update 2/20 at 10:20 am: Thanks Steve for pointing out the error in the title of this post…which had the Washington Post. It’s NY Post, the correction to the titles has been made.
Yesterday my hubby was worked up about a political cartoon I hadn’t seen. I caught a glimpse of Al Sharpton talking about it on MSNBC but I immediately tuned out. I was in my own world not wanting to take in anything that wouldn’t make me feel good. I have days when my theme song is Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News… Over the past couple of weeks its been bad news with good news sprinkled in between across all fronts.
But last night after my girl Marci called upset too about the same cartoon, I knew I had to SEE what the heck was going on.
The Cartoon by Sean Delonas As Seen In The NY Post
What’s Wrong With This Cartoon? What’s The Big Deal?
Before I get into MY interpretation of this VILE cartoon, I want to make sure that we are all clear on a few things:
1. I Love White People.
2. Some Of My Best Friends Are White.
3. I am a Black woman from Compton with preconceived notions about POLICE (to put it mildly NWA was my favorite group growing up…get the picture?)
It’s important that we all understand these three points because there is a tendency for people to see my picture in all my blackness and assume that I’m a terrorist fist bumping militant Comptonite looking for ways to blame “the man”. Thats not me! I want to make it abundantly clear here and now. The the 3rd is an important point because oftentimes our experiences do play a part in shaping our perceptions.
What is obvious to one person may not be so obvious to another. While it’s extremely hard for me to see how anyone else might see something different from what I see in this image…. I know its possible and that in some crazy way this may be like a paradigm (but I doubt it).
Now Here Are My Thoughts On The Cartoon:
“Don’t piss on my head and tell me it’s raining.” — Unknown
That drawing is very offensive. I would even go as far as calling it a borderline (tap dancing in gray areas) treasonous domestic terroristic threat. In my opinion the drawing published by the NY Posts boldly suggests that the Commander and Chief (our 44th President not the 43rd) is a monkey deserving to be shot and killed for passing the Stimulus Bill. For the past two weeks or more the stimulus bill has been referred to as Obama’s stimulus bill ….the text on this cartoon reads:
“They’ll Have To Find SOMEONE Else To Write The Next Stimulus Bill.”
The word someone is singular (meaning ‘someone’ refers to one person). The cartoonist could have said “some other people” or “some more people” etc… but he deliberately chose the word someone. Clearly this cartoon is not about any of the people (plural) that had input and/or supported the Stimulus Bill. This cartoon is a about someone in particular!!! Someone! Which one? That one? SOMEONE! Have we forgotten the whole Curious George t-shirt thing?
Here’s the bottom line:
The shot up bleeding dead monkey laying on the sidewalk (next to probably Main Street) in a city near parked cars and a beware of dog sign shot by the white police officers represents the person that signed the Stimulus Bill, President Barack Obama.
This is not the first time that monkey imagery has been used with regards to Barack Obama. It is certainly not the first time that monkey imagery has been used to depict a Black man. (*note to anyone thinking but Barack Obama is 1/2 white… yes we all know and acknowledge that he’s biracial. However, historically in this country dating back to slavery a drop of black means you’re black period…I didn’t make the rules. Apparently, it’s the American way. When you fill out a job application, the bubbles on the SAT, or the forms at the dentist… there is no box for biracial).
The Two White Police (Overseers) Officers in the cartoon represent the white supremacy system that has ruled this land with an iron fist for centuries (YES I SAID CENTURIES). Police are supposed to serve and protect (who and what is often the question). In this cartoon, the police are serving and protecting not just “the establishment” but the establishment of white supremacy. The officers have no other way to subdue or over power the animal (its stronger faster and has more power), so they shoot it! A lot of power comes with being President of the United States and while a great number of us are happy with our current president, there are still those that feel threatened by his Presidency. (Especially white supremacists).
I know that any mention of white supremacy causes discomfort for some folks but you would have to be in extreme denial or living under a rock in another galaxy far far away to not be aware of the system that many blacks and whites have fought side by side to overthrow. YES I SAID OVERTHROW!!!!! That cartoon reeks of white supremacy imagery all the way down to the “beware of dog” sign. I’m surprised there was no fire hydrant and hose!
Right here in America, dogs were used to hunt down runaway slaves and later to attack Civil Rights Marchers. They still use dogs (don’t you watch Cops). That “beware of dog” sign in that drawing screams ugliness. I know some people think Black people need to get over it and move forward (I never hear anyone say anything like that about my Jewish brothers and sisters)…My answer to ‘Black people getting over it and moving forward’ is most of us have… but the fact that we have does not erase or rewrite the past. History is what it is! We teach history in schools because we should LEARN from our history right?
History teaches us that Police Overseers have not been kind to Black folks. In fact, we hear about cases of police brutality and killings almost every day!
Many of us have an inherent distrust of Police and it usually takes a friend or family member to become one for us to even open our minds to the possibility that all police are not the same…. (Sad huh?) So if it’s like that for some Black people, how must it be for some White police officers?
The fact that the cartoonist chose to show cops shooting a monkey on a city street is bothersome for the above reasons but also another reason… while there is no street sign in the drawing, that scene appears to be Main Street. You know the hypothetical street that every day Americans live on that President Barack Obama and others often refer to… If the monkey was shot for presumably wanting to help those on Main street, what would the officers rather happen with the folks on Main Street? (Let Them Eat Cake I Guess)
BOYCOTT:
To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion.
So why boycott? Well it’s a means of hitting them where it hurts (their pockets). They being those responsible for publishing the cartoon. (see the note from The Color of Change below).
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” — Marcus Garvey
Color of Change
Yesterday, the day after President Obama signed his stimulus bill into law, the NY Post ran a cartoon depicting the bill’s “author” as a dead monkey, covered in blood after being shot by police. You can see the image by clicking on the link below.
In the face of intense criticism, the Post’s editor is standing by the cartoon, claiming that it’s not about Obama, has no racial undertones, and that it was simply referencing a recent incident when police shot a pet chimpanzee. But it’s impossible to believe that any newspaper editor could be ignorant enough to not understand how this cartoon evokes a history of racist symbolism, or how frightening this image feels at a time when death threats against President Obama have been on the rise.
Please join me and other ColorOfChange.org members in demanding that the Post apologize publicly and fire the editor who allowed this cartoon to go to print:
http://www.colorofchange.org/nypost/?id=2148-349821
The Post would have us believe that the cartoon is not about Obama. But on the page just before the cartoon appears, there’s a big picture of Obama signing the stimulus bill. A reader paging through the Post would see Obama putting pen to paper, then turn the page to see this violent cartoon. The imagery is chilling.
There is a clear history in our country of racist symbolism that depicts Black people as apes or monkeys, and it came up multiple times during the presidential campaign.
We’re also in a time of increased race-based violence. In the months following President Obama’s election there has been a nationwide surge in hate crimes ranging from vandalism to assaults to arson on Black churches. There has been an unprecedented number of threats against President Obama since he was elected, with hate-based groups fantasizing about the killing of the president. Just a week ago, a man drove from Louisiana to the Capitol with a rifle, telling the police who stopped him that he had a “delivery” for the president.
There is no excuse for the Post to have allowed this cartoon to be printed, and even less for Editor Col Allan’s outright dismissal of legitimate concerns.
But let’s be clear who’s behind the Post: Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch, the Post’s owner, is the man behind FOX News Channel. FOX has continually attacked and denigrated Black people, politicians, institutions at every opportunity, and ColorOfChange has run several campaigns to make clear how FOX poisons public debate.
I don’t expect much from Murdoch. However, with enough public pressure, we can set the stage for advertisers and subscribers to think long and hard before patronizing outlets like the Post that refuse to be held accountable.
You can help, by making clear that the Post’s behavior is unacceptable, and by asking your friends and family to do the same. Please join me:
