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Al Sharpton Goes Ape Over NY Post Cartoon

KingMerv00 said:
My two cents: The cartoon was not intentionally racist. I doubt it was accidentally racist either.
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The cartoonist probably didn't mean it to be racist. But if the editor of the Post, a pretty conservative newspaper, was unaware that juxtaposing monkeys and the first black president* wasn't going to be perceived as racist, then he has no business being an editor. The most reasonable scenario was that the editor was fully aware of that likely perception and allowed it to pass anyway because he thought it was worth it. Baiting people like Sharpton was just a bonus.

*And yes, Cicero, this is Obama's stimulus package, at least according to the headlines of practically every newspaper I've seen.
 
Cicero said:
Travis the chimpanzee actually had talent, whereas Pelosi/Reed & Company are just baboons. But if Al Sharpton hadn't seen fit to through a fit over this cartoon, Sean Delonas wouldn't be getting the exposure of Gary Larson.
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The loud extremists on TV have developed a mutual parasitism. If some guy makes a cartoon that will look like Obama as a chimp Al Sharpton gets to go back to representing the combined interests of everyone darker than a caramel. Then the cartoonist gets some attention, gets to go speak at a few right-wing seminars and line his pockets with social conservative money and Al Sharpton gets to write a book about it and line his pockets with the money of every armchair anti-racist in the country.
 
About the monkeys and the typewriters:

Wouldn't that metaphor work as well with only one monkey and one typewriter?
 
Not that he hasn't bought and paid for it

"Al Sharpton goes ape" is a hair-raisingly racist remark.
 
sackett said:
"Al Sharpton goes ape" is a hair-raisingly racist remark.
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It doesn't take much to raise your hair does it. Tell me, how many times a day is the phase " <insert name>goes ape" used with no thought or charge of racism? Is this how it is going to be in a "post racial" Obama administration? We have already had his new Attorney General calling Americans "cowards" on the race issue.
 
I am still finding it hard to believe that anybody takes Al Sharpton with his record seriously.
Welcome to the wonderful world of White Guilt complex.
 
Texas said:
It doesn't take much to raise your hair does it. Tell me, how many times a day is the phase " <insert name>goes ape" used with no thought or charge of racism?
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I dunno. The phrase is somewhat passé. In my lifetime, though, I've seen people claim blacks were little different from apes, and they were being entirely serious, not just repeating a cliché. And if you're old enough, you may recall Howard Cosell's "little monkey" incident from 1983. Right or wrong, we're not yet to the point where this sort of comparison can be made without raising some hackles, and it is disingenuous for anyone to claim that they were unaware that it would do so.
 
Tricky said:
I dunno. The phrase is somewhat passé. In my lifetime, though, I've seen people claim blacks were little different from apes, and they were being entirely serious, not just repeating a cliché. And if you're old enough, you may recall Howard Cosell's "little monkey" incident from 1983. Right or wrong, we're not yet to the point where this sort of comparison can be made without raising some hackles, and it is disingenuous for anyone to claim that they were unaware that it would do so.
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Oh for pete's sake.

Look and this google search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS217US217&q=goes+ape&start=0&sa=N
 
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I think it would have been funnier to compare Obama and his stimulus package to a brood parasite such as a cuckoo bird. The cartoon sucked, but now it may make fame and fortune thanks to Sharpton complaining about it. The chimp thing was already overdone with Bush.
 
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Tricky said:
The cartoonist probably didn't mean it to be racist. But if the editor of the Post, a pretty conservative newspaper, was unaware that juxtaposing monkeys and the first black president* wasn't going to be perceived as racist, then he has no business being an editor. The most reasonable scenario was that the editor was fully aware of that likely perception and allowed it to pass anyway because he thought it was worth it. Baiting people like Sharpton was just a bonus.

*And yes, Cicero, this is Obama's stimulus package, at least according to the headlines of practically every newspaper I've seen.
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Honestly, I don't think it crossed the editor's mind.

I don't think an editor should automatically exclude a cartoon because it MIGHT be perceived as racist. If you excluded anything that MIGHT be offensive, you'd only be left with the ads.
 
Here's more about why this cartoon is not an actual joke that makes any sense: By the time it was published, the Stimulus bill had been signed into law already. It was almost an entire week since it had been passed in Congress in its final form. So why does it need a new author anyway?

I don't read the NY Post Page Six much, but over the years as I've glanced at it now and then, I've regularly seen the editorial cartoon not make any sense.
 
One thing that probably needs to be pointed out, because some people seem to forget, is that not every cartoon is meant to be funny. In fact political cartoons, in particular, are quite often intended to be rather serious.

I personally saw absolutely nothing funny in the cartoon, and saw no intent to make it funny. It seemed to be making quite a serious and damning observation about a controversial government initiative.
 
KingMerv00 said:
I don't think an editor should automatically exclude a cartoon because it MIGHT be perceived as racist. If you excluded anything that MIGHT be offensive, you'd only be left with the ads.
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No, you'd be left with a newspaper composed of nothing but blank pages. Everything offends someone.
 
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