Originally Posted by Derwood (Post 2597292)

isn't it based on the chimp they had to gun down in connecticut?

Originally Posted by djtestudo (Post 2597285)

It's just as offensive as those cartoons that made President Bush look like a monkey.

Originally Posted by Derwood (Post 2597292)

isn't it based on the chimp they had to gun down in connecticut?

Originally Posted by guyy (Post 2597423)

First off, the cartoon is stupid and inaccurate. The bill was the work of the legislature and the executive, and of many, not one. It's associated with Obama, though, so to me the cartoon does have overtones of race and assassination. It draws from white petit-bourgeois resentment and complacency. To put it another way, it's as stupid as you would expect a Post cartoon to be.

Yes, Bush was portrayed as a monkey, but he's white, so it's not the same. Bush's portrayal was an extreme form of caricature, which riffed off Bush's physical features. This cartoon makes the link to Obama, but does it surreptiously and with plausible deniability, which makes it cowardly on top of everything else.

I wouldn't be surprised if the editor considered the racist angle and thought "free publiciity!"

Originally Posted by djtestudo (Post 2597718)

They were making a joke about how the stimulus bill seemed to them as written by a monkey. They made no reference to any individual.

Originally Posted by boink (Post 2597819)

racist.

Originally Posted by JumpinJesus (Post 2597780)

racist.

Originally Posted by guyy (Post 2597423)

First off, the cartoon is stupid and inaccurate. The bill was the work of the legislature and the executive, and of many, not one. It's associated with Obama, though, so to me the cartoon does have overtones of race and assassination. It draws from white petit-bourgeois resentment and complacency. To put it another way, it's as stupid as you would expect a Post cartoon to be.

Yes, Bush was portrayed as a monkey, but he's white, so it's not the same. Bush's portrayal was an extreme form of caricature, which riffed off Bush's physical features. This cartoon makes the link to Obama, but does it surreptiously and with plausible deniability, which makes it cowardly on top of everything else.

I wouldn't be surprised if the editor considered the racist angle and thought "free publiciity!"

Originally Posted by Marvelous Marv

Ahh, I get it. Even though there is no reference to Obama, it's racist anyway.
And since it's acceptable to "riff off ... physical features," eight years of this kind of shit is perfectly fine:

Originally Posted by New York Post apologizes for, yet still defends, chimp cartoon - CNN.com

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A day after publishing a cartoon that drew fire from critics who said it evoked historically racist images, the New York Post apologized in a statement on its Web site -- even as it defended its action and blasted some detractors.

Many of those critical of the cartoon said it appeared to compare President Obama to a chimpanzee in a commentary on his recently approved economic stimulus package.

"Wednesday's Page Six cartoon -- caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut -- has created considerable controversy," the paper said about the drawing, which shows two police officers standing over the body of a chimpanzee they just shot.

The drawing is a reference to the mauling of a woman by a pet chimpanzee, which was then killed by police. In the cartoon, one of the officers tells the other, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

The Post said the cartoon was meant to mock what it called an "ineptly written" stimulus bill.

"But it has been taken as something else -- as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism," reads the statement. "This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize."

But the statement immediately swerves to fire back at some of the image's critics.

"However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past -- and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback," the statement says. "To them, no apology is due. Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon -- even as the opportunists seek to make it something else."

Several African-American leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, attacked the image, which was drawn by artist Sean Delonas.

Sharpton said Thursday he and the leaders of "various groups" would respond at 5 p.m. Friday outside The Post's offices in midtown Manhattan.

"Though we think it is the right thing for them to apologize to those they offended," the statement appeared to blame those who raised the issue "rather than take responsibility for what they did," Sharpton said.

He accused the newspaper of having "belatedly come with a conditional statement after people began mobilizing and preparing to challenge the waiver of News Corp in the city where they own several television stations and newspapers."

Delonas has made Sharpton the butt of previous cartoons in The Post.

In a brief phone interview with CNN, Delonas called the controversy "absolutely friggin' ridiculous."

"Do you really think I'm saying Obama should be shot? I didn't see that in the cartoon," Delonas told CNN.

"It's about the economic stimulus bill," he added.

Col Allan, the Post's editor-in-chief, said Wednesday that the cartoon "is a clear parody of a current news event."

"It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist," Allan said in a written statement.

But Sharpton was not alone in his criticism. Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said The Post showed a "serious lapse in judgment" by running the cartoon.

"To think that the cartoonist and the responsible editors at the paper did not see the racist overtones of the finished product should insult their intelligence," Ciara said in a written statement. "Instead, they celebrate their own lack of perspective and criticize those who call it what it is: tone deaf at best, overtly racist at worst."

"Comparing President Obama and his effort to revive the economy in a manner that depicts violence and racist inferences is unacceptable," said National Urban League President Marc Morial in a statement issued Wednesday.

The nearly $800 billion stimulus package was the top priority for Obama, the first black U.S. president, who signed it Tuesday.

In an open letter to The Post, musician John Legend criticized the newspaper and called on New Yorkers not to buy it, or talk to its reporters or buy its advertising space.

Addressing the newspaper's editors, Legend wrote, "Did it occur to you that our president has been receiving death threats since early in his candidacy? Did it occur to you that blacks have historically been compared to various apes as a way of racist insult and mockery? Did you intend to invoke these painful themes when you printed the cartoon?

"If that's not what you intended, then it was stupid and willfully ignorant of you not to connect these easily connectable dots. If it is what you intended, then you obviously wanted to be grossly provocative, racist and offensive."

Either way, Legend said, the fact that the cartoon was printed "is truly reprehensible."

Originally Posted by CharlieW (Post 2598084)

I can't believe they intended the cartoon to be racist, but give the eye of the beholder, I see the problem. Most humor has a root of bias if you look for it.

Originally Posted by mixedmedia (Post 2597852)

1. I think JJ was making a joke aimed at the previous post.

2. There is a historical precedent in this country (that older black people such as Al Sharpton will remember) of portraying black people in cartoons and other imagery as primates.

3. I do not think the cartoon was meant to be racist. I think it was meant to be notorious. This artist and the Post knew exactly what they were doing.

4. I don't know how much attention this has been getting, but I hope it is disappointingly minimal 'cause the cartoon isn't even funny.

Originally Posted by Marvelous Marv (Post 2597836)

Ahh, I get it. Even though there is no reference to Obama, it's racist anyway.
And since it's acceptable to "riff off ... physical features," eight years of this kind of shit is perfectly fine:

http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/...sh_chimps2.jpg
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

http://i42.tinypic.com/nmhxub.jpg