Monkey cartoon: Is Sharpton right to get upset about this?

[Stinky The Clown]

In case you haven't heard, a woman's pet monkey was shot by police as it mauled her friend. Today, the NY Post ran this cartoon. Sharpton is saying he thinks it is racist and a slam against Obama.

I can see that.

What do you think?

[Frustratedlady]

1. Absolutely! How could you take it any other way?

The Post should be charged with racism and maybe that would stop any further filth like this being put out. I can't imagine what they were thinking.

[Wickerman]

2. I'm trying, but I can't think of any other message except blatant racism

stereotyping and threat of harm to the POTUS

[emulatorloo]

3. Really Questionable -- and what will mentally disturbed people see in it?

It is pretty weird. Even worse:

If you were a insane person you might think that it was an instruction to take action and get a gun.

[DeepBlueC]

12. insane people don't take instruction from newspapers like this

only Republicans.

[TroglodyteScholar]

96. Is there some kind of distinction you're trying to draw?

I'm not seeing it....

[DeepBlueC]

101. it's an insult to lunatics

[TroglodyteScholar]

102. My apologies to the lunatics in the room...

:crazy:

[Glorfindel]

4. Yes, of course. The thing is unspeakably vile

The Secret Service should do a bit of investigating.

[no_hypocrisy]

How could he remain silent about this particular cartoon?

It's more than offensive. It's bordering on inciting a violent incident in the future.

[YOY]

5. Is this some take on the 1000 monkeys writing for 1000 years thing?

Cos it doesn't look like it.

[crikkett]

8. It's a 'macaca moment' to be sure. n/t

[Orsino]

29. If the cartoonist had had time to draw 1000+ apes...

...that's how I would see it. Because there's only one, and Obama is the only individual associated with the stimulus, it's pretty plainly a racist slur.

[YOY]

34. I do concur.

n.t.

[Myrina]

6. Without a doubt.

OMFG. :wow:

[jobycom]

7. I guess the Post meant that Obama's bill seemed to be written by monkeys

but good God, they can't be that tone deaf to racist iconography. Of course Sharpton is right to see racist overtones, and they would have to be deliberate, and it's hard to believe the Post wasn't deliberately trying to goad such a response from Sharpton and other Human Rights activists.

Disgusting, but it's the Post.

[Cabcere]

9. That's my thought as well

giving them the full benefit of the doubt, that could be what they were trying to say. However...yeah. Not appropriate.

[DeepBlueC]

11. there is only one monkey in the cartoon

I do not think there is any question about the editorial intent.

[jobycom]

16. So you honestly think someone said "Let's call Obama a monkey and shoot him?"

Sorry, not even the Post editors are that stupid. I'm sure they knew all interpretations, but they will claim they were trying to say the stimulus plan is so illogical it had to be written by a chimpanzee.

[DeepBlueC]

25. and the chimpanzee would be...?

I don't see how this is any way to escape the implication that Obama=Chimpanzee Run Amok. It does not suggest that anyone SHOULD shoot the chimpanzee just that he has been shot. It may suggest that Obama went nuts on this bill and that he has failed and is now discredited. The Republicans believe that. The imagery though is pretty fucking rude and inflammatory and racist in the crudest possible way. Even if they advance your argument, it is hardly exculpatory.

[dysfunctional press]

40. the chimpanzee that was shot by police after mauling a woman this past week.

it's a fairly big story in nyc.

[DeepBlueC]

51. I am aware of that

do you see where I am from?

[DeepBlueC]

54. symbolically, who is the chimpanzee?

That was my question. I thought it was obvious.I follow the news myself, especially in my own state. When you mention that chimp in relation to the stimulus bill it implies chimp=Obama.

[dysfunctional press]

57. symbolically- it probably represents all those responsible for actually writing the stimulus bill.

and that's not obama.

[DeepBlueC]

61. who do the Republicans blame for this bill?

have you ever taken a course in literature or poetry or art? You seem to have a very weak grasp of the vocabulary of metaphor.

[jobycom]

47. I never claimed it was exculpatory.

Read my post again.

[DeepBlueC]

52. the excuse you say they will use

is no excuse at all. That is why I said it was not exculpatory.

[Marrah_G]

36. Yeah I think someone did say that, maybe not outloud though, and then others looked away

One cannot live in this country, run a newspaper and not realize the racial undertones of that picture.

[jobycom]

49. But that's exactly what I said.

Yes, they knew the undertones. The post I was responding to claimed that there was no overtone, that the only intent of the cartoon was to call Obama a monkey.

[blondeatlast]

18. I saw it much the same. I thought of the "1000 monkeys" reference but

knowing the Post, I know it was more nefarious than that.

You nailed the Post's thinking even if they would never admit it.

[DeepBlueC]

31. there is only one monkey there

that is why there is NO graphic reference to 1000 monkeys.

[dysfunctional press]

37. the reference is to the monkey that was shot by police this past week...

it's a bigger press story in nyc than elsewhere.

[DeepBlueC]

56. it's all over CNN, MSNBC etc

To the tabloid networks of today (which means pretty much all of them but PBS) this will always be a national story unfortunately.

[RaleighNCDUer]

78. Exactly. He is lying on the curb, not sitting at a typewriter.

The 'thousand monkeys' never occurred to me on seeing that - after all, the postulate is that infinite monkeys (not 1000 monkeys) could write Shakespeare - and I don't think they are inferring that the stimulus bill is Shakesperian.

[dysfunctional press]

32. the monkey tie-in is also the story about the woman who was mauled by a chimp...

and that story is probably getting more press in nyc than in the rest of the country.

[jobycom]

48. I know that. The story has been big news everywhere.

[wryter2000]

89. We've heard about it in CA

It's quite big here.

[Gormy Cuss]

98. "...they can't be that tone deaf to racist iconography." -- that would be it in a nutshell.

I doubt it too. Someone made the choice to go ahead with a crazed chimp image for Obama.

[whistler162]

100. Or Former President Bush?

[Z_I_Peevey]

10. That's sickening!

I don't think there's any question about the racism.

[Renew Deal]

13. What does the monkey have to do with the stimulus?

Explain that.

[Solomon]

75. Thank-you. Anybody refusing to see the racism here is doing

just that: refusing to see it.

[Ohio Joe]

14. Obviously racist

Disgusting.

[Zywiec]

15. The Executive Branch wrote the stimulus bill that Congress voted on?

I don't see the connection since Obama didn't write the first one...

:shrug:

[Lost in CT]

17. Yes it is racist.

Of course if we didn't have eight years of depicting the Chief executive as a Chimp I would have a little more outrage.

That said the cartoon is in very bad taste and the Post should apologize.

[RamboLiberal]

19. I saw the cartoon before I heard Sharpton is outraged

I was outragaged and I think Sharpton has every right to be. Take it to the airwaves and raise hell about Rev. Al.

[SmileyRose]

20. I wish I could go back in time and beat the shit out of jim crow fuckwits

This is horribly racist whether the artist intended it to be or not. Not to mention how disturbing someone sat there and drew a living creature with blood spattered everywhere.

When I moved to Georgia from Michigan I got involved with a children's charity in the City of Atlanta. I spent hours and days and months making sock monkeys. I had one when I was a kid and it was the perfect size and shape to drag around when I was sick. There was nothing racist about my childhood or my upbringing except being aware there were racists in the world. Associating monkeys with black people was just the most foreign thing in the world to me. But you bet when I showed up with this box full of lovingly handmade sock monkeys to give to black kids the whole thing hit the fan. I was so embarrassed and mortified that I quit the charity in shame.

Monkeys should be cute, not racist. The asswipes who ruined it - I hope they are burning in hell.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

85. But you got slammed because people refused to see your intent

And that is a huge problem for me.

[kentuck]

21. Could it be any more blatant ??

I don't see how.

[butterfly77]

22. Yes..

[Tarc]

23. Sharpton's right, but given his past history of backing fradulent cases

i.e. Tawana Brawley, he should probably sit this one out.

[dysfunctional press]

24. NOT racist...it's a slam on the convoluted nature of the bill-

like something a monkey might have written.

does anyone really think that obama wrote the stimulus bill himself? :shrug:

[Lucinda]

33. That's my take on it as well.

It's a stupid cartoon though.

[DeepBlueC]

35. Obama is the one Republicans blame

And he himself has said that he will be held accountable for it.

[Zywiec]

65. Yes, people here do think Obama wrote the stimulus bill

I've seen people claim Obama is in charge of all three branches of government.

:crazy:

[slampoet]

66. Then WHERE IS THE TYPEWRITER??????

I order for it to be a metaphor/simile you need to complete the metaphor.


You can say "Happy as a clam"

but it doesn't make any sense unless you finish the simile which is "happy as a clam at high tide."

[DeepBlueC]

72. oh thank God

I'm thinking we need a remedial class right here in this thread.

[DeepBlueC]

74. maybe you could take on post #44

I injured my jaw when it hit the floor. :hi:

[dysfunctional press]

88. perhaps the 1,000 monkeys at 1,000 typewriters putting out war&peace isn't the intended metaphor ?

maybe it's something as simple as 'the bill seems so convoluted that a monkey must have written it'.

[slampoet]

95. Monkeys don't do convoluted things in real life........

....sorry but it doesn't pass the smell test.


And AGAIN that is an unfinished metaphor.

[dysfunctional press]

103. ...

:eyes:

[Dreamer Tatum]

71. Agreed nt

[slackmaster]

26. I must confess, I don't see any sign of humor in that cartoon

Maybe I just don't "get it".

Is Al Sharpton right to be upset about it? I don't know. It just looks like lameness to me.

[Marrah_G]

27. WHOA..................... I do not see how anyone could NOT realize how racist that is.

[rurallib]

28. What a truly strange cartoon

Almost hard to believe that editors would have allowed this cartoon to be published. Yes it is very racist.
NY Post is a Murdoch paper isn't it?

[spanone]

30. how fucking disrepectful of President Obama can you be?

[TroglodyteScholar]

99. Uh, you know Obama didn't write the bill, right?

Legislative Branch

[dysfunctional press]

38. nobody who ever referred to george bush as a chimp has any right to be upset by this...

if they think that the monkey is supposed to represent obama. personally- i don't think that it's meant to be obama at all.

[spanone]

41. who is it supposed to represent then? nancy pelosi?

[BlooInBloo]

42. It's all good, so long as you pretend two things....

1) There is no long and storied history of white people expressing their racism with monkey-references, and
2) There is no link between the stimulus bill and Obama.


As long as you pretend those two things, you get the conclusion that the cartoon is juuuuust fine.

Pretend hard. PRETEND HARDER!!!!!

[dysfunctional press]

43. my guess is that it represents the chimp that was shot by police this past week...

the one that mauled a woman. it's a bigger story in nyc than in other parts of the country.

[DeepBlueC]

58. you keep answering the wrong end of the question

I think we all have a grasp of of the reference to that story...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

70. See #69. -nt

[spanone]

68. and what did that chimp have to do with the stimulus package, did he write it?

[dysfunctional press]

86. some people feel that it's so convoluted that a monkey must have written it...

so...maybe you're starting to 'get it'. :shrug:

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pacalo]

44. Yes, it's a slur. But what I don't get is, the police benefits from the stimulus bill!

[slampoet]

82. Uh, you do know that a cop didn't draw this cartoon right?

[pacalo]

93. We need to ask the cartoonist the meaning behind this, don't we?

:eyes:

[Starry Messenger]

45. It looks like something Stormfront would put out.

It's really racist.

[jmg257]

46. Nope. It is comparing the intelligence of whoever wrote the stimulus bill with that of a monkey.

Big deal.

[tuckessee]

50. Nope. Just a comment on the stupidity of the stimulus (bailout) bill.

Sharpton is a self-serving hack who should've faded into oblivion after the Tawana Brawley Affair.

Plus, let us not forget DU spent the last eight years mocking the "Chimperor in Chief" and laughed at images of Bush with chimpanzee features.

[RamboLiberal]

53. 'New York Post' Cartoonist's Monkey Image Not His First Offense

NEW YORK Looks like cartoonist Sean Delonas has some explaining to do.

A political cartoon appearing on p. 12 of the New York Post on Wednesday and on its Web site likens the author of the stimulus bill, perhaps a racial reference to President Barack Obama, with a rabid chimpanzee. In the cartoon, two policemen holding guns stand over the dead, bleeding body of the ape (a nod to the chimp that attacked a woman earlier this week in Stamford, Conn., before it was killed).

The caption reads, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

This is not the first time Delonas’ work has drawn fire. On June 17, 2008, Alan Gardner pointed out on his blog, The Daily Cartoonist, that the cartoonist had turned in a nearly identical cartoon to one that had been previously published on April 6. Then-Politicker.com editorial cartoonist Rob Tornoe, now an E&P contributor, was the first to call attention to that cartoon.

On that occasion, Gardner wrote, “Where are the Editors on this stuff? Do they find the fact that someone they pay to draw cartoons thinks he can mirror his own work and turn it in for the day? You see things like this, you look at the identical and predictable cartoons being drawn every day and editorial cartoonists wonder why we’re getting laid off.”

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003942344

[doc03]

55. I would say so n/t

[demokatgurrl]

59. He's being too nice, IMHO.

He should be camped out in front of their building with a huge throng of angry people and news cameras.

[Baikonour]

60. I don't see how anyone is questioning the validity or motive of this cartoon.

It's racism. Blatant, at that, too.

[seabeyond]

62. looks ot me like racist black/monkey and killing the pres thru law enforcement

it is totally inappropriate and worse.

[Bluerthanblue]

63. hell yes-

(and no one needs 'permission' to be offended by anything imo)

[Baikonour]

64. And TMZ isn't helping by putting a non-flattering photo of Sharpton right near the monkey.

Scumbags.

[Cerridwen]

67. Yes, yes he is. As am I. And the others here who also see

it.

As to all those "reasonable" people stating "reasonable" justifications for that image, I can only guess they have no knowledge of racist imagery in this country; giving them the "benefit of the doubt," of course.

edit to add some history and an example of "scientific" racism.

More on the history of "scientific" racism.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

69. Experience with DU trolls has taught me to recognize hate speech coated with plausible deniability

when I see it.

My guess is the "cartoonist" measured its ambiguity with great care so it (a) appeals to the base and (b) can have a borderline plausible defense when called on it.

[immoderate]

73. Good point. I mean really good.

--imm

[EstimatedProphet]

76. I thought it was at first. But I agree with what you're saying now.

Look at the cartoonist's other work and you'll se that he will draw anything he possibly can to put the ems in as bad a light as possible. I expect it was a case of "This is a story in the media right now, let's turn it into an attack on the Dems."

[DeepBlueC]

77. About the "cartoonist"...yes

Obviously he has succeeded in carrying this "ambiguity" right here to us. In the end he may even use the Danish cartoons defense. But what about the obtuse interpreters here...where do they stand, do you think? :shrug:

[Fountain79]

79. Obvious reference to the chimpanzee attack....

however Obama didn't write the stimulus bill. It seems that the author is saying more along the lines of the stimulus bill is so stupid that a chimpanzee wrote it.

[LostinVA]

80. It's also EXTREMELY insensitive about the poor woman mauled almost to death yesterday

It's one of those cases where (as I said to Haruka last night) I kinda hope the poor woman dies.

And yes, I think that this cartoon APPEARS to be racist. Monkeys/chimps have been substituted for blacks, especially black men, for literal centuries. Just look at recent Klan literature: they still do it.

[lukasahero]

81. Holy fuck yes!

Can you come up with an alternate meaning?

[LibertyLover]

83. How can you not see racist overtones -

Rev. Al Sharpton is not one of my favorite people. However, in this instance, he has a point. What an ugly, unfunny cartoon.

[Mari333]

84. i guess its all in ones perspective..first thought I had was that PETA was pissed

go figure.

[wryter2000]

87. That's sick

I'd be upset.

BTW, I hate to be nit-picky, but a chimp isn't a monkey. It's a great ape. There is a difference.

[backscatter712]

90. Of course, he should. It's dog-whistling, and a veiled call to assassinate the President.

The Secret Service needs to be having a long talk with the cartoonist, the New York Post, and with Rupert Murdoch.

[NavyDavy]

91. absolutely racist....

[4lbs]

92. If they had wanted to insinuate all Democrats in politics, instead of just President Obama,

why didn't the artist draw a donkey being shot, instead of a chimpanzee?

It certainly seems blatantly targeted toward the President, since he's been the most vociferous defender of the recovery bill over the past two weeks.

[J-Lo Biafra]

94. Racist? I don't know.

Subtle enough to raise a stink? Definitely.

[roody]

97. I agree with Al.

I am sure that you all know that historically racist cartoons depicted black people as monkeys.