The owner of a Georgia restaurant is being accused of racism for selling T-shirts that compare Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to cartoon character Curious George.

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Protesters in front of Mulligan's Bar and Grill in Marietta, Ga., on Tuesday said owner Mike Norman had gone too far depicting the Democratic front-runner as a monkey.

Protesters confronted Norman and asked him to stop selling the shirts.

Norman said he is surprised the shirts have drawn so much attention. He said he finds nothing wrong with using the image of Curious George on the shirts.

"I saw the cartoon on TV, and I looked, and this was the ears and the hairline, and the big smile, and Obama has all three," Norman said.

But the comparison was so offensive to several civil rights leaders that it led them to organize the protest in front of the restaurant.

"A monkey eating a banana, that's a historical stereotype of how African-Americans have been depicted on a number of occasions," said the Rev. Dwight Graves.

Some of Norman's customers came to his defense. They are used to seeing provocative messages on the sign out front, some of which target illegal immigrants.

"We don't need these things to happen any more," said Adelina Nicholls of the Latino Alliance for Human Rights. "Not with Latinos, not with African-Americans, not with any kind of immigrants."

Norman said he has sold out of his stack of 50 T-shirts.

"There is a contingent of folks -- red, yellow, white and black -- (who) walk around wanting a reason to be mad, to get their feelings hurt," Norman said. "If I did that, I'm sorry."

Norman said he was planning to donate the money from the shirts to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, but MDA officials said they do not want Norman's money.