On February 18, the New York Post’s editorial board thought it a brilliant idea to publish a cartoon linking the authors of the stimulus bill (President Obama and his administration) and a rampaging chimpanzee recently shot by police in the Constitution State. They later feigned a facile ‘apology‘ attempted to make the Post look like the victim.
Now, I’ve been living in a cave in Connecticut recently, but news of this did manage to penetrate my cave walls and I think the New York Post owes the American public a real apology and some real action to show regret for an irresponsible – if not racist and quite mal-intentioned – editorial decision.
ColorOfChange.org makes an important point in highlighting rising hate crime rates and assassination threats against Obama in their new campaign against the cartoon and NewsCorp’s ever-growing history of discrimination. But the Stimulus Bill was already becoming a racially charged issue after House Majority Whip James Clyburn’s (D-SC) reference on Tuesdsay to GOP governors refusing stimulus money as a “slap in the face” to African Americans living in these governors’ states (eg, Louisiana). It sort of feels like the whole political field is getting more racially dividied, or the ground is being set for the furtherance of negative stereotypes and hatred, especially by the GOP’s new leadership, Michael Steele.
By the way, what cave do you think the NY Post editorial staff were living in during and after the 2003 global uproar over Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed? Uh, sorry fellas. Not only is it asinine for a major and controversial media outlet to suggest that “sometimes, a cartoon is just a cartoon,” it’s intentionally deceitful. Unless their cave didn’t have wi-fi like mine does.