Yesterday I wrote about the white gaze. Then later when I checked the news what did I see? We knew this one was just a matter of time:
It is a Sean Delonas cartoon from the New York Post, the top-selling newspaper in New York. It shows the police shooting a chimpanzee dead, something that was in the news. But then one of the two policemen says, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” President Obama had just signed the stimulus bill into law, as shown on the page before, and said we might need another one.
Some say the chimp stands for Congress, the Democrats or Washington, but it makes more sense that it is Obama: most people assume he wrote the bill or had it written under his direction. Also, white Americans have been comparing blacks to monkeys since who knows when and Obama is black.
This is an excellent example of white gaze: The picture places you with the white people in it – you are the third (presumably white) policeman – and it views people of colour as less than fully human – as a monkey in this case.
I thought the New York Post had more sense than to print a racist cartoon – especially one about the president – even if the Post is a right-wing newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, the one who brings us Fox News.
Even apart from the racism, since when did shooting the president – or anyone in Congress – become something to laugh at? How is this cartoon going to look if Obama is ever shot?
Al Sharpton, the best-known black leader in New York, called the cartoon “troubling at best”.
The Post, in its defence, said this:
The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington’s efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist.
Trying to make it about Al Sharpton.
Delonas says he did not mean the cartoon in a racist way. Jeff Fecke of Amptoons said in defence of Delonas:
He hasn’t seen illustrations from a hundred years ago showing his people are more like apes than the purer, smarter, obviously more civilized race.
You hardly have to go back a hundred years. Try last year:
Surely Delonas remembers the Curious George T-Shirts, the ones showing a monkey eating a banana that said “Obama in ’08”. Surely he remembers how that went over. (If only black people remember that one then America is far more screwed up than even I thought.)
Delonas and the people who run the top-selling newspaper in a city that is one-fourth black are not that unwitting.
The cartoon was racist and they knew it.
I hope that everyone at the Post who signed off on this is fired – or, better yet, has the good sense to tell the public they are sorry and then resign.
See also:
thats not a white gaze – thats just insensative and uncarry. Holy Crud…thats just wrong.
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The association of Black people to primates has never been anything other than racist. The number to voice a complaint to the post is 212.930.8000. The number works ask for the department that handles complaints I did so should you.
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Oh I know its racist and disgusting and wrong. Beyound wrong.
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It is a case of white gaze: showing people of colour as less than fully human. The angle even places you with the white people in the picture.
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wow…this is just unbeliavable
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Appalling. Literally (in terms of race, that is).
Some good analysis here and here.
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Thanks for the links.
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Pure evil.
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The publication was of it was bad enough, the apology or lack thereof, worse.
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Disturbing at best
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its an association i would never make.
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“The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington’s efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist.”
THIS is there explanation? They called our president a primate. It was clearly a racicial slur. I told my husband about it and he just looked at me with shock on his face. He had no words. And note – I say OUR president. I am a conservative libetarian who favors small government and didnt not vote for him…but he was elected and is MY president and I get behind him.
Aba – remember I believe racism a symptom of a larger sickness – which is why initially I wasnt sure white gaze should be the appropriate heading for this disgusting image. Labeling it as white gaze or an example of white power enables papers like the post can just write it off like they did. They are implying its just a minority group being overtly sensative. We need to find a term that gives this the level of importance it is due. I find the image so disturbing that it is hard to look at.
Yet – to have this in a paper, in todays day in age – I see your point regarding racism in todays current white power structure being almost institutionalized. That is how something like this ends up in a newspaper. I honestly thought we were beyound this. My inital comment where I said I am not sure its a white gaze thing. I now understand your point. I still feel its part of a broader sickness…but now understand how this particular symptom is very dominate in todays society – so much so that people get used to it and ignore it (the cough that a smoker has and ignores – which is actually a symptom of cancer). Does that make sense?
But I still think their might be hope – Talking with my children last night regarding slavery and civil rights – my boys were outraged that their cousins would not have been allowed 60 years ago to use the same water fountains as them, or sit next to them on the bus etc. To judge a person based on skin to them is unfathomable (they are 10, 8, 4) . My 10 yr old said “inside we are all the same…why does it mater what we look like outside…the guts n brain and stuff is the same…and we all have the same creator – he just likes to make different looking things” I have to have hope.
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You made sense. America has been getting better over time and I hope it will continue to do so.
I would point out that racism is not “almost institutionalized” – it is institutionalized!
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Macon D:
Thanks again for the links. I later went back and used some of the Amptoons material in the post. The post has grown considerably from when I first posted it and you commented on it.
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your right – it seems – things that are done by a person and then covered UP by a organization can be rationalized as one bad apple and the organization is just CYAing….this highlights the racism and is worse in a sense…because each person in the chain had to approve it – each editor all the way up said YES – PRINT THIS.
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I disagree with the second link by Macon D. I think the cartoonist knew exactly the racial connotation of the image and intended the vulgar racist connotation.
Calling the president a primate is not unprecedented. Many Americans, myself included, routinely referred to Bush43 as “the smirking chimp.” However, in the case of a black person, there is heavy historical baggage associated with this image. Here, the cartoonist really had to stretch to link the two events — the infamous chimp attack and the stimulous plan. They really have no relationship other than a temporal one. The only conclusion is that he was seeking an opportunity to use a racist slur against a black President.
That said, I think Obama is correct in ignoring it. One of the great freedoms of this nation is the freedom to insult our president, even in the most vulgar of terms. Certainly President Obama cannot be surprised by the fact that racists will come out of the woodwork and take every opportunity to try to offend him. This same freedom allows those of us offended by crude racism to utter our own feelings about the cartoon.
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In a journalism course that I sat in at a prestigious, historically black university near my current city of residence, the topic of this cartoon came up.
The instructor had an interesting idea: the NY Post probably ran such a blantantly racist and tasteless cartoon to deliberately drum up some controversy. To get some vistors to their site and sell a few extra copies of the NY Post.
What do y’all think?
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The instructor had an interesting idea: the NY Post probably ran such a blantantly racist and tasteless cartoon to deliberately drum up some controversy. To get some vistors to their site and sell a few extra copies of the NY Post.
What do y’all think?
I think so. I think this is the same guy that recently did the Jessica Simpson leaving Tony Romo for Ronald McDonald cartoon that created a little buzz. Guess he was trying to outdo himself.
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The newspaper business is in very bad shape right now – the Internet has destroyed its business model – so maybe it was a desperate move to sell more papers, but a dangerous one because it could find itself with a boycott. But I have the feeling it is a political move directed against Obama himself. It is like what Biden said about Obama being tested in his early days.
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Some white people are just Disgusting to me!!
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