When I first read the New York Post and saw the infamous cartoon stimulus monkey cartoon, it didn’t immediately set off my internal racist radar. After talkng to several people about it I realized that it was at best extremely insensitive and at worst blatantly racist.
The humor and parody excuse can only work if if you take in to consideration both the intentions of the author and the perception of the audience. If you research New York Post’s cartoonist, Sean Delonas previous work, it is clear that he is a right wing bigot who routinely dehumanizes people from different viewpoints and cultures. The way this guy disrespects and dehumanizes Arabic people is way more blatant and inexcusable than the infamous stimulus monkey.
Top 10 Racist New York Post Cartoons
Also if you take in to account audience perception, the same right wing bigots who read the post are pretty much the same sort of people who compared him to a monkey through out the campaign. The audience from the Post did not likely now that Obama did not write the stimulus plan and viewed Obama as the face of the stimulus package.
When humor satirizes racism its is acceptable when it promotes racism it is not. The Nazis were very effective in using racist cartoons to dehumanize and demonize Jewish people.
"Go where you wanted me to go, you evil spirit." says the Nazi
- Ignorant, lured by gold,They stand disgraced in Judah’s fold.Souls poisoned, blood infected,
- Disaster broods in their wombs.
Many other cartoonists used their work to promote and defend slavery, while dehumanizing African Americans.
During the Jim Crow era, cartoonists regularly dehumanized African Americans which made it easier for the country as a whole to discriminate against them. One of the most common ways to do this was to draw them with monkey like features.
Even popular American staples like Mickey Mouse and Archie were used to dehumanize and ridicule African Americans.
I believe crying racism is like crying wolf, if you do it necessarily, no one will listen. I did not immediately attack Delanos after reading the cartoon but after doing my research on him, the editorial slant of the newspaper he writes for, the audience of the New York Post and the history of racist cartoons if have come to the conclusion that this was a subtle attempt to racially attack our President.
I have already called for people to boycott Limbaugh’s parent company and sponsors. Now, Delanos, AKA Limbaugh with a pen must go through the same treatment. Even if people can defend the stimulus monkey cartoon, there is no way they can defend his treatment of Arabic people. His depictions of Arabic people very closely parallel the depictions that the Nazis gave the Jews in their own racist comics, in the dehumanization and the demonization.
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“The same right-wing bigots who read the post” “the audience of the New York Post”
Who do think the audience for the Post comprise?
Well, you did say that the NY Post was perfect for house-training puppies, macaquerman.
Another friend of mine suggested it was ideal for using in the bottom of birdcages.
From this anecdotal ‘evidence’, we might begin to see a ‘pattern’.
But I don’t know if these practical ‘applications’ could be tied to any specific ‘audience’ or comprise any reliable ‘feed-back’ as to ‘readership’.
Do you think that the puppies or birds look at the pictures or the cartoons? And, would that ‘count’?
Smart Republicans read the national review, dumb ones read the post at least for its editorials and cartoons
I think this post makes a very important point, Casey, and I applaud your efforts to research Delonas’ work and place this cartoon in that context. If the guy has a consistent political slant and a history of work demeaning people from other cultures, he can’t extricate this cartoon from that when considering intent.
Reprehensible.
I hadn’t known much about Delonas’ history. It puts things in a different perspective. I’d assumed that the cartoon about the chimp was inspired by this event. Combine that inspiration with what we’ve come to expect in the way of crude, aggressive humor from Republicans, it didn’t seem like any more than a particularly tasteless cartoon. At the very least, Delonas is clearly the jerk I’d suspected he was when I first saw the cartoon.
Thanks very much Casey for a really terrific post.
digg is open.
FWIW, I think it lets Delonas off too easily to call it “racist.”
IMHO, this it’s another example of refined white supremacy.