'toonist RAMIREZ -- crossing the wingnut RACIST line? Or am I over-reacting (OBAMA)

[UTUSN]

On SIGHT, this rubbed me the wrong way, the way all wingnut trash does, but there was something VISCERAL about it. Something about the jug ears, something about the direct reference to a foreign culture, something about the pronoun "it" as depersonalized and inhuman. But as the minutes passed in trying to find it on the web, I confessed to myself that I -----------LEURVE---------seeing Shrub and other wingnuts being skewered. So is RAMIREZ crossing a line or am I over-reacting to "normal" comedic license?



O.K., fine: Lookism is a legit stock-in-trade, so I would love it if some of our DU artists would work over THIS suit-boy's looks:


*******QUOTE*******

https://www.copleynews.com/1cns/EditorialCartoons/rz/ramirezcontents.htm#BIO

MICHAEL RAMIREZ
BIOGRAPHY

Senior Editor/Editorial Cartoonist
Investor's Business Daily

Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Ramirez combines an encyclopedic knowledge of the news with a captivating drawing style to create consistently outstanding editorial cartoons. Ramirez, who studied premed at the University of California, Irvine, originally considered journalism a hobby. But he was hooked when his first cartoon for the college newspaper, lampooning candidates for student office, had the student assembly demanding an apology. "Editorial cartoons should be smart and substantive, provocative and informative. They should stir passions and deep emotions. Editorial cartoons should be the catalyst for thought, and frankly speaking, if you can make politicians think, that is an accomplishment in itself. If I don't get at least one death threat every few months, then I'm not doing my job," Ramirez says of his penchant for sparking controversy. In addition to the 1994 Pulitzer Prize, Ramirez is a two-time Sigma Delta Chi, Society of Professional Journalism Award winner, a Lincoln Fellow and a recipient of the UCI Medal. He is a senior editor and the editorial cartoonist for Investor's Business Daily. He is formerly the editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times, The Memphis Commercial Appeal and a contributing cartoonist for USA Today. He has been syndicated with Copley News Service since 1988.

********UNQUOTE*******

[flyingfysh]

1. it doesn't look racist to me

Cartoonists often use physical features to caricature well-known people.

Besides, the "statue" may have indicated someone in the ruling class on Easter Island. They were all Polynesian, so there is nothing racial about the cartoon that I can see.

[Warpy]

2. It's right on the money to me

since Brazile has been working at packaging him as a man who has never taken a position on any issue, ever, and has never voiced anything controversial in his life. It's quite a turnaround from that 2003 Illinois legislature firebrand.

Racist? Nope.

I hate agreeing with wingnuts.

[msongs]

3. watch or you'll be whacked with a bible for saying that nt

[Warpy]

16. I've been saying it for a while

and have had more positive feedback than spluttering slams from hero worshipers.

I would love to see an articulate, compassionate black man as president. I just don't think Obama is it, thanks to the kindly attention of DLC wonks like Brazile.

[UTUSN]

5. Is Donna BRAZILE working for him? Another losing campaign. n/t

[Little Wing]

7. Why can't she pack her shit and fuck off, forever

Sometimes I think she's a GOP plant.

[4morewars]

13. That reminds me of dick cheney !

:toast:

[SmokingJacket]

9. Ohmigod. Brazile?? Why, Obama, why?????? nt

[sharp_stick]

4. I don't find it racist

Honestly though I don't find it funny or interesting either. I suppose the point would be that we don't know very much, if anything, about the Easter Island statues and at least to repukes we don't know much about Obama either.

My review: About as funny as your average Mallard Filmore bird cage flooring but much better artwork.

[BlooInBloo]

6. I think it's just a Stonehenge-y sort of thing.

[TahitiNut]

17. Easter Island monoliths ... (they're famous)

[UTUSN]

18. But they don't have jug ears n/t

[TahitiNut]

20. Some do. Some don't. Some listen. Some don't.

Personally, I don't know what's racist about "jug ears." I don't even personally regard Obama's ears to be very remarkable ... except perhaps that they work. (Most politicians' ears don't seem to.)

The monoliths at Easter Island are thought to represent Polynesian/Oceanian people. I have no idea how that supposedly relates to Obama or racism.

:shrug:

[Recursion]

8. Mmmm... gotta say no

Cartoonists have to use what they can to make it clear whom they are drawing, and Obama will always be "ears man" to cartoonists for that reason. The statues are from Easter Island, and I think the only point is that to "the public" (the two hikers) Obama has the kind of mysterious fascination that those statues have: they don't know much about him but they like what they do know.

Frankly he has a point: Obama doesn't have a long public record, but people really like what they hear him say.

[trof]

10. OMG! It's leaning to the LEFT!

Oh dear.
;-)

[symbolman]

11. Ramiriz is a right wing hack

a nice guy in person, I've met him, and a lot of cartoonists as my wife is a member of the National Cartoonists Society, we go to Reubens (the Oscar of cartoonists) many times.

This is a reference to a dead culture, and is better in some ways than most of his cartoons, he's a great illustrator, but a lot of times he gets so into the Repig "code" language that he's indesipherable to NORMAL people.

Too bad, he'd be good but that language spoken by the right wing gets more bizarre each day. They did the same time under Bush One and Reagan, only they understand the code they speak as they dwindle in numbers, until the American public doesn't understand what the hell they are saying.

It's happening right now. :)

[Buzz Clik]

14. Ramirez is one of the few right leaning cartoonists who isn't an idiot.

I like this cartoon, and I find nothing ethnic or racist about it. Ramirez found similarity between the statues and Obama's face. No problem there.

Trying to cram this into an ethnic slight is a huge extrapolation. (Obama is a 50/50 mix of African and Kansan, and the statues were built by Polynesians. Any similarities are in the eye of the beholder.)

[symbolman]

22. If you're going to be so literal

when this is about someone making subliminal statements, allusions, metaphors, etc then why bother arguing with someone who's MET the guy, read his comics for years?

No, NO ONE would stick up a pic of a LOW BROW (associated with unintelligent savages), carving from a DEAD TRIBE, who worshipped BIRDIES and compare it to a BLACK MAN. Not a SLAM on the right wing talking point that Obama IS A MUSLIM (another dead religion according to the right) either eh?

This is what I mean by DUMB. The cartoonist is thinking he's SO clever on so many levels, when he's just MORE SICK than he'll ever admit to. NO ONE would hang out with this guy at the National Cartoonists Society gigs and guess what, they are mostly LIBERALS and LOVE everyone. He's a turd in the punchbowl.

Racism is in the eye of the PROVIDER of such material, and I DO believe this is an underhanded racist cartoon.

You think he's smart, I think he's a right wing boob who draws well.. hit me again, actually save yourself the time, I'm all done now, especially with RamirISN'T.

[devilgrrl]

24. Here's some of his stupider crap...

The liberal media vs. *


The GOP wave in 2004


Bashing the French

[thereismore]

12. I don't like it. A cartoon that needs to print a person's name on a

character/object for it to work is second-rate anyway. I do find it offensive from the ethnic aspect.

[Kindigger]

15. Maybe

if he had caricatured the small one as Hillary, he wouldn't have had to label it.

[UTUSN]

19. Here's his bio: He's Mexican/Japanese-American

*******QUOTE*******

http://today.uci.edu/Features/profile_detail.asp?key=42

Michael Ramirez
Alumnus, editorial cartoonist
Drawing blood


.... The Pulitzer Prize winner really does have a negative opinion of President Clinton, and will cheerfully give details. Ramirez is a Republican and a conservative, both rarities among political cartoonists. He says, however, that this doesn't bind or even predict his opinions. With equal glee, he depicted Bob Dole - during the 1996 presidential campaign - as a matron in a dress, opening a box of Valentine candy. "I knew you loved me," Ramirez's Dole says. The elephant beside him replies, "I couldn't get another @*#!! date." ....

.... Ramirez was born in Tokyo in 1961, the son of a Mexican American father and a Japanese mother. "It was a great romance, because at the time Japan still had a very closed society," Ramirez said. "In fact, her parents had to disown her for awhile after my parents got married. Later they loved my Dad, but it was a social thing they had to do."

His father was a first-generation American. "My grandfather actually fled across the border at Nogales. He was a political refugee-I can't remember who he was fighting with." His father's 12 brothers and sisters "all liked my mom. There was no problem because they really represented the American dream; they're immigrants coming to the United States and all very much dedicated Americans. My uncles all fought in the service."

The family ultimately fulfilled the American dream. His father, who had picked crops as a young man, went on to a career in the Orange County Tax Assessor's office. Ramirez's two brothers and two sisters all became medical doctors, and Ramirez jokes that as a journalist he's the low-achiever of the family. His father has died but his mother still lives in Mission Viejo, and Ramirez says she'd be happy to have him deliver newspapers, much less help write them, just to have him come home again. ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ramirez

Michael Ramirez
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Michael Patrick Ramirez (born May 11, 1961) is an American Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist. His cartoons present a conservative viewpoint.

Ramirez was born in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from the University of California, Irvine, in 1984 with a bachelors degree. He has worked for The Commercial Appeal of Memphis for seven years and then for the Los Angeles Times. In 1994, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. He has also been awarded the 1996 Mencken Award for Best Cartoon. He is a regular contributor to USA Today and his work has a subscription/distribution of over five hundred and fifty newspapers and magazines through Copley News Service.

Ramirez initially studied premed in college and considered journalism a hobby but became hooked when his first cartoon for the college newspaper, lampooning candidates for student office, had the student assembly demanding an apology.


Hate cartoon controversy
In October of 2000, the Los Angeles Times published a Ramirez cartoon that appeared to depict a Jewish man worshiping the word "Hate" embedded into the Western Wall. According to the Times Associate Editor Narda Zacchino ombudsman, this provoked an "unprecedented" negative reaction.

Ramirez denied singling out Jews, claiming that the wall in the cartoon was not meant to suggest the Western Wall, and that while there was a Jew worshiping at the hate wall, there was also a figure bowing before it wearing a kaffiyeh (though it is difficult to see). <1><2>

"If I don't get at least one phone call a day that says I'm a moron, I'm not doing my job," Ramirez says of his penchant for sparking controversy with his cartoons.


Cartoon discontinued
On November 12, 2005, the Times announced that his cartoon would be discontinued at the end of the year. Ramirez expressed disappointment about the discontinuation. Ramirez joined Investor's Business Daily as a senior editor/editorial cartoonist, and his cartoon is syndicated in more than 400 newspapers by Copley News Service. He has been syndicated by Copley News Service since 1988.

Ramirez was named a Lincoln Fellow by the Claremont Institute in 2004.

********UNQUOTE*******

[Cocoa]

21. a rare Ramirez cartoon that is at all interesting

normally his cartoons are so devoid of any creativity or humor or subtlety that I wonder how they got published. I imagine a regular routine where Rove sends Ramirez the day's talking point with instructions to illustrate it, with special instructions to make it as crude as possible.

[NoodleyAppendage]

23. Got his right-wing "street cred" at the Memphis Commercial Appeal. RW rag.

As a lifelong Memphian, I remember when this tool was cartooning for the Commercial Appeal. The CA editorial board/page was always bent to the right and the paper typically buries anything counter to the Reich wing in the back of the paper. All-in-all he's a schooled right-wing asshole...

J