racist? Discuss
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- CALLES
AP – This cartoon image provided by the New York Post appeared in the Post's Page Six Wednesday, Feb. 18, ...
NEW YORK – The New York Post is standing behind a cartoon that some have interpreted as comparing President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police.
The cartoon in Wednesday's Post by Sean Delonas shows two police officers standing over the body of a bullet-riddled chimp. One of the officers says the other, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton called the cartoon "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys."
But Sharpton said the Post should clarify the point it was trying to make with the cartoon, which was playing off Monday's rampage by a pet chimpanzee in Stamford, Conn., that left a woman severely mauled. Police ended up killing the chimp.
In a statement, Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan said: "The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist."
A story about the cartoon on the liberal-leaning Huffington Post Web site drew hundreds of reader responses, many calling the cartoon racist and insensitive.
Sam Stein, a columnist for the site, wrote that "at its most benign, the cartoon suggests that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may as well have written it. Most provocatively, it compares the president to a rabid chimp. Either way, the incorporation of violence and (on a darker level) race into politics is bound to be controversial."
- CALLES0
and no fighting please
- CALLES0
and no fighting please
- monospaced0
Simply because the chimp story and the economic crises are not related makes the cartoon questionable, for sure.
- doesnotexist0
it's a metaphor.
- Stylus0
why did they have to kill the monkey ? seems mean to shoot a defenseless animal
- the monkey that attacked the ladyCALLES
- Stylus, you're kidding right?waterhouse
- just because it doens't have a gun don't make it defenseless. it severely mauled a woman.airey
- CALLES0
the chimp attack
- Holy fuck ripped her face off ! That's crazy ! So what's the connection with the stimulus ?Stylus
- there is no connection. they're just implying that a chimp wrote the billmonospaced
- ...or they are implying that Obama is a chimp.styleplus
- lukusW0
it's a blatant racist quip..
during the election a lot of obama's more ingenuous critics made the comparison .. it's in poor taste for sure.
- locustsloth0
Not very funny but i could see the non-racist leap from a thought or statement like "This bill seems like i was written by a bunch of monkeys" to this cartoon. However one has to question if, at any point, the cartoonist thought it might be perceived as racist and if so, why they went ahead with it
- good for him / her for having a set of balls and not worrying about it - i'm sure their conscience is clearPonyBoy
- KwesiJ0
news editors and thier cartoonists arn't stupid
- ukit0
I don't think it was intended as racist, but obviously they didn't think about what they were doing when they printed it.
- redant0
- no one cried about that ahhaharedant
- hahahCALLES
- obama doesn't possess the attributes of a chimp .. bush didlukusW
- George Bush isn't blacklocustsloth
- neither's a chimp. its a f*cking chimp!
paulPCcollins - Historically, monkeys haven't been used as a derogatory symbol for rich oilmen.blaw
- hilarious.showpony
- good 1 redmoldero
- not true that nobody cared. i made a T-shirt out of all those images. i loved them!Josev
- CALLES0
we are doing good guys... no fighting remember that
- TheBlueOne0
All i gotta say was it ran in the NY Post....another Rupert Murdoch propaganda joint...
- http://en.wikipedia.…TheBlueOne
- ...war ensemble burial to be....jaylarson
- locustsloth0
Thinking about it more, i can't see anyone intentionally making this cartoon motivated by racist. It is likely someone who didn't even make the connection until someone else pointed it out and then stuck to his guns out of principle, since it wasn't intended as racist
- Frosty_spl0
Did Obama WRITE the stimulus bill? If he did, then the cartoon is racist. If he did not write it, its a quip that compares a chimp to dumb politicians.
- +1locustsloth
- it's his billmonospaced
- but he didn't write it, did he?locustsloth
- TheBlueOne0
...it walks a line that I think the cartoonist and editors are aware of, and they're also cognizant of being able to plead ignorance on purpose. In fact, I bet they're all sipping on coffee and mockingly saying "Whatcha talkin' about Willis.." and pontning and laughing at each other around the editorial office about the ensuing brouhaha.
- hehe... and saying 'bump our advertisement costs for the next three days'PonyBoy