How? Why?

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

I am white. I am colorblind. I date an Indian girl, out of my closest friends, several are not white. I frown upon any sort of racial discrimination, which is exactly why I'm making this thread.

 

All they hype and hoopla of a first African American President was lost on me (I like Obama, out of what we had to choose, he was the best choice), because after all, if everyone is equal why should we celebrate someone of a different color being elected into office?

 

Obama is smart, educated, and seems like a generally honest person. I think the Bush tenure will prove to be a good one in the long run, but for the sake of the nation's sanity, Obama is the best thing that could have happened to it.

 

Having said that, let me reach into my pockets...mmmhmm, Ah! Here we are...

 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/21/chimp.cartoon/index.html

 

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Leaders of the NAACP on Saturday called for the firing of the New York Post cartoonist whose drawing lampooning the federal stimulus bill has drawn charges that it's racist and encourages violence toward President Obama.

 

 

NAACP's Benjamin Todd Jealous says the organization will take issue "national" if Post cartoonist isn't fired.

 

1 of 2 Speaking at the civil rights group's annual meeting in New York, NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said that if Sean Delonas is not fired, the group will call for protests of the paper and Fox television affiliates, which are owned by Post parent company News Corp.

 

"There is consensus that if the Post does not ... get rid of the journalists who are responsible for this bit of hate speech seeing the light of day, that we will move this from a local, regional issue to a very national issue," Jealous said.

 

The group also called for the cartoonist's editor to be fired.

 

Many critics said the cartoon played on historically racist images by appearing to compare Obama, the nation's first black president, to a chimpanzee that had been shot by police officers.

 

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The cartoon references the mauling of a Connecticut woman by a chimpanzee who was later shot and killed by police.

 

In its caption, one of the officers says, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

 

Obama had signed the bill the day before the cartoon ran.

 

On its Web site Thursday, the paper offered a qualified apology, saying it was "most certainly not our intent" to express racism, but also accusing some of jumping at a chance to attack a paper they already disliked. Watch reaction to the Post's apology »

 

"To them, no apology is due," the paper wrote. "Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon -- even if the opportunists seek to make it something else."

 

But NAACP Chairman Julian Bond said that explanation rings hollow.

 

 

"This is tastelessness taken to the extreme," he said. "For the publication to suggest the only people who object to it are constant critics of the New York Post is beyond ridiculous.

 

"This was an invitation to assassination of the president of the United States and anyone who was not offended by it doesn't have any sensibilities."

 

 

lol

 

Hold up one sec there... I am a purveyor of the news on a daily basis. From time to time some stupid schmuck's political cartoon penetrates my news. Over the course of the last eight years every Bush political cartoon I've seen has had him portrayed, or at least implied that he is a monkey. Where was the outrage? Again, I'm pretty privey on the news and I saw not one complaint or objection to this. I object to any leader of a nation being depicted as an animal. I understand that this is how political cartoonists roll, and I'm well aware that such an idea falls under free speech, if speech is free then speech is free, and there should be NO outrage over a cartoon. The people behind this asanine idea need to blow a shotgun and swallow the load.

 

You either hold everyone to the same standard- as I believe the goal of every civil rights activist in forever has been, or you hold everyone to the same standard, except if it offends me I'm gonna throw a hissy fit and call for people's jobs. Pick a team, and own it. Don't color yourself pink if you're purple. Hypocrites.

 

It's a shame because things are seemingly moving in the right direction, progress, very clearly, has been made- but a certain few on both ends of the spectrum have a forum available to them with an audience to whom they can spew their bulls***.

Edited February 22, 2009 by Swingandalongonetoleft

[EvilMonkey]

I thought that Pelosi and Reid wrote most, if not all, of the Generational Theft Act?

[lostfan]

There's a pretty big difference between calling a white person a chimp and a black person a chimp and to pretend otherwise for the sake of trying to make a point is disingenuous.

 

That said, I did have a friend jumping off the ledge and flipping out talking about the NYP was making subtle references to assassinating President Obama and I had to try and talk her down. I think that's kind of absurd to claim if you think about it enough.

[Cknolls]

DID the NAACP b**** and moan when Condi Rice was called a house n***a in an editorial? Double standard? Eat s*** and swallow you hypocritical as****es.

 

 

Black Conservative=O.K to make fun

 

 

Black Liberal= Don't you dare say anything, you racists.

 

 

 

[Texsox]

DID the NAACP b**** and moan when Condi Rice was called a house n***a in an editorial? Double standard? Eat s*** and swallow you hypocritical as****es.

 

 

Black Conservative=O.K to make fun

 

 

Black Liberal= Don't you dare say anything, you racists.

 

No difference in how one treats the President? That was the difference as I saw it. I guess I never really thought about the liberal and conservative difference.

[Iwritecode]

From what I understood of the cartoon, they were saying a monkey wrote the bill. Not Obama.

[Reddy]

From what I understood of the cartoon, they were saying a monkey wrote the bill. Not Obama.

right - i thought it had NOTHING to do with obama, talking about who wrote the bill - and he certainly didn't.

 

agreed - it's manufactured outrage for outrage's sake. i know this is probably not something i should say, but the NAACP loves to cry racism whenever it possibly can, regardless of whether it was really there or not.

[bmags]

Come on guys, people have been calling this Obama's stimulus bill, and they have a monkey being shot saying "i guess they'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill". As soon as I saw that I said to myself "somebody f***ed up". For the majority of people in this country who are not actively trying to NOT find racism and have some historical understanding that equating blacks to primates happened quite often fairly recently, they saw how poor the cartoon was. You really shouldn't have to explain a cartoon this much to, not even get the joke, but to explain around first assumptions. I'm not condoning calling for firing, but this is a pretty big f*** up by the posts editors. Proof of that is Murdoch actually apologized for it, I can't ever remember that happening.