We are supposed to assume that a cartoon in the New York Post about a crazy chimp getting shot by police who say, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” isn’t a racist knock against the current president? We’re to think that it was just a humorous view of politics tied to a tragic event? Well then, dammit, we’re just too sensitive for our own good. I mean, people can’t take a joke anymore?
No we can’t. We can’t see the humor of the association between a mad chimpanzee that nearly mauled a woman to death and the President of the United States. And we are making that association because the New York Post saw fit to print a picture of President Obama signing the stimulus bill on the very next page. What are rational thinking adults supposed to conclude other than that two random events inextricably linked together by some buffoon isn’t racist, stupid, and mean?
And please don’t give me that tired excuse that this cartoon is meant to be provocative and humorous. It’s neither. Don’t rail at me about free speech because everyone knows that free speech isn’t free. Just as anything that’s put out in the universe, you get what you give. If one is prepared to engage in this type of hateful communication, then one should be prepared to get called to the carpet for it. Wrapping racism in humor is still racism. If that’s the real intent-then have the cajones to say so. Don’t brush it off and attack those who bring that intent to light.
Just in case there are some readers out there who aren’t clear: Associating black people with monkeys and apes is dehumanizing. I post all over the net under different names. One particular place I frequent is a tennis fan board. Recently, the player with whom the message board was dedicated to played someone of African descent. I was shocked to see several posters refer to the player of color as a “gorilla”. When confronted, these posters begged off saying that they didn’t mean any harm. They weren’t racist. It was just that the player had, “gorilla-like tendencies” because he would hit his fist against his chest after winning a point. Even after me giving a mini history lesson, they still didn’t get it. Instead, I got an apology and a high five because Obama was elected. Strangely enough, a few days after that incident, the OTHER player was described as an “ape” in a British newspaper and a damn riot broke out on the board. So yeah, it’s okay to refer to a one player with dark skin as a gorilla but it’s not okay for another player with white skin to be called an ape.
See how uneven the playing field is? And it never will be even. I wasn’t one of those progressives who likened the former President to a chimp, because for one-it was stupid, and two-I knew that by doing it would give those on the other side an excuse to say whatever they wanted to about opponents. All they had to do is say, “Hey, you called Bush ’Chimp In Chief’, why can’t we say that about Obama or anyone else?”. A white person calling another white person a chimp simply doesn’t carry the same weight as when a white person calls a black person one, because calling a white guy a chimp connotes bad manners. Calling a black guy a chimp connotes Jim Crow, lynchings, Eugenics, police brutality, fire hoses, vicious dogs, gerrymandering, redlining, and minstrel shows.
Obviously the cartoonist and the editors of the New York Post just didn’t understand that fact of life in 21st century America. Or worse yet, they just didn’t give a damn. And no one’s smiling.
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