Sunday, February 22, 2009

Cartoonish Thuggery

Was the Post's cartoon about the chimp in bad taste? My first reaction was 'yes'. Calling black people monkeys is a well-known slur in the south, so that imagery immediately came to mind when the word stimulus was used.

But on second viewing, not as much. We know Obama outsourced the drafting of the bill to Pelosi, so if anyone should be offended it's her. And there's nothing offensive about suggesting the bill was written by a monkey, unless one is a literate, conservative monkey. The question is whether the Post tried to use that excuse to slip in a monkey=Obama comparison.

The NAACP believes they did and are demanding people lose their jobs over it. While many are genuinely outraged the chance to take a free shot at the Fox News media syndicate amidst the outrage hasn't been lost on anyone of minimal mental capacity. No reason to squander an opportunity to eliminate the opposition if it arises, and it don't get much better than this.

If the cartoon was tacky and offensive the strong-arming is far worse. To say political cartoonists can no longer use monkeys when mentioning Obama after eight years of Bushchimpy cartoons is patently absurd. Wonder what the smirking chimp thinks about it? Or the cartoonist who depicted Condi Rice as Aunt Jemima? Freedom of speech isn't always pleasant. Just ask Jesse Jackson.

So please NAACP, back off. Your condemning voices have been heard but you have no business deciding punishment. Let the Post's readers determine that through canceled subscriptions or angry letters to the editor.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

...I thought racism would of died the day the USA has a black president...guess not. Living in a predominantly black area, excuses are like festering pimples, they are just waiting to pop. Its okay for a black comedian to go on stage and rip on a white person, but let an individual draw a cartoon and the fuse is lit.

Darth Rob said...

To the previous commenter, racism will probably never die, because the words still exist. You know the words. Freedom of Speech can get you in trouble but if you have the backbone to stand up for what you are saying then tread fearlessly.

http:\\angryfreethinker.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I am sick of every time I turn on the news, the blacks have something to complain about! Slavery ended decades ago but yet we are still paying for it. This country is about all of us as a whole but the blacks still want it to be ALL ABOUT THEM AND ONLY THEM! SHUT UP ALREADY!!! They take the least little thing and blow it up into something that claims its about them! THEM! THEM! Blacks really need to lose the complex they seem to carry around and start acting like they are a part of society! With all the bullshit going on in this world and country, we are PEOPLE fighting for the same damn thing! The blacks need to stop acting like they are better than the rest of the races out there and that they deserve special treatments!

Anonymous said...

Racism is the vehicle that blacks use to force their agenda. Blacks cannot allow racism to neutralize or they would have to stand on their own merits and principals which would crumble under closer examination.

Unknown said...

No matter how many times you carefully explain the obvious intent and meaning of that cartoon to leftists, they willfully ignore it and continue to call it "racist."

You know why? Because these people are pathologically addicted to accusing others of being racist. They cannot help themselves. They're not happy unless they're pounding their fists and demanding that some innocent person or other loses their job, until some decent human being is sacrificed upon the savage alter of left wing tribalism.

It was the LEFT who saw a cartoon monkey and thought "Obama." It is, as usual, the LEFT who are racist, the LEFT who couldn't see any other meaning because of the deep-seated prejudices they hide under a layer of self-righteous indignation.

A recent Yahoo/AP survey showed that well over a third of Democrats harbor extremely racist views against blacks. This is hardly surprising because the left views the whole world through the prisms of race and gender. They are the most likely to judge someone according to their physiological characteristics. They are obsessed with skin color, sexuality and gender. They are tribalists.

Far from exposing the "racism" of the Post and their cartoonist, this cartoon actually served to expose the immaturity and angry dementia of the left, especially the old-school racial rabble rousers of black America's left who will stoke the fires of racial warfare until the day they die.

Anyone with half a rational brain can see that the monkey was not meant to represent Obama. The wording of the caption made this perfectly and unambiguously clear. If these morons wish to destroy the careers of innocent people because they're too hateful and stupid to understand this, then maybe it's time the rational among us protested the likes of Al Sharpton and the NAACP. It's time to put an end to their poison.

Sharpton has no right whatsoever to accuse others of racial hatred. In 1996 he stood outside Freddy's Fashion Mart in Harlem, which was Jewish owned, and unleashed such a hateful barrage of ethnic bigotry against whites and Jews that one of his followers was inspired to storm the store, douse it with gasoline and burn seven innocent people to death.

Sharpton regularly calls for an end to the career of people who make harmless mistakes or who aren't even racist - and yet the consequences of HIS racial hatred has led to mass murder. Let's picket this nasty son of a bitch until he steps down from public life. I like many New Yorkers are sick to death of this portly swine.

Anonymous said...

It’s a shame that we’ve become a society so ashamed of it own history and heritage. We cower, lower our heads, and throw stones blindly in the air at an enemy that is in our own mirrors. We’ve forgotten how far we’ve come. I’m living proof of it. I’m a mixture of Black, White, and Native American meaning that an inter-racial couple, an actual marriage had occurred. All I see in the media now is how great it is that we have a Black president and how cowardly we act when someone actual brings it up in a real conversation. An image in the New York Times by a white man who was only a child when segregation was ending, he’s the racist. I think not, ignorant yes, misinformed on how a small segment of Black people would feel about it yes and maybe yes crude in his image. I can agree with that, yet racist no. The one making a riot out of it, they are the real racist. I say this coming from a Black Man’s perspective. Some of those in my community who are 45 and old haven’t let go of their anger, hate, protectionism, and worry. It blinds them and allows vultures like the fringe members of the NAACP, ACLU, and other Groups to prey on their fears. I’ve seen true racism, being a five year old in Texas being arrested with my cousins. Even though a group of white children attack us first and we were only defending ourselves. That is racism; an image that has of a chimpanzee isn’t, because the same paper used cartoon images of George Bush regress toward a monkey or chimpanzee in his face was that animalism. I’m shamed by how weak a society we’ve allow a small minority of people, not composed of a single race. One that is composed with the Idea of separate but the same has shamed us. We are not separated by race, religion, or sex. We are United State of America citizens. We are composed of many hues, shapes, languages, and heritage. That can’t be allow to be separated, if we are my son and any second generation mixed child will not know who to trust, believe, look up to, and want to emulate. We need to step outside of the shadow of hate, ignorance of what true racism is, and oppression of our previous forefathers. I only hope that we can do such a thing if not. I don’t know what will happen but I do know that our destiny will be to fall back, revert, regress, backslide, and deteriorate to a society of our past. I fear that our children will pay the price and we have change for not.

The Thought of a Young Black man toward an image that has caused a Riot.

A.C. McCloud said...

Well, I guess Attorney Gen Holder would be proud of our conversation here today, although not sure he would approve of the consensus that seems to be evolving.

Anyway, thanks all for the comments from what seems like a very diverse background of posters. America is and has always been the world's melting pot--we're unique and special that way--and it would be a shame if we let it devolve into a third world melee.