This is what I'm talking about, people. We are in the worst economy since the Great Depression. It was created by Republicans. For a year, George W. Bush, the true Chimp in the White House, did nothing. Diddley-squat. Not a damn thing. Now we have a president who is taking action to try to fix things. And there are people actually giving him shit about it! Disagree with the policy if you must, but this insane outrage over the stimulus package is crazy. Obama is trying to get the economy moving! Implying that he is nothing more than a crazed chimpanzee spending out of control is as outrageous as it is unhelpful to the situation. Would the editors of the New York Post--and other media blowhards huffing and puffing about the stimulus--prefer he do nothing? This is a classic example of Republican success in being able to take something that most people would support and demonizing it. John Kerry's war record. Stem-cell research. The stimulus bill. It's not as if this is some grand scheme to, I don't know, invade Iraq or something. This is an attempt to make things better for people in this country. Let's see if it works! Let's hope that it does! Let's not turn it into a monster that needs to be shot down, as the cartoon so grossly and offensively represents.And yes--absolutely--it is a racist cartoon. Post employees are rightfully ashamed of their newspaper's actions. People are rightfully saying that it went too far. Chimp, monkey, ape--all are slurs that have been delivered at Obama--and untold African-Americans--for a very long time. No one at the Post can say that didn't occur to them. It is disgustingly racist and for that reason it is deeply anti-American. It's also anti-American because of its unpatriotic hope that the stimulus doesn't help the country. It's high time the Left calls the Right on its anti-Americanism. They've been doing it to us for long enough.
By the way, I find the cartoon offensive for another reason as well. That story out of Connecticut broke my heart. Say what you want about keeping so-called "wild" animals as pets. That chimp lived with his owner for a very long time. They had a very sweet life for most of that time. She loved that chimp as she would a child. If it had been a dog--man's "best friend"-- shot dead, would the Post have so callously lampooned it? I don't think so. That woman is grieving, not only for the death of her pet but for what happened to her friend, attacked by the terrified and confused animal. It was a tragedy all the way around. To turn it into a joke on an editorial page is cruel and revolting.
7 comments:
But the chimp wasn't supposed to represent Obama--it was representing whoever wrote the stimulus bill--could be anyone. Obama didn't write it himself! Those who were outraged by the cartoon (black people initially) apparently have no understanding of abstract thought, and then everyone else, who should know better, jumped on the bandwagon. Enough already.
It isn't whether or not the chimp was supposed to represent Obama, it's the fact that calling blacks "chimps" or "gorillas" is a classic racist slur, and the Post's editors should have known better.
Do you think that the cartoonist for the New York Post, and his readers, are so sophisticated that they said, "Oh, well, since the (black) president didn't specifically write this bill, let's make a joke about a tragic accident involving a chimp who ate a woman's face off, and everyone should just laugh at all our good fun." That isn't "abstract thought," it's ignorance and crudeness.
Give me a break.
And, as Bill said, the story tasteless and tragic enough on its own without taking advantage of it to throw (yet another) offensive racist image joke in the path of president Obama and his work. Enough already indeeed
The story wasn't that tragic.... It was about a chimp who went crazy and has some elements of humor. Cartoonists typically combine these kinds of news events for humorous effect in one cartoon. The real problem with the cartoon is that it wasn't that funny.... And no, most of the people you're talking about are NOT sophisticated--that was my point.
After we elected a black president, I thought black people would finally shut up about what a racist country we live in. But it just goes on and on....
I'm white, you ass. Nor were all the people who found that cartoon offensive.
And if you think the story of the chimp who tore out a woman's eyes, nose, and jawbone before being stabbed to death with a butcher knife by its owner had "elements of humour," then you're either (at best) one of the least sophisticated readers of that cartoon extant, or else there's something emotionally or mentally wrong with you. Either, or both.
I knew you were white, but you might as well be black. I wonder if you would be so outraged over racist depictions of your own race. Probably not, because then you would lose the approval of other races that you so desperately crave.
I'm a member of the human race, fuck-stick, and assuming that you are also a member of the human race, you can be assured that I don't crave your approval.
And for the record, I'm less concerned about "racist depictions of my own race," since, as an affluent, well-educated white male I'm at the social and economic apex in our society. What I am more concerned about is the degree to which you demonstrate how ugly it is when backward, racist, socially-disadvantaged whites like yourself manifest how little our society has managed to learn and grow as a culture in the past 500 years.
Oh, and by the way, your new ID doesn't make your posts sound any more intelligent than the one you were using when you were last driven off Bill's blog for your troglodyte posts.
Bill, eloquent as always.
And Michael--you are my hero. Cheers, sweetie. :-)
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