The Inevitable Public Outcry over the Post's Chimp Cartoon
When the New York Post published a cartoon last Wednesday that depicted a chimpanzee, shot dead by two white cops, with a caption suggesting the chimp had written the stimulus bill, outcry was just seconds away.
The next day, an enormous protest, attended by folks like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now and Al Sharpton, was staged outside of Rupert Murdoch's News Corps building, at 6th Avenue and 48th Street in Midtown Manhattan. And over the weekend, blogs and traditional media outlets were abuzz with talk about the incendiary cartoon.
Some found the cartoon blatantly racist, with the chimp an obvious stand-in for President Barack Obama. Others said the opposite, and everyone needs to just lighten up. One blogger for MotherJones.com, a left-leaning news magazine, joked that the cartoon shouldn't be offensive, unless you're an ape. "Sometimes a joke about monkeys is, well, just a joke about monkeys," he wrote.
Maybe so, but even though a cigar is, sometimes, just a cigar, said Freud, somehow I doubt it would be perceived as such if a cartoon existed depicting one pointed towards towards a woman's crotch by an absent-minded psychoanalyst.
Others have argued that even George W. Bush was often likened to a monkey, rendering the charge of racism moot. Need I remind these people that Bush was likened to a monkey because he shares a name with and bears an uncanny resemblance to Curious George? Sorry, but it's not the same thing.
What shocks me is not the controversy that's erupted over this cartoon, or even the fact that someone drew it. It's that, despite what the cartoonist's intentions were, or how many ways to interpret it there may be, the damn thing made it past numerous editorial desks and got published in one of New York's most widely read papers. Surely someone at the Post has the wherewithal to know that if that cartoon were published, this would happen.
Or maybe not.
[Image: The cartoon in question, by Sean Delonas]
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I have a post on my blog that discusses this issue. Check it out: http://ricoexplainsitall.squarespace.com/politcs-economy/2009/2/22/sometimes-a-cartoon-is-more-than-a-cartoon.html
Comment #1 is very good. It makes no excuses. Click on the link.
I agree. Commenter #1's post is excellent and worth reading. He takes the same tack as I do in my post, but goes more in-depth and has a personal stake in the issue that I don't: he's black.
Do read his post. It's worth your time.
I disagree. Commenter #1 is just as guilty as big Al the opportunist.
The cartoon was not directed at Obama. Obama did not "write" the bill. Hell he and the rest of the nuts in this government didnt even READ the bill.
He may be trying to direct people to his blog, but he makes enough sense in what he wrote that I have no problem with that.
As to the matter of who "wrote" the bill, no, Obama did not "write" it -- as in with a pen and paper in the privacy of his own office.
But he is credited with its drafting, as it was drafted under his direction, and he is perceived by the country as the writer of the bill. That's why the cartoon is offensive: because most people who see it will think "Chimp = Obama."
Surely someone at the Post had to know this would happen.
And what makes you so confident as to say that neither Obama nor anyone else in his administration "even read" the bill?
I'd like to know how you're so privy to such inside information, unless you're just making it up in a shallow, juvenile attempt to drive the partisan wedge even deeper.
Perhaps you just like to hate.
Obama didn't write draft or anything else. Get a clue. The bill is written by congress who truly are no better than a bunch of chimps, especially Pelosi.
All Obama did was sign the bill which puts his stamp of approval on it.
The race card is so over used that it just makes things worse.
BTW its no secret they did not read the bill. It was complete with handwritten notes and all at midnight and voted on the next morning. Theres no way the dopes in this government or anyone else could read 1000+ pages even if they satyed up all night.
Instead of dishing out incendiary, angry statements like "Congress is no better than a bunch of chimps" and "get a clue," try making a reasoned argument.
If you want to persuade people, you can't do it by making statements that only people who already agree with you will agree with.
Yeah not chimps but pigs.
Taking our children's and children's children's money to support the liberal agenda is disgusting.
These people are ruuning this country into the ground. Obama won on change but has done nothing to change things. Instead its the same old democrat taxation and irresponsible spending.