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| Illustration: Sean Delonas/New York Post |
In today’s New York Post, a tabloid rag owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the above-pictured cartoon ran. Naturally, this sparked allegations of racist intent (Obama as the chimp) and condemnation by Al Sharpton, who told the AP the image is “troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys.”
Sean Delonas’s cartoon is a reference to Travis the chimpanzee, a former television commercial star that recently attacked his owner’s friend in Connecticut. The chimp, hopped up on Xanax, mauled the face and hands of Charla Nash, 55, as his owner (Sandra Herold, 70) stabbed him with a butcher knife and hit him with a shovel. When police arrived on the scene, Travis opened an officer’s squad car door before being shot multiple times and subsequently retreating to his place of eventual death.
Sharpton does have the unfortunate habit of playing the race card to a fault, but he seems to be onto something here. Except that the stimulus bill was written by Congress, not Obama, and political cartoons make connections between current events to make a point on a daily basis. So is Delonas simply stating (rather obtusely, perhaps) that Congress lacks the intellectual capacity to write a good stimulus bill? Or are his intentions more sinister, trying to get his readers to draw an inference between Obama’s support for the bill’s passage and a dead ape? I suspect the former.
But either way, this does seem to be more ambiguous than the contrived controversy over the satirical New Yorker cover depicting Obama as an traitorous Muslim, if only because the Post probably ought to have realized that this would be perceived as insensitive. Then again, the Post is no stranger to controversy.
Thoughts?
8 responses so far ↓
1 Gail // Feb 18, 2009 at 2:23 pm
This is absolutely racist! Is the New Yorker saying that they want the President Obama dead? I am sick of America and its people who are still ignorant and stupid. This is not funny at all!!
2 garonsen // Feb 18, 2009 at 4:32 pm
It’s hard to imagine that the Post published this without realizing it would create controversy, especially considering the edgy cartoons Delonas has penned in the past. In which case, they surely recognized that racial overtones would be seen in his latest work, whether the artist intended them or not.
Here’s Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan’s response to the controversy:
“The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington’s efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist.”
3 Chris // Feb 18, 2009 at 8:07 pm
I agree with Allan’s response. This is nothing more than repeat of the drawing of Mohamed that created such controversy. People need to not be so sensitive and try to find fault and harm in everything. Sure some things are hurtful, but creating a circus like this only makes the situation worse. We need to learn to take a joke again. Everyone take a deep breath and let out all the political correctness that has fogged your mind for long.
4 desmoinesdem // Feb 18, 2009 at 11:21 pm
I don’t think the chimp was supposed to be Obama. I think it’s making fun of how bills get written in Congress.
Anyway, we’ve called Bush “chimpy” for years. I always loved the http://www.bushorchimp.com website–that appeared during the first months of his presidency.
5 Mark // Feb 20, 2009 at 9:28 am
Gail, you’re dense. Way to empower race-baiters like Sharpton with your lack of intelligence and inability to think for yourself.
The chimp in reference is listed in the article and is not meant to reference our President.
But, I suppose, in your case it is easier to just sit there and hate.
6 obamasupporter // Feb 20, 2009 at 11:46 am
If igornace was respected than America would not have any problems. Think out side of box instead of falling in the box head first.
7 JohnP // Feb 20, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Presidents do not write legislation. Nancy Pelosi et al wrote the original bill in the House which was then modified in the Senate. Perhaps some folks need to take a Civics 101 lesson? I think the cartoon was highly insensitive, though – to the poor woman who was actually mauled by that crazed chimpanzee. But racist? Hoo boy, this is gonna be a long four years.
8 Kris Vander Lugt // Apr 14, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I think the New York Post writers are probably smart enough to have been aware of the racist undertones, let’s give them that much. But depicting racism doesn’t equal being racist. Creating controversy (or, to put a more optimistic spin on it: discussion) is precisely what much political satire is all about. I don’t think that the cartoon can be considered “racist” simply because it contains an allusion to a very well-known racial stereotype – I think it’s probably much more complicated than that. I think perhaps the temporal coincidence of the Travis (chimpanzee) story and the story of the stimulus bill (which, come on guys, is associated with Obama in the popular press and he was seen prominently promoting it all over the place – even though, yes, we all took Civics 101 and know that the President does not actually write the legislation himself) led to this cartoon being able to connect the idea of “Congress lack[ing] the intellectual capacity to write a good stimulus bill” as Gavin put it (hence portraying the stimulus-writer as a chimp) and the idea of African-Americans being stereotypically imaged in racist texts as apes. Perhaps such coincidental pairings – whether accidental or intentional – are opportunities to have some sort of real conversation about race and politics (not to mention how we view our Congress and the lingering bigotries of left versus right)? If we do want to have a real conversation, I do not think it’s helpful to resort to incendiary or insulting rhetoric (such as “Gail, you’re dense (etc.)” or “Perhaps some folks need to take a Civics 101 lesson”). Insulting other people who happen to think differently than you do (or heck, who maybe really don’t know how legislation gets written – have you every talked with a non-American?) just shuts down conversation and ensures that everyone will retreat to their respective political corners and continue to live within their little bubbles of self-congratulation and moral self-righteousness. I continue to hope we can listen and talk to each other in some sort of honest fashion that is respectful and that at least *attempts* to get beyond the cynicism and sarcasm that we all hear quite enough of already.
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