Political Discussions
Do You Think the New York Post Cartoon is Racist?
Posted by philvelez • 2/21/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: cartoon, new york, politics, race relations, racist
If you have not heard about the controversy, check out my recent blog entry on the issue.
philvelez.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-york-post-cartoon-crosses-racial.html
User Comments
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Nope.
I've heard more than one say that this is against Obama. Strange since Last i checked, Obama didn't write the bill.. WHich is what this cartoon says.
"They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill" -
They would have run that cartoon regardless of the race of the President. Bit of a cartoonist no brainer with those two news items available.
Guess the editor did not see how it might be misconstrued which was a bit naive. Having said that you can't stop cartoonists having apes and monkeys in their work as they are an essential part of the humorists palette. Now that is the real outrage because your average chimp could run circles round most politicians.
Just think if a chimp had written the stimulus package there would be a tyre swing on every lamp post, bananas all round, and humans who keep chimps as pets would be caged for life. -
I do not think it was particularly racist. The cartoon was meant to show how stupid congress was being through this whole debacle (the debacle of the spending bill). Polybore hit the nail right on the head when he said that chimps could run circles around most politicians (which I would certainly agree with too). The real intent of the cartoon was to just show how stupid congress is, not calling Obama a monkey. Those protesters are brittle people who would get offended by just about anything.-
wrong place
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Since this is supposed to be related to the stimulus package, which Obama didn't write, but which he signed, this is historically and culturally insensitive at best and racist at worst.
That said, and despite Polybore's attempt to explain the cartoon, I don't get it. Why would policemen be shooting a chimp in the first place, regardless of who wrote the stimulus bill? Without a connection to an actual shooting or chimp incident of some kind, the thing makes no sense whatsoever.
And if the chimp is supposed to stand for Congress, why would it be okay to shoot it?-
Here is the poor chimp that snapped story which coincided with the stimulus hoo ha.
www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=why-would-a-chimpanzee-at -
mark- Because that chimp was out of control just like congress is right now. So in order to stop a wild and out of control animal, they had to shoot it. If it was a tiger or anything like that, we would not even be having this discussion which is the most ridiculous part.
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I think Mark makes a good point - the whole story that allegedly inspired the cartoon is lost on people who didn't hear about it.
Leaving only a dead monkey, and a note about the stimulus.
Out of context - it's damaging. -
@polybore: That explains the story, but doesn't make the cartoon funny, not even in a "politically incorrect" way.
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Mark, Polybore at no stage said it was funny.
For it to have amused Polybore it would have had to be more like this.
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It probably wasn't the cartoonist's intention, but the editor should have known it would be interpreted as a racist statement. -
I've had two "cartoon" incidents as a college paper editor nearly two decades ago. Both made national news. One offended many Jews, the other offended some Mexicans. Both resulted in meetings with leaders of those offended.
If the message is not clear in an editorial cartoon then it can open up the doors for things like what's happening with this monkey cartoon.
Personally, I don't get the editorial cartoon. To link two separate news items sensationally is the only motivation I see from this cartoonist. Whatever "message" he was trying to get across is garbled.
Rather than pinning it as a definite racism issue as some have, I'd pin it as an editorial cartoon that doesn't make sense...and just call out the paper and the cartoonist to consider their racial insensitivity in publishing a confusing message.-
Personally, I don't get the editorial cartoon. To link two separate news items sensationally is the only motivation I see from this cartoonist. Whatever "message" he was trying to get across is garbled.
Yes!! That's what bothers me about it. It makes no sense to combine a monkey shooting with the stimulus bill with no clear context as to the message.
Plus, they should have figured that it could be construed as racially insensitive at the very least.
Hey, we agree!
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My interpretation was that the monkey was depicted as being the author of the bill, meant as an insult to the authors -- not necessarily as a racist statement.
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TBR writes, "Personally, I don't get the editorial cartoon. To link two separate news items sensationally is the only motivation I see from this cartoonist. Whatever "message" he was trying to get across is garbled."
I just wanted to note this moment when we both agree on something. -
Wow! You guys brought a smile to my face....enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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It's racist as can be and violent to boot, but the New York Post is the National Enquirer of news, a joke, and all this attention is exactly what they wanted. -
Not racist although it is easy to see how a people who have been called monkeys would see it as racist.
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