There 's another wrinkle to the witch doctor controversy . Obama was mocked by some critics as the `` magical negro '' during the campaign because he was perceived to be a solve-all to nation 's problems . `` This is an echo of the theme during the campaign when his opponents would ask 'Who is Barack Obama ? '' Cobb said . `` At that point , it was part of a somewhat cynical attempt to depict him as vaguely foreign and unknown , '' Cobb said . `` But now that he has control over actual policies , those views appear to have hardened , metastasized into something more vitriolic . `` Caricature is part of politics , but racist stereotyping is n't . ''
Posters show President Obama with headdress , bone in his nose . Witch doctor imagery suggests larger anger at government , Tea Party organizer says . Expert : If movement wants to make a point , there is a better way . Presidents long caricatured , but that does n't mean ' a line ca n't be crossed '