Recipe: Racist Pudding

[Twin Fist]

anyone that thinks the cartoon is racist is, well, looking for racism or needs to lay off the pipe.

 

[Empty Hands]

Yeah, calling President Bush a chimp for eight years was the height of intellectual discourse, calling President Obama a chimp, even without, you know, actually calling him one, is RACIST. Your double standards might be entertaining were they not so idiotically arbitrary.

It's not a double standard. STOP BEING DISINGENUOUS! Really, it's embarrassing, and makes you look really stupid. You know damn well that calling black men apes has a long, racist history.

 

[grydth]

I don't like this particular cartoon, but only because it plays off a private tragedy where an innocent woman was horribly maimed and the police attacked. Sean Delonis has produced some scathingly funny cartoons in the past, most especially the ones targeting the Clintons. This one missed.

I voted for President Obama and I wish President Obama success in pulling this country out of the whirlpool we're going down in... so I don't agree with Delonis on this topic politically, either.

But was Delonis being a racist here? Of course not. You'd have to believe that not only was Delonis comparing President Obama to a monkey but also that Delonis was advocating violence against the President.... and if that were even remotely implied, you can bet that the Secret Service would've been at the Post's offices long before the first screech hit the media.

AG Eric Holder was just complaining that Americans are too cowardly to discuss race.... hey Eric, here's precisely the reason why!

 

[JadecloudAlchemist]

As Empty Hands said here is a slang word proving his point in history.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=porch+monkey

 

[Empty Hands]

As Empty Hands said here is a slang word proving his point in history.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=porch+monkey

Nonsense! You're just whining.

 

[Archangel M]

Hmm..perhaps we can roll some issues from the "Americans are Cowards" thread into this one huh?

Anything that could possibly be seen as racist must be eliminated regardless of the intent (unless its about a Republican)?

But I do agree, what idiot editor couldn't see this storm coming? I think it's possible that it could be an intentional publicity stunt.

 

[Carol]

I have not seen these before; however, your point is well-taken. FWIW I think the other cartoons are crude at best. They are at least honest in that the authors are forthright about whom they are satirizing. The Post cartoon resorts to subterfuge, which the Post's editor has hidden behind in defending his decision.

It would be interesting though, if the Post editor had said, "We have a Constitutional right to editorialize however we want, and readers have the right to tell us to STFU. We stand behind our cartoonist and our decision to publish the article." That's the entire Freedom of the Press argument. That's the defense, but they're being totally disingenuous, when they say, 'The monkey is not Obama, it's some other guy... whom the police should shoot.'

The ball has to be in the court of consumers to hold their media accountable. Personally, I shan't purchasing the Post anytime soon.

I agree with you strongly about consumers holding the media accountable.

Personally I have no issue with someone not liking a particular politician, or their ideas. I can also see why some see the depiction of a gorilla is being racist...its not like such a comparison hasn't come up before in a major market.

But to me it is just as disingenuous (if not more so) for a person who is unmistakably a black woman to be depicted in such a denigrating manner. I think its even more telling that many folks haven't seen these images or heard the outrage. Michelle Obama took a very active role campaigning and politicizing during the election season, if a cartoonist were to refer to her as one of Scarlett O'Hara's slaves or a submissive parrot to (say) Rahm Emanual, there would be a loud mainstream reaction....and not just a muted protest whose most prominent national exposure was an editorial on FoxNews.com. :asian:

 

[Twin Fist]

just because something CAN be taken in a racist way doesnt mean it was MEANT in a racist way

and the fact is, race baiters like Sharpton ALWAYS look to take something as a racial slur, so they dont have much credibility with me

 

[Kreth]

just because something CAN be taken in a racist way doesnt mean it was MEANT in a racist way

and the fact is, race baiters like Sharpton ALWAYS look to take something as a racial slur, so they dont have much credibility with me

Agreed. I thought it was pretty obvious that the artist was comparing the authors of the stimulus plan to the proverbial monkeys eventually randomly banging out the complete works of Shakespeare.

 

[crushing]

Agreed. I thought it was pretty obvious that the artist was comparing the authors of the stimulus plan to the proverbial monkeys eventually randomly banging out the complete works of Shakespeare.

The chimp the police shot was pampered, dined on filet mignon, and drank out of wine glass; the comparison to any number of politicians/lobbyists is compelling.

 

[Gordon Nore]

But to me it is just as disingenuous (if not more so) for a person who is unmistakably a black woman to be depicted in such a denigrating manner. I think its even more telling that many folks haven't seen these images or heard the outrage. Michelle Obama took a very active role campaigning and politicizing during the election season, if a cartoonist were to refer to her as one of Scarlett O'Hara's slaves or a submissive parrot to (say) Rahm Emanual, there would be a loud mainstream reaction....and not just a muted protest whose most prominent national exposure was an editorial on FoxNews.com. :asian:

Agreed on all counts. :asian:

 

[Gordon Nore]

Yeah, calling President Bush a chimp for eight years was the height of intellectual discourse, calling President Obama a chimp, even without, you know, actually calling him one, is RACIST. Your double standards might be entertaining were they not so idiotically arbitrary.

Actually, it's not, but nobody ever said all liberals or Democrats were above appealing to the same sort of rabble that thinks the Chimp cartoon is funny, or even insightful.

Critiquing the former President's policies and leadership can be accomplished -- quite colourfully, I might add -- without characterizing him as a chimp or comparing him to Hitler or any of the BS.

 

[crushing]

Nancy Pelosi is a monkey? I don't get it.

So it wasn't racist, but sexist? There is some history of comparing Pelosi to a monkey:

Ya really gotta wonder about people that jumped to the conclusion that chimp = Black man. The OP (along with bloggers and Sharpton) poisoned the well before we got to the cartoon. I wonder if reactions be the same had the cartoon stood alone? Would as many still seen a Black man when looking at a monkey?

 

[jetboatdeath]

Better?

I am not offended for some reason...

 

[jarrod]

i saw that cartoon on the morning news, thought about it for a moment, then thought "how is that not racist"?

not that i think everything is racism. it makes a lot more sense now having read how some folks on this thread have interpreted it. i was looking at it somewhat literally: yes politicians have been compared to monkeys. but chimps are apes, not monkeys, so the racist cannotations came to my mind before anything else. i still didn't make the jump from chimps-->monkeys-->politicians until it was spelled out for me here. i also missed that the cartoon said "write" instead of "sign".

in any case, i think it's in poor taste for a number of reasons, & i'm sure the editor was well aware of it. it's main problem though is just that it's not funny.

jf

 

[elder999]

Ya really gotta wonder about people that jumped to the conclusion that chimp = Black man. The OP (along with bloggers and Sharpton) poisoned the well before we got to the cartoon. I wonder if reactions be the same had the cartoon stood alone? Would as many still seen a Black man when looking at a monkey?

Well, no, you shouldn't wonder at all.

Here's an article from the American Journal of Psychology that explains the idea that the association of blacks with apes is deeply ingrained in American society's consiousness:

Crude historical depictions of African Americans as ape-like may have disappeared from mainstream U.S. culture, but research presented in a new paper by psychologists at Stanford, Pennsylvania State University and the University of California-Berkeley reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes.

In addition, the findings show that society is more likely to condone violence against black criminal suspects as a result of its broader inability to accept African Americans as fully human, according to the researchers.

The article goes on to explain that the theory is the product of a study done by Stanford, U Penn and UC Berkley......

In Another article on the study they say the following:

While the explicit images of Blacks as apes have disappeared from the U.S. media, the images still may continue in coded language," the researchers said in the study. "Perhaps subtle metaphors that go largely unnoticed in the media continue to have great effect – and even be linked to life-and-death decisions."
As recently as the early 1990s, California state police euphemistically referred to cases involving young Black men as N.H.I. – No Humans Involved, according to the study. A police officer involved in the 1991 Rodney King beating had just come from a domestic dispute with a Black couple and referred to it as "something right out of (the movie) Gorillas in the Mist."
" If you look at some political cartoons of Condoleezza Rice, Barack Obama and Colin Powell, you see that they are represented in ape-like caricature," noted Goff "It is not explicit depiction and therefore not seen as offensive.

Then of course, there's this:

 

[CoryKS]

So it wasn't racist, but sexist? There is some history of comparing Pelosi to a monkey:

Well, if eight years of the Bush administration has taught us nothing else, it's taught us that calling white people monkeys is A-OK.

 

[elder999]

.....and this A-OK, too, I suppose... :lol:

 

[crushing]

.....and this A-OK, too, I suppose... :lol:

A t-shirt showing Bush peeling a banana and supporting Obama?

 

[elder999]

A t-shirt showing Bush peeling a banana and supporting Obama?

Curious George, I think.....