Politics | 02/19/2009 8:25 am
Paterson, Sharpton Slam NY Post Chimp Cartoon
© AP
A New York Post cartoon depicting police officers shooting a chimpanzee has caused quite a ruckus in the Big Apple.
The editorial cartoon has the shooting officer saying: "They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
The Post higher ups say the cartoon was a reference to the chimp that mauled a Connecticut woman, and described it as a "clear parody of a current news event" and "broadly mocks Washington’s efforts to revive the economy" with the $787 billion stimulus package. But Rev. Al Sharpton, New York Gov. David Paterson and thousands of others aren’t buying it, saying the chimp is an obvious — and racist — interpretation of Obama.
Paterson said images of black people portrayed as primates "do feed a kind of negative and stereotypical way that some people think." Sharpton suggested the Post even reprimand its cartoonist, Sean Delonas. To that end, Sharpton’s leading a protest today in front of the paper’s office.
"It doesn’t take a poll to know that many black people are going to be offended by this cartoon," writes Frank James at The Swamp. "As an African American, I must admit the cartoon made my bile rise somewhat when I contemplated it."
Delonas told CNN "it’s absolutely friggin ridiculous" that people think he’s trying to say Obama should be shot, and that if the chimp was supposed to be anybody, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be the most likely candidate, since she was a major force in pushing the stimulus through Congress.
Read more about: Al Sharpton, Barack Obama, Chimp Attack, Chimpanzee, Connecticut, David Paterson, Economic Stimulus, Editorial Cartoon, Nancy Pelosi, New York Post, News, President Obama, U.S.
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172 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
I saw it yesterday and was somewhat repelled. But, the NYPost has always been challenged when it comes to race relations. This isn’t the first time they’ve been called on it.
When I first saw this cartoon, my first thought was the use of a primate; one used to see primates used as a sterotype. Sad that it still has to be this way.
The mood inside the New York Post, it seems, is a mix of anger and bewilderment that the paper published a cartoon depicting the authors of the stimulus as a dead, crazed chimpanzee.
On Wednesday, an employee of the paper told the Huffington Post that the phone lines had been inundated with complaints over what was interpreted as a racially charged jab at Obama. "As they f—king should be," said the source.
Today, meanwhile, the Post’s Associate Editor, Sandra Guzman, sent out an email to other reporters distancing herself from the paper’s cartoon and acknowledging that she has talked to management about her disapproval.
"Thank you for your feedback," reads the email. "Please know that I had nothing to do with the Sean Delonas cartoon. I neither commissioned or approved it. I saw it in the paper yesterday with the rest of the world. And, I have raised my objections to management. —Sandra Guzman."
Truly offensive. Yet….perspective means everything. And how apropos that one of the topics the ladies of wOw are offering up for conversation today is what Attorney General Holder has to say as it relates to race.
In so many ways race means nothing these days, but still again it means everything…a true contradiction. We elected a Black man for President and for most who voted for him we looked at who he is, not his race. That says a lot. But we still view situations, words, incidents through a prism of racially acceptable or not acceptable.
When I first saw the cartoon at issue, I thought "oh I get it, huh not funny" But not one second did I see that chimp as our President. I assumed the cartoonist was poking fun at the stimulus package being so stupid and poorly written, even a chimp had written it. It truly wasn’t until the news commentator began to speak, stating that it was racially offensive that my thought process changed. I realized, yes it could come across that way.
The issue is I know I’m not alone in my first reaction. And that says something. I didn’t think race first and I’m a Black woman. Yet my second thought went to race, almost as if I had to remind myself that the cartoonist may indeed be a racist and not have had a purely innocent slant when he conceived the image. And there in lies the problem when it comes to race in America. Getting to the point where we don’t have to pick apart and analyze words, images, statements to decided what is and is not offensive. To get to a point where we can accept things and people on face value.