The Chimp Cartoon-It's Terrible

New York Post- Stick to A-Rod, please.



When I first saw the news reports of the cartoon in the New York Post and actually saw the cartoon, itself, my first reaction was, "it's terrible".

The cartoon shows a dead chimpanzee shot through the chest and lying on the sidewalk. One of the cops who shot the chimp says, "Now they'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill".

Of course, the first impulse of many is to associate the chimp with President Obama (who didn't even personally write the bill). Why? It all goes back to the old racist stereotypes of blacks as being akin to monkeys. In addition, it plants the seed in some minds of assassination-a nightmare no decent person could contemplate.

Then on second thought, I began to consider the arguments that the Post and its cartoonist would surely make. First, Obama didn't write the bill. it was written by congressional and White House aides, probably mostly white people. The real message was that a bunch of idiots wrote the bill and that the cartoonist and the Post would
never intentionally try to put forth the above messages. (Indeed the Post has apologized.)

All of which is probably true. Yet, I have to go back to my original reaction. The cartoon is terrible. Intentional or not, both the cartoonist and the Post should have used some common sense and known the associations that many would make.

Not just non-blacks who hold negative stereotypes about blacks, but folks like Al Sharpton. Already, he has pounced on this, leading a group of protesters calling for Post publisher Rupert Murdoch to be jailed.

Jailed?

Not only that, it comes right on the heels of Attorney General Eric Holder's outrageous statement that America is a "land of cowards" when it comes to the issue of race.

The bottom line and my final conclusion is what I originally thought. This cartoon is just plain terrible.