Reverend Al Sharpton had the following to say about the New York Post's editorial cartoon: Statement by Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network
New York, NY (February 18, 2009) --The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best, given the racist attacks throughout history that have made African-Americans synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual inference to this form of racism when, in the cartoon, the police say after shooting a chimpanzee, “now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.”
Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder whether the Post cartoonist was inferring that a monkey wrote it? Given that the New York Post cartoonist has come under heavy fire in the past for racially tinged cartoons including the infamous cartoons depicting 2001 mayoral candidate Freddy Ferrer and me in very unflattering ways (that ultimately was used as a campaign tactic to inflame racial prejudices), one cannot ignore that history when looking at this morning’s cartoon.
The Post should at least clarify what point they were trying to make in this cartoon, and reprimand their cartoonist for making inferences that are offensive and divisive at a time the nation struggles to come together to stabilize the economy if, in fact, this was yet another racially charged cartoon.
What do YOU have to say about this?
Posts
3 comments:
It is and was generated by a racist ‘character’, the NY Post Editor, who thinks it is OK, and more importantly, ignorant of the fact that he is a ‘transparent’ racist, placed in a ‘responsible’ position of the media.
If you read the various ‘tomes’ where the NY Post Editor, who approved the ‘cartoon’, states, and I quote “I did not and still do not believe that the cartoon is/was racist nor harbored any racial undertones”, I call that what it is, a public ‘lie’. Any U.S.-born, educated, responsible adult past the age of 21, and I think age is important here( Barry, referencing your ‘generational’ question), would not even remotely ‘miss’ the historical and well-documented implications of the pictorial and analogous, referential meaning of a ‘monkey’ and the police shooting that monkey, being directly related to the well-documented American history of an ‘oppressed’ and persecuted American Black person/man. Throw in the ‘words’ attributed to this cartoon, and not just ‘any’, but I suggest ‘EVERY’ ‘thinking’, home-schooled or public school, U.S.-born citizen, male and female over 21, let alone one who is responsible for the publication of a very powerful medium and widespread for of communication like the ‘vaunted’ NY Post, would not have missed, let alone, totally ignored the negative connotation, and absolute meaning of this horrendous depiction.
Finally, the ‘outrage’ in any society is totally relative to their experience, knowledge, upbringing, and common sense, and in that context, I believe every American-born Black person, regardless of age or generation, gets ‘outraged’ when confronted with blatant racism. Now, if you wonder how everyone expresses their ‘outrage’…that is open to discussion and discovery.
This is my opinion, for what it is worth. I would welcome all of my friends, family and associates to weigh-in on this very topical and polarizing discussion, as you see it.
JGG Sr.
Hey,
The inertia of our culture carries us blindly into the future. The cartoonist could not see their racism because of their notion of what is normal. We could not "not see" that same racism because of our cultural normal. At some point we are going to have to extend beyond the inability of the members of the dying racial hegemony and take a proactive, preemptive, stance to shape the minds of those who are blind to their own racism. What is it that we must do to them and ourselves?
Em
Wow guys. I do not claim to be unaffected by this new effort to have folks following the white rabbit. Typical at most.
It is racist. It is certainly foolishness. I don't buy the Post, never plan to.
I'm on Lil' John's page....
The white folks that supported Obama and pushed the vote in his favor did so under the cover of night. Why on earth would they stand up and be counted in the group of folks slighted by this bull-ish. They have nothing else to gain, and from now on no one can say they didn't do their part to support our "cause", "movement", our "collective comeuppance". All eyes are on how we approach everything that is being shoved down our shiny new positional pipes. Are we going to be more conscious, more patriotic, more likely to push our children to excellence, less likely to use "Nigger" in small talk, or even become more politically active......hell no!!!!! For more than most of us, it's business as usual, just like the Post cartoon.
I don't feel stung....just the "gnat-in-the-ear" effect. We are hated world wide. Where ever and every where in this universe. So what...
Who among us has ever known this to be different or new? We have much bigger fish to fry. In the position i'm in for the Philadelphia school district, my charge is to get parents involved in their kids lives...for real. F the Post, the editor, and it's companies and holdin's. You have to stop Shit at it's source, not after it hits the ground. Getting them in in their pockets will be the ONLY way to stop them from doing what they do.
So as a FAMILY...how do we proceed. Let's be about it this time folks. I'm down....what you wanna do?
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