OK, it's going to take me a minute to digest this one. But along with Drunken Negro Heads you can see why New York City is considered the bastion of liberalism. I guess there, too, the only good chimp is a dead chimp.
I don't know. Judge for yourself:
By KAREN MATTHEWS | Associated Press Writer
February 18, 2009
NEW YORK - A New York Post cartoon that appears to link President Obama to a violent chimpanzee drew criticism Wednesday on media Web sites and from civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton.
The cartoon in Wednesday's Post by Sean Delonas shows a dead chimp and two police officers, one with a smoking gun. The caption reads, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
The cartoon refers to Travis the chimp, who was shot to death by police in Stamford, Conn. on Monday after it mauled a friend of its owner.
It links the chimp to Obama, who signed his administration's economic stimulus plan on Tuesday.
"At its most benign, the cartoon suggests that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may as well have written it," columnist Sam Stein wrote in the liberal-leaning Huffington Post. "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."
Stein's article drew hundreds of comments on the Huffington Post Web site, with many calling the cartoon racist and insensitive. Some urged a boycott of the Post and the companies that advertise with it while others denounced what they called the Republican slant of the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid.
Col Allan, editor-in-chief of the New York Post, released a statement defending the work.
"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."
Sharpton called the cartoon "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys." He said the Post should clarify what point the cartoon was making.
Delonas, the longtime cartoonist for the Post's Page Six, is known for heavy-handed caricatures. In a cartoon from last month, an enormous Jessica Simpson dumps boyfriend Tony Romo for Ronald McDonald.
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9 comments:
and they say rasism is dead
This is why right wingers make such terrible artists. They just don't "get" reality. What I find bewildering is that the guy had to show that to a lot of people before it made it to print. So, that guy lives in a world where, perhaps, no one raised an objection or an eyebrow. No matter how hard I try I can't imagine anyone laughing because it's just not funny. I don't mean, "FOR SHAME! THAT IS NOT FUNNY!" I mean "yawn..."
I don't know what is scarier, a group of people who would not find that objectionable, or a group of people who would find that funny.
T--
Now you gone and put that damned Simple Minds song in my head, "Alive and Kicking."
Ron--
The only explanation I can think of is falling circulation. I don't think racism sells but it sho' does put your paper in the papers.
As far as humor goes, these are probably the same people who pay Jay Leno and Carson Daily to torture our TV screens 5 days a week.
Some people don't "get" humor. They think of it as "talking against" or perhaps "talkin' agin'". As in, "Who yew talkin' agin'? Who says yew got say?" It is a very bizarre chimp-like retreat to authoritarianism. There was a study suggesting that if people aren't exposed to certain types of humor by a certain age, thy may never "get it." I would include subtle humor in that.
It's terrifying for me to accept that some people grow up in a world where there is an "order" that proceeds with intention from the thundering voice on the mountain to the lambs that play without a thought in flower strewn valleys. But some people literally believe that GOD wants them to work in a coal mine and this is the key: GOD does NOT want them to form a Union and GOD wants them to oppose HB4287 and GOD wants them say the following words in order without interruption... or WOLVES will attack their smooth, giggling babies.
Certainty, as a goal, and as a concept is my enemy... or maybe it's more of a "frienemy". I don't know. Sorry. I am responding to this post, your reply, your previous post on the Pope (why on Earth do you care?) and other things I have been reading this morning. It's a big mash-up in my mush-brain. Damn you RSS FEEDS!
That make me cringe. Honestly, I couldn't even read the full post because it made me throw up a little in my mouth. Sorry. Jacquette out.
God what a disgusting cartoon. Thanks Rupert Murdock for that excellent right wing batshit crazy kind of racist take us back to the bad old days moronic crap. Now we really hate you Rupert.
When I posted about this idiocy over at my place I was pretty much dumb struck and didn't know WTF to say.
I heard on the news later yesterday that the Post is trying to put the whole controversy off on Brother Al now, calling him a publicity hound. While true, it's not like he's the one who penned that damned cartoon. But it's like Chuck D. said about the Post, "200 years of pure bullshit!"
Amy Goodman covered this this morning.
Holder gives a good speech.
Frankly, I'm amazed that the cartoon got published. I love humor, but this is NOT funny.
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