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The New York Post Prints Racist Cartoon Attack Against Obama
Take a look at this.
The text in the cartoon reads, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
Of course some partisans will say, what's the big deal, and that too much is being made of this. For publishing this, the NY Post should get hit hard where it counts the most. I think a boycott is in order. Like the bus boycott in Montgomery during the civil rights movement, the NY post should be brought to its knees.
Update: 1:20pm EST: Here we go with the explanations. Here's the full statement by Col Allan, editor-in-chief of the Post:
"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."It is not so clear to me. Some things should not be said, if for no other reason the history of derogatory references to AA as monkeys.
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Two strikes against this. One, it's bigotry. Two, there is no comparison between the "chimp" (w) and Obama. On both counts, it merits a huge outcry!
February 18, 2009 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
No question this cartoon is totally disgusting for all the reasons stated. Truly repulsive stuff.
February 18, 2009 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree about the boycott idea. And not just the paper. Who advertises in the New York Post? I don't live in NY so don't know, but I want to.
If something serious doesn't happen as a result of this kind of cartoon, we will surely see a lot more in ever more respectable media.
So, someone out there, who are the advertisers whose products I can stop purchasing? In these times, they - the advertisers - should complain based on the propriety of it, but it certainly will help motivate them if they are aware of the financial ramifications as well.
February 18, 2009 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone interested in helping with this?
February 18, 2009 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
The problem is anybody who would boycott, knows not to read the New York Post. What a rag. I would gladly participate in the boycott of advertisers, just because it's the New York Post. POS newspaper.
February 18, 2009 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I dunno. People might not read the NY Post, no. But they might use other products and services by the same News Corporation parent company.
Like... Fox News?
The WSJ?
IGN?
RottenTomatoes?
Photobucket?
Hulu?
February 18, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with the point you're making but there's nothing respectable about the NY Post. It's one of Murdoch's babies with reporting that's less accurate than Fox News.
February 18, 2009 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tacking onto my comment: NY Post uses their gossip columns to slur liberals. Keith Olbermann has been a frequent target. They've also gone after Caroline Kennedy and others.
February 18, 2009 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, so, who advertises in the NY Post? Macy's? Sears? Pepsi? Kraft? Anybody national or only local grocers or shoe shops?
Even Murdoch - especially Murdoch - understands the bottom line.
I WANT A LIST . . . please.
And thank you.
February 18, 2009 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't have access to their print version but the online version is easy to find:
http://www.nypost.com/
February 18, 2009 1:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe its suggesting the bill may as well have been written by monkeys....
Just a thought, because I didn't make the Obama connection immediately at all. It was the apes in Congress, not the WH that wrote the Stimulus.
February 18, 2009 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
That was my immediate reaction as well. Congress Chimps write the laws. Poor taste but hardly racist.
February 18, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh really. Then you must be oblivious to the fact that the msm on TV and in newspapers nationwide are referring to it as "Obama's stimulus..." package/plan/bill.
Do you believe the editor of the NY Post is that naive that he didn't see the connection between referring to a monkey (Obama) and the stimulus plan and that it might just be controversial? You don't become an editor by being that closed-minded. EVERY time I hear "stimulus package" I think of Obama. The editor thought of it and decided it would sell some papers...he was right.
February 19, 2009 7:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Every time I hear stimulus package I think idiots in Congress.
I already agreed that it was in poor taste for a number of other reasons. I see how this reason might not have been a consideration, but given the reaction probably should have been. However, I sincerely didn't get that connection until it was pointed out my my wife and by this blog.
Not every piece of satire or political "humor" is so cut and dried.
February 19, 2009 8:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
when the owner of a major dept store was asked by the owner of the ny post why he didnt advertise in his paper he said" your readers are my shoplifters".
February 18, 2009 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Brutal
February 18, 2009 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Funny, thats how I think of the wall street journal readers
February 18, 2009 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Compare the chimp cartoon to this: (THEY ALSO CALLED OBAMA THE "N" Word) with no protest from anyone in the US as Obama heads there tommorrow.
Quebec producers apologize for Obama jokes
By Melissa Hank
2009-01-13
French Canadians recant racist remark against Barack
After poking fun at U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, using a racial stereotype, the Quebec producers of a Radio-Canada program have apologized.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the New Year's Eve TV special Le Bye Bye referenced Obama's skin color, included the phrase "all blacks look alike" insinuated that he might be prone to stealing purses from the audience.
The sketch also included an Obama “interviewer” suggesting that a black president in the White House was helpful because he would be more visible and easier to assassinate.
"We're sorry that we shocked people," co-producer and co-host Veronique Cloutier told reporters.
Aside from the Obama sketch, the special also spoofed Nathalie Simard, a Quebec singer who was sexually abused as a child by her manager Guy Cloutier.
“Radio-Canada recognizes this year's [Bye Bye] edition contained elements that might not be to everyone's taste," Radio-Canada said in a statement, though it did stand behind its right to freedom of speech.
February 18, 2009 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I did not watch the TV show you refer to, but I read enough critiques to agree it was totally offensive and totally unfunny.
One minor defence of the writers: they used the French word "negre," which while often pejorative is less blatantly racist than the English N-word. Still, the thrust of the sketch was unspeakably, unforgivably bigoted. I find some irony in the ethnically tone-deaf headline "French Canadians recant racist remark."
As to the Post cartoon, the publisher and the cartoonist will argue that the racist inference is in the eye of the beholder. That's their story and they're sticking to it. Indeed, Delonas's past work does trend more homophobic than racist.
But to pull that excuse off, Delonas and the Post have to feign ignorance of the disgusting ways cartoonists have historically depicted blacks. It doesn't wash.
The Post can make a legalistic argument: the cartoon is not provably racist. But I have no doubt the thinking was, "Wow, this will push Al Sharpton's buttons!"
Both the Post and Sharpton are now revelling in the controversy. The sane response is to quietly boycott the Post, not to feed the media frenzy.
Incidentally, the cartoon is vile on another level as well. Whether it represents Obama or Congress, it implies that the elected leaders behind the stimulus package deserve to be shot. That's seditious.
February 18, 2009 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
WHAT IN THE F... DO THEY THINK THEY ARE DOING?
February 18, 2009 12:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe getting away with it?
February 18, 2009 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry. I don't see the connection. Are you saying that the dead chimp somehow reminds you of our President? Because I'm not seeing it. The dead chimp reminds me of the chimp that was shot yesterday. Either way, the cartoon isn't even vaguely funny or intelligent, but I think it's a stretch to call it racist.
February 18, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
PS: Congress wrote the stimulus bill--not the President.
February 18, 2009 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know too much! The average person think it is Obama's bill. Not Pelosi's or congress's, but Obama's. Perhaps you don't know that blacks have been and are still sometimes called monkeys as a racial derogatory.
February 18, 2009 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anybody else remember when Howard Cosell got shamed and humiliated at Monday Night Football because he called a player a "little monkey." I never believed he meant that as a racist slur - my grandma used to call her grandkids little monkeys and we're all white.
The Post on the other hand - it looks blatantly racist to me. That wasn't enough for them - they had to assassinate the ape as well.
February 18, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought of the Cosell "little monkey" incident too. It was Washington Redskin Alvin Garrett who received the "compliment" from Howard. The black community was up in arms, but Howard survived because of his reputation for being anything but a racist. Garrett even came to his defense, I believe.
The NY Post probably does not enjoy Cosell's reputation when it comes to race.
February 19, 2009 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
So the cartoon is racist because the average reader is too ignorant/stupid to know the simplest facts about how laws are written and passed? Seems an odd way of assigning blame. Besides, that seems an awfully low opinion of the average reader.
It's a dumb cartoon anyway and the cartoonist probably is catching flak for making light of a tragic incident.
February 18, 2009 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
That tragic event happened recently. It reminds me of a comedian who just made a tacky joke about a tragedy and when the audience doesn't laugh, he says,"too soon?"
February 18, 2009 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Average "reader" of the Post? You've got to be kidding! Why do you think they have such a high pictures-to-words ratio in there?
To paraphrase Robin Williams, if I use the Post to line my cat's litter box, the cat won't shit in the box. He shrugs and says, "that's redundant."
February 18, 2009 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, it's racist because it compares Obama to a monkey. Derogatory references to blacks have often compared them to monkeys, that is, sub human. Got it?
February 19, 2009 4:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are you really that obtuse?
February 18, 2009 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
YOU ARE TRANSPARENTLY RATIONALIZING RACISM AND COMPLICIT IN REPERCUSSIONS OF THAT MINDSET, STUPID RABBIT.
IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE ANYONE COULD BE SO STUPID WITHOUT BEING RACIST.
February 18, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
The rabbit (hrebendorf) never struck me as a racist or racially insensitive.
February 18, 2009 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good grief, tone down the outrage and the ALL CAPS...
What is so wrong about suggesting a monkey wrote the Stimulus as a way of criticizing it?
People are way too sensitive. We should know racism when we see it, and this ain't it.
February 18, 2009 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agree. It was tasteless, stupid and unfunny, but I don't believe it was intended to be racist.
February 18, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's definitely racist. It goes beyond calling Obama a monkey too. There is a tendency in some urban areas for black people to be killed by police at a much higher rate than white people. When I saw that cartoon I saw cops killing a monkey, then read the text which implies they are killing the one who wrote the stimulus package (Obama). I immediately thought of the killing of a black person by police (and the racial bias that implies) and that black person being Obama. The chimp that attacked someone yesterday didn't even come into my mind because the racial implications were stinging.
You're not seeing that suggests that the weight of racial intolerance does not weigh heavy on your mind, which is fortunate for you.
February 19, 2009 1:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sure, one can do it, but it evokes a vast history of racial conflict, discontent, stereotyping, fear, hatred, violence, etc. That has nothing to do with the stimulus bill, by the way. And nothing to do with a berserk chimp and equally berserk owner. I admit I'm an Obama supporter and that I usually didn't mind repulsive, disrespectful, nasty, cretinous depictions of Bush because I didn't like Bush. But there is simply nothing you can say about a white man that is the equivalent of the racial imagery that is clearly present in this cartoon. C'mon, admit it; didn't you get an "ew" reaction to this thing?
February 19, 2009 4:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I?!? YOU DON'T KNOW ME VERY WELL, DO YOU? I DON'T THINK SO. AND YOUR CAPS LOCK IS STUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 18, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you want racist, I'll show you racist. Keep in mind, this was filmed in a bar IN CHICAGO!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5HhhxbwiQQ
February 18, 2009 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Personally, the thing that offends me is that there's a woman lying dismembered in a hospital and an animal that never should have been kept as a pet dead, and the Post is making jokes about it. Funny.
February 18, 2009 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Precisely.
February 18, 2009 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seconded. Definitely a case of misplaced outrage.
February 18, 2009 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Irrelevant.
February 19, 2009 4:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not at all irrelevant. The Rabbit hit the nail squarely.
February 19, 2009 6:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is the reason I don't post here anymore. Billy Glad used to call this an echo chamber. It wasn't then, but it is now. It's full of hair-trigger lefties who voice nothing but outrage and do not tolerate dissent. The comic is a riff on the idea that if you put enough monkeys in a room with typewriters, they'll eventually write Hamlet (or in this case, the stimulus bill). It's not racist, but don't tell anybody here that. They're only too happy for an excuse to express outrage.
February 18, 2009 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did you notice that many of the people here are saying that it was stupid, not funny, and inappropriate because of the situation it mocks (the chimp attacking a woman and getting shot) rather than racist?
How is that an echo chamber?
February 18, 2009 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Echo chamber? Dude, look at the response just above yours.
February 18, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow...interesting theory about the monkeys, typewriters and Hamlet...you could perhaps take that view, and it would make an interesting monograph for a journalism grad student circa 2019, reflecting on current events now...but have you looked around an average A train at who's reading the Post any time lately? Don't think they're into connections that subtle.
February 18, 2009 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
While the underlying racism is appalling, I think the bigger issue is that it implies the most grievous harm being done to President Obama.
The treason is the biggest reason this cartoon is wrong.
February 18, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Recommended because this needs to be seen and action taken. It is disgusting. I do not care if this was Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid. Actually, if it were w or Boehner or Eric kantor, it would be repulsive. I am still wondering how I would feel about Cheney or Rumsfeld, but I'm pretty sure I would prefer them in jail with a live cam to enable us all to be assured they were not tortured, but actually fed the same menu as the folks in Gitmo, which they suggested was so tasty. After watching Rachel last night, a can of Ensure should be on the menu as well.
February 18, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
OH! And I totally agree they should be boycotted. Or, what if we invested in every paper we could find and threw them all over the sidewalk for people to walk on. Then when people ask why, we can respond the cartoon was beneath contemptable. This would also create jobs!
February 18, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Kill two birds with one stone? There should be no investment in the NY Post. You are rewarding them with $$$. That would be an incentive to do it again.
February 18, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
If they won't swallow the ensure, they can get a court order to forcibly tube feed them. Happens to anorexics all the time.
February 18, 2009 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't get the cartoon and I don't think it's funny, but maybe the artist is making a reference to this:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/17/chimp_attack/
February 18, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course he is. It's a horrible reference, and not that funny....But, suggesting a chimp wrote the stimulus as a way of criticizing it is just not racism.
Can I add that the NYPOST is a butt-wipe?
February 18, 2009 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Affecting a Jeff Foxworthy voice: "If you laugh out loud at cartoons like this... you might be a redneck."
February 18, 2009 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a way of criticizing the stimulus bill *and* it is racist.
February 19, 2009 4:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
You are correct Orlando. Although that is what I think they are hiding behind. NY Post sucks. But MSNBC was wired that excuse this PM.
February 18, 2009 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
For some more high-brow, truly clever cartooning by Sean Delonas click on link below. Lovely fellow.
http://www.glaad.org/action/write_now_detail.php?id=3924
February 18, 2009 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
More love from Dean Delonas!
http://gawker.com/5155855/ten-masterpieces-from-sean-delonas
February 18, 2009 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
This guy is really an ass. An immature ass at that.
February 18, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
What does being gay have to do with marrying a sheep?
February 18, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
The sheep is a guy.
February 18, 2009 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL! Shouldn't it be a ram instead then?
February 18, 2009 9:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Homosexual marriage will inexorably lead to bestiality. That's what the cartoonist thinks.
February 18, 2009 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
World is crumbling at your feet...and your worried about a freaking cartoon? Get a grip.
February 18, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
For some, it is not at all difficult to concern oneself with various interests.
February 18, 2009 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like I said. world is crumbling at your feet. And you have varied interests.....great tell that to the family in Cleveland today that just had the Sheriff remove them their house......I am sure they are more than willing to add onto your other "interests". Get a grip
February 18, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
And while you're worried about that family in Cleveland little girls are being beaten and raped all around the world. How can you be so heartless?
February 18, 2009 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Huh? I said the WORLD was crumbling at your feet my friend. Read. Think. Act.
February 18, 2009 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Irony zips right over your head doesn't it? Heh.
February 18, 2009 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its lazy, with a hint of racist undertones to drive traffic. Murdock's bleeding cash...
February 18, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep. At first I thought the cartoonist simply didn't realize he was on blurry ground. Now, after seeing some of his other "work", by hitting some links provided in this post, it seems apparant to me that the cartoonist knew what he was doing. His purpose: lots of reaction by those outside the Post's readership, that results, ultimately, in money for Murdoch.
February 19, 2009 6:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Their explanation makes no sense. I don't see how a chimp who went off and nearly killed someone relates in any way to the stimulus. Even if they were telling the truth, making a joke about the chimp story is appalling.
February 18, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
The cartoon just made CNN.
February 18, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Al Sharpton is going to be on CNN within the hour, talking about this outrage. I can't wait to see how he tackles it. tonnyb says that I know too much, but what about Sharpton? Does he believe President Obama wrote the stimulus bill? Will he claim that whenever a primate is depicted in a political cartoon, it necessarily refers to President Obama? Because I'd say that's a counterproductive point for an African American to be trying to make. Of course Sharpton is in the business of racial outrage, and the pickins have been awfully slim lately, so I'm sure he's happy to take whatever he can get. Oops! Did I just say "pickins"? Oh my God--I must be a racist!
I was accused of being a racist recently for using the word "niggardly". I tried to explain to the outraged person that the word is spelled with an "a", rather than an "e" and that it has an entirely different etymology than the word they were thinking of, but they would have none of it. Score another point for the power of illiteracy.
"It was while giving a speech in Washington, to a very international audience, about the British theft of the Elgin marbles from the Parthenon. I described the attitude of the current British authorities as 'niggardly.' Nobody said anything, but I privately resolved—having felt the word hanging in the air a bit—to say 'parsimonious' from then on." [Christopher Hitchens, "The Pernicious Effects of Banning Words," Slate.com, Dec. 4, 2006]
Here's a cartoon that was published long before anyone had heard of Barack Obama. But think about it. Could the cartoonist have been clairvoyant? Or do we all just need to settle down a bit and quit being so hypersensitive?
http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/rmc/lowres/rmcn94l.jpg
And here's another to ponder:
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2005/01/13/bell512.jpg
Now I'm REALLY confused...
February 18, 2009 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sharpton's radar for tv cameras is uncanny.
February 18, 2009 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it mundane. This is an easy pick up.
February 18, 2009 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
It doesn't matter what Sharpton knows. It doesn't matter what you or I know. It matters how this is perceived by the general population. The regular folk who work all day and are get their news in soundbites.
February 18, 2009 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Correction: The regular folk who work all day and get their news in soundbites.
February 18, 2009 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a point to consider:
Years ago, I had a discussion with some friends on the subject of how one defines music. People had all sorts of ideas, but most of them fell short because they left out things like found sound, bird songs, musique concrete, etc. The one we finally settled on was, "Any sound or combination of sounds that is perceived as coherent by the human mind."
The human mind is always part of the equation. Our internal associations can't be ignored. There's a difference between seeing and perceiving.
The cartoonist, Sean Delonas, just called Sharpton's charges of racism, "...absolutely frickin' ridiculous."
February 18, 2009 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
As far as you point about niggardly, writers need to be aware of the audience they are speaking to and act accordingly. I am certain, right or wrong, that many of the NY post readers have made the monkey/AA connection. How do I know? I grew up with those people.
February 18, 2009 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is precisely the argument I tried to make the other day in response to Johann Hari's post about free speech. I was ripped from stem to stern by free speech advocates who told me there is NO SITUATION where ones right to speak ones mind can or should be limited.
What about publishing insulting cartoons about the prophet Muhammad? Should Muslims riot over those, or are they just being silly?
February 18, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
They're just being silly.
Oh wait... was that rhetorical? ;^}
February 18, 2009 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
"those people"
Jeezus, man, do you even hear yourself?
February 18, 2009 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was accused of being a racist recently for using the word "niggardly".
I'm gonna have to call shenanigans.
February 18, 2009 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish. The English language is dying an ugly, ugly death.
February 18, 2009 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
What is the most discouraging aspect of these cartoons and the NYPost is that they have sufficient readership to retain their vitality at all. Obviously these cartoons have been around for many months and the paper retains readership. Who are these people? I'm embarassed for them. Are they so completely clueless they cannot see how offensive this is?
Let me answer that question with a proposition. Is this how the argument that it is not illegal works? People will accept the presence of this filth because it is not illegal? Maybe we should respond to this inane attitude with the suggestion that whether it is illegal or not, we do have the right not to support or perpetuate it. We all agree they need not go to jail, but they need not make a fortune for this sort of excrement either. BTW, as stated above, I do support a public campaign of one sort or another. Why doesn't the free market regulate this? Why is there a market? Who are these people? Maybe a simple whisper campaign to remark when one sees someone reading the Post that it's the paper for idiots or something. Grass roots speaking truth to power.
February 18, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Get a grip, people. The cartoon is a reference to the wild chimp story on the front page. It implies that the stimulus bill might have been written by monkeys. Congress wrote the bill. The racist connection you're so desperate to see doesn't exist. I know The Post world very well, and they (and Sean Delonas) have their limitations, but crude racism not among them.
February 18, 2009 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
The NY Post. Let's see... That's a New York paper, right? And New York City is an ALL WHITE CITY!!! So they could totally get away with this and no one would complain.
February 18, 2009 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
The NY Post. Let's see... That's a New York paper, right? And New York City is an ALL WHITE CITY!!! So they could totally get away with this and no one would complain.
Al Sharpton is based in NYC. Sharpton is complaining. CNN has Sharpton on speed dial. Are you less upset since a NYC resident is not letting the Post "get away with this"?
Perhaps we can get Lee elder or another Conservative African-American to agree with you and nullify Sharpton. Although, I'm not sure if Elder is based in NYC.
February 18, 2009 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Plus they know how to push Al Sharpton's buttons. He's a gadlfy, and irritating gadflys is part of their M.O. Along with depicting politicians as buffoons. Clowns, monkeys, take your pick.
Post readers are lunch-pail New Yorkers who buy their copies on newstands and read them on the subway. The gossip page gets as many eyeballs as A1. Unless you're a sports hero in good standing, you will get taken down.
The fist-bump New Yorker cover was way more over-the-top than this.
February 18, 2009 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Frankly, I don't like the violent suggestion of the cartoon. Shooting something so carelessly and then just shrugging your shoulders like, oh well. That's the disturbing part.
February 18, 2009 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just don't think this is a big deal, and I hate the implication that somehow "average" Americans are so stupid they will see this as racist.
Sometimes the enlightened, altrusitic elitism in here is a bit much.
February 18, 2009 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
"and I hate the implication that somehow "average" Americans are so stupid they will see this as racist."
Seeing this as racism doesn't make one stupid. How do you come to that conclusion? How about the folks here? The commentators who see this as a problem. You consider them stupid?
February 18, 2009 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Americans are addicted to outrage.
February 18, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
In addition to being stupid.
February 18, 2009 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Americans are addicted to faux-outrage. If they really felt outrage, Americans would have been demonstrating in the streets about what happened to our Constitution, our young people in the military (sacrificed for what?), and the destruction of our formerly good name!
Getting pissed off in a blog doesn't equal outrage; it is fake and impotent, and a substitute for the real thing.
February 18, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
How lovely of you to admit all this.
February 19, 2009 4:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Parse it all you want, this is misplaced outrage, and the idea that we need to talk down to "average", "working" people is patronizing.
February 18, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Note: Newspapers are written on third grade reading level. That's not my doing.
February 18, 2009 4:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Guess what? It looks like seandelonas.com is gettin' smurfed.
February 18, 2009 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Total non sequitur, considering that the cartoon has to do with the rampaging chimpanzee that was shot by police. The cartoon has absolutely nothing to do with blacks or race or Barack Obama.
Good grief! You're the one who's prejudiced!
Can't speak for the rest of the country, but even "regular" New Yorkers are generally informed enough to know what the intended reference was.
I think you should stop getting all your news from CNN sound bites.
February 18, 2009 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now I'm prejudice? I lived in New York for 40 years. Have you?
February 18, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just Manhattan and Brooklyn. Not Queens, S.I. or the Bronx.
February 18, 2009 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
How long did you live there? Have you had a chance to visit Bensonhurst, Richmond Hill, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill?
February 18, 2009 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where in Brooklyn did you live?
February 18, 2009 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who cares where he lived?
The point is that you are the only one on this thread beating this issue into oblivion.
It's an offensive cartoon, agreed. But not racist, even in the slightest.
And I've been to Bensonhurst. Didn't even get shot.
February 18, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I do.
February 18, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, it doesn't actually matter where I've lived.
You're asking if I've ever met any white New Yorkers who are overt racists. The answer is yes. They lived on Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and Long Island.
You want to know if I've ever lived in a place simmering with racial tensions. The answer is yes. I've lived in several cities which had full-blown race riots: Cleveland, Cincinnati, Virginia Beach, and Brooklyn.
Yet somehow, despite this country's racial problems, the majority of Americans voted for our first black president. I'll bet you $5 that some readers of the New York Post even voted for Obama.
There are plenty of reasons to boycott the New York Post, but this cartoon is the least important reason.
Your argument is confused, tonnyb. You're objecting to the chimp cartoon's nonexistent subtext. You're objecting to the New York Post. You're objecting to the New York Post's readers. You're objecting to people who watch TV news because they are too busy (to read the newspaper). You're objecting to people who read the newspaper because it's written for a third-grade reading level. But just because you hate the New York Post, the New York Post's readers, people who read newspapers, and people who watch TV news doesn't mean the stupid cartoon has a racist subtext or is even worth blogging about!
February 18, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
You still livin' in that nice gingerbread house, Gasket? The one with the candy cane chimney and the icing around the windows?
I LOVE that house.
P.S. Apparently you can get government grants now, if you need to repair any hail damage, moisture, mould, or even bite marks.
February 18, 2009 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The cartoon has absolutely nothing to do with blacks or race or Barack Obama."
So the monkey wrote a stimulus package for who? Other monkeys?
February 18, 2009 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
As mentioned before, President Obama did not write the bill. Congress wrote the bill. Congress wrote the bill. So "the monkey" had nothing to do with it. You're way out on a limb here, I think.
February 18, 2009 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yet this post has 23 recommends. Think about it. The impression that one is left with is what counts or appearance is everything.
For clarity, I am stating that it is an offensive cartoon, but I am not accusing the cartoonist of purposefully creating an offensive cartoon.
February 18, 2009 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
C:\Documents and Settings\buncat>tracert seandelonas.com
Tracing route to www.seandelonas.com [67.83.96.204]
6 195 ms * 243 ms gi2-22.mpd01.ord03.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.10
.185]
7 241 ms 261 ms 341 ms vl3489.mpd01.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.
17]
8 443 ms 240 ms 450 ms te4-1.mpd01.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.
53]
9 166 ms 162 ms 159 ms te8-3.mpd03.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.4.20
2]
10 188 ms 159 ms 157 ms te2-3.mpd01.jfk01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.
145]
11 155 ms 158 ms 157 ms te4-1.ccr01.ewr02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.3.2
09]
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 155 ms 157 ms 167 ms dstswr2-ge3-16.rh.rndhnj.cv.net [67.83.249.134]
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.
Trace complete.
February 18, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now that, Rabbit, was about the most enlightening thing I've read on the thread thus far.
February 18, 2009 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
C'mon, bunny, help me out. Wha??
Explain simply if you could. None of those techie terms like "monitor" and all that shit.
February 18, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you joking, or are you being serious? I can never tell with you wiseguy types. :o) It's a trace from my computer to seandelonis.com (the cartoonist's server). And it's down, down, and down. I'm guessing he's either under attack or it's a crappy server that can't handle his newfound fame. But it's probably a DOS attack. I think they may have pulled the plug, though, because the way it's responding now, I don't think I'm even getting a real response. They're probably sick of getting pinged and they just made him disappear for awhile until the heat blows over.
Serves him right for being a Republican.
February 18, 2009 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm a wiseguy type and no I wasn't being serious (although somewhat serious in stating that the incomprehensible computer-speak was the most enlightening thing I read precisely because of its incomprehensibility). Never link to a Republican-leaning site from TPM - it could cause irreparable damage to your computer.
February 18, 2009 6:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, I was serious. But I think I get it now, I just needed to translate it into terms I understand. Like this:
DOS Attack = "Deadly Old Snowball Attack.' See, old snow gets all crunchy & has sharp edges. Serious weaponry. You have to be a right bastard to launch a DOS on someone.
As for "They're probably sick of getting pinged...." Well, can you blame him? That shit's nasty. If you manage to get REALLY pinged, you're goin' down alright.
I 'spect he'll be home cryin' to Mum soon. You pingers better split.
February 18, 2009 6:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, now I believe you. A DOS = Denial Of Service. You ping, they reply. Millions and millions and millions of times.
Ping = ping. It's a little noise your computer makes. Other computers like it and they say "Howdy!" every time you computer makes the noise. Computers are cute.
February 18, 2009 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, it's cv.net, which is Cablevision, so it's probably just crummy free hosting from his service provider. So a DOS attack could occur if more than, like, five people tried to connect to his site at the same time.
February 18, 2009 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yet this post has 23 recommends. Think about it. The impression that one is left with is what counts.
For clarity, I am stating that it is an offensive cartoon, but I am not accusing the cartoonist of purposefully creating an offensive cartoon.
February 18, 2009 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please don't judge the validity of your argument by the Rec's....I'm beggin' ya!
February 18, 2009 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
If my argument is based on people impressions than the recommends reflect people's impressions. This isn't about right and wrong but perception.
February 18, 2009 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Yet this post has 23 recommends."
Yeah, but it's TPM. :)
"For clarity, I am stating that it is an offensive cartoon, but I am not accusing the cartoonist of purposefully creating an offensive cartoon."
Consider the headline:
"The New York Post Prints Racist Cartoon Attack Against Obama"
That sounds pretty unequivocal to me, actually. If it's a racist cartoon, who's going to assume that the cartoonist isn't the racist who created it?
February 18, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Political cartoons are designed to push buttons. The New Yorker front page depiction of Barack and Michele as Muslim/militants created outrage. The NY post's chimpanzee cartoon creates outrage. Outrage is a normal thinking person's response to events. Outrage does not have to be a shared experience. I was not outraged by the Janet Jackson nipple-gate episode, for example.
Free speech means that people get to respond to depictions that seem demeaning to them. Offtimes those with the loudest megaphones are suprised when challenged. Many people loved Don Imus. Obviously Imus had rubbed many African-Americans the wrong way. Those offended by Imus included those who worked at NBC and MSNBC. The people who were upset were under no obligation to remain quiet, "chill out" or "get a grip".
If Imus or the Post get to rant every day, they cannot object when they come under attack. In the past, days to weeks would elapse before the Post would receive a negative response. In the internet age, the response comes the same day.
Do I believe that the Post was unaware that the cartoon would be viewed in a negative fashion? No.
The Post is a Murdoch operation. Bill O'Rielly of Fox News, who was surprised that Blacks ate in a normal fashion at Sylvia's Restaurant, is under the same corporate umbrella.
Imus is off the air because he ruffled feathers internally at MSNBC. O'Reilly continues to be on the air, and the Post will publish tomorrow. Free speech is alive and well.
What does the Post cartoonist have to say?
February 18, 2009 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nobody is saying people shouldn't have the right to express their outrage over perceived racism. But that also includes the right of others to point out where such claims are unwarranted. And I don't think the commenters here who don't see the racism would agree with the Post's editorial stance.
February 18, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cartoonist Sean Delonas told CNN this afternoon that the controversy was "absolutely frickin' ridiculous."
"Do you really think I'm saying Obama should be shot? I didn't see that in the cartoon," Delonas said. "It's about the economic stimulus bill. If you're going to make it about anybody, it would be about Nancy Pelosi, which it's not."
February 18, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aha, so the cartoon was just a call to assassinate Nancy Pelosi.
Well that's a relief?
February 18, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry. I can't read the guy's quote for you, but I'm pretty sure if you read it again you'll see that he said it wasn't about Pelosi.
February 18, 2009 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is Pelosi the monkey or the woman who was (tragically, I hasten to add) mauled by him/her?
February 18, 2009 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Post is sophomoric, bigoted and beyond intellectually bankrupt. This episode is inexcusable. The paper represents all that is contemptible about media efforts to dumb down the citizenry for profit, and as a matter of principle it would be unconscionable to purchase anything that contributes to the well-being of Rupert Murdoch...but, speaking as a Manhattan dweller who retrieves it out of newspaper recycling in my apartment building from time to time, I have to acknowledge that its sports writing can be great, and that its inane, punning headlines often crack people up and become incessant water cooler fodder. The Post and the Daily News have, perversely, infiltrated the DNA of most New Yorkers...even Upper West Siders like me.
It sucks, it's schizophrenic, but New Yorkers have a twisted love-hate relationship with the Post. There are certain quintessential New York stories that only the tabloids can be counted on to do justice to (the two miscreants in Hell's Kitchen who wheeled the corpse to the check-cashing store front in a desk chair to cash his Social Security check...you're gonna read about that in the TIMES??).
Take this morning's headline re: A-Rod: "NEXT TIME TRY TRUTH SERUM!" OK, we can be assholes about local idiosyncrasies, and that includes our sick addiction to the tabloids, for better or worse.
I'm with you on this story...but I'm likely to dumpster-dive soon for a Post if it has something important about a Paris DUI or a Jessica weight fluctuation. I mean, life can't be all Niall Ferguson and Drew Gilpin-Faust. Sometimes it's just Faust.
February 18, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post. Thanks from an ex-New Yorker.
February 19, 2009 1:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Something else to consider: As an aspiring cartoonist, I used to draw stuff all the time. Things I saw with my own eyes, things from television, stuff people told me about. It didn't matter. I'd just draw things. And sometimes that's how a cartoon like this gets its start. You draw the scene and only later do you come up with the caption. One time, for instance, a friend of mine and I got really baked and started drawing. I drew a picture of a guy sitting in a doctor's office with a gown on. My friend grabbed it and turned the guy's arm into a pig. Then he put a bubble over the guy and had him saying, "Doctor, this oinkment you gave me makes my arm pork." I think it was a variation on an old Henny Youngman joke or something like that. Hey, we were stoned. Anyway, we showed it to some people and everyone said it was the stupidest thing they'd ever seen. So we submitted it to National Lampoon. They didn't publish it, but I imagine if they had, we would have been accused of doing something wrong by animal rights activists or doctors or something...
February 18, 2009 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Friends don't let friends cartoon stoned.
Strangers do though.
Hey stranger!
February 18, 2009 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is the dumbest thread of comments we've had since the primaries ended.
February 18, 2009 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
And I helped! :o)
February 18, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
You guys really get Obama out of that? Where were the catcalls when Jon Stewart actually DID mock the President by calling him a chimp.
Tempest in a teapot.
February 18, 2009 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
"You guys really get Obama out of that? Where were the catcalls when Jon Stewart actually DID mock the President by calling him a chimp.
Tempest in a teapot."
Curious. Does that counter-approach apply to state-sanctioned torture as well? After all, I've never been tortured, nor do I know anyone who has, so why give it much thought? Better yet, let's simply embrace and perpetuate wrongs instead of trying to right them, because, after all, someone did before us.
Sheesh...
February 18, 2009 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
My point wasn't to embrace or perpetuate a wrong. My point was there wasn't a wrong at all, and that the folks saying that there was were doing so for political gain.
IE: The original poster is a giant hypocrite.
Now, I have nothing against hypocrisy; but I enjoy pointing it out in those who DO have something against it.
February 19, 2009 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
The cartoonist says the cartoon ape wasn't Obama or Pelosi. Who/What then does the ape represent? Count me as skeptical. A-Rod told Katie Couric that he never used steroids. Roland Burris said that he had no conversation with anyone related to Blagojevech about the Illinois Senate seat. Both A-Rod and Burris seem to have some explaining to do.
The gun and bullet holes suggest the demise of the person/person's who wrote the stimulus bill. Who was the artist's depicting? Similar to the New Yorker cover, if you have to do this much explaining, your cartoon wasn't that effective.
The cartoonist's response makes as much sense as A-Rod injecting himself with an unknown substance.
February 18, 2009 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
hrebendorf: "That sounds pretty unequivocal to me, actually. If it's a racist cartoon, who's going to assume that the cartoonist isn't the racist who created it?"
No. It could have been unintentional. Some things stream from the collective unconscious unbeknownst to the conduit, in this case the cartoonist. The editor should have noted the problem and ask for a redo. But then again, it's the post.
February 18, 2009 7:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Correction: It's the NY Post.
February 18, 2009 7:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently the cartoonist has a long history of mixing cartoons with bigotry:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/18/new-york-post-cartoon-race
February 18, 2009 8:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good god! I wish there were a way to anti-rec this post.
Here is a story from yesterday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/nyregion/17chimp.html
If you are in the tri-state area (the real one that involves NYC), it would be on your mind. This is the reference made.
Also, as others have pointed out, Congress writes bills, too.
To see a monkey and immediately think "Obama" tells me a lot more about the person to make the connection than it does anything else.
Were it not for this blog, the connection would never have occurred to me. In fact, I would have said: "this is stupid, it barely makes sense and plays only on one level."
Why is it that people really look hard to see something that isn't there?
February 18, 2009 7:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
"To see a monkey and immediately think "Obama" tells me a lot more about the person to make the connection than it does anything else."
Who said that was the case?
February 18, 2009 8:04 PM | Repl