Topic: Political Correctness
Sometimes a Monkey is Just a Monkey Isn't it about time we draw clearer lines on what is and what is not racism?by Raven West, J.D.
(libertarian)
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The recent uproar over the New York Post's cartoon is not so much about an editorial cartoon as it is a reflection of the racism that continues to exist in our society.
The one thing wrong about all of this is that it is those who are protesting the cartoon and calling for the firing of the artist Sean Delonas, are the real racists, not the artist, or the editor, or even Rupert Murdoch.
To exaggerate this unfortunate circumstance, one need only look at Geico's commercials for car insurance. The tag line "It's so simple even a caveman could do it", created a fictitious outcry of protest from two "cavemen", and a "fake" apology from the company.
Yes, the cartoon was insensitive. To use the tragic shooting death of a pet chimpanzee, who was killed by police after it mauled a friend of its owner, in any form of humor is tasteless. But to associate this cartoon as a pictorial assassination attempt on our President is not only ludicrous, it's dangerous.
Have we become so overly sensitive in our attempts to erase bigotry and racism, that those who are suppose to be leaders see evil where none exists, only to further their own agenda to perpetuate the very racism they are trying to eradicate?
The New York Post's readership, like most newspapers, is shrinking. Before the organized protest, I doubt that more than a few hundred people saw that cartoon and of those barely half interpreted it as racist. Now it is seen on every cable news channel, several times a day. Stories are flooding the Internet and the world is reacting to Americans, once again in a negative light when it comes to our country's dark history.
In 2001, Rod Dreher, a Dallas Morning News editorial columnist, wrote a column about the funeral of the young pop star Aaliyah, who had just died in a plane crash. He'd found the lavish plans for the public ceremony the horse-drawn carriage up Fifth Avenue, the white doves a bit much and used the occasion to comment critically on funerary rituals and the cult of celebrity worship in contemporary America. After his column appeared, he was besieged by death threats.
In 2006, comedian Michael Richards used the "n" word and his career was nearly destroyed. Was he a racist, or just an angry comic who was being heckled by an obnoxious fan? Would the public's reaction been so intense had the fan been Chinese and Richards had called him a Chink?
In April, 2007 radio talker Don Imus was suspended, fired and publicly flayed for his offensive on-air comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed hos" .
20 years ago CBS fired NFL analyst Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder for stating his opinion regarding Black athletes. Was Jimmy Snyder a racist, or just stupid. Is stupidity grounds for dismissal?
Yet in 2006 when actor Mel Gibson was arrested for drunk driving and made blatant anti-Semitic remarks, there were only a few who protested. There was no organized picketing or calls for a boycott of his movies and few called for his immediate apology. Although I, for one, will never pay to see any of his movies ever again, one has to ask, where was the public outcry then?
I'm certain Delonas drew his comic without any racist intent. It was stupid and no doubt insensitive to animal lovers, but nothing that comes even close to what some are accusing. Had the officers shot a rogue elephant, or a vicious pit bull, and the cartoon depicted those animals instead, or even a caveman, I believe no one would thought twice.
There is plenty of blatant racism and bigotry to go around. Those who wish to eradicate these evils do not have to create them out of thin ink.
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The views expressed in this
article are those of Raven West, J.D. only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Raven West, J.D. is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
I am listening to an audiobook on the Civil War by Shelby Foote. Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest violators of our Constitutional Rights, was called a gorilla and an ape. It had nothing to do with his race.
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