To the editors who approved the cartoon, as well as the cartoonist, the piece was clearly all fun and laughs. But anyone with half a brain, especially someone knowing the history of African-Americans being called monkeys and gorillas, would have said, “We need to rethink this.”
First, mixing the two stories is ridiculous. Yes, the chimpanzee incident and the passage of the stimulus bill have a lot of folks talking, but to put them in the same element just doesn’t make sense.
Second, the cartoonist didn’t hang a sign around the neck of the chimp, so he left it up to the reader to determine exactly who the cops were referring to.
We all know that the stimulus bill was the first priority of the new president, so when reading the caption, it was easy to infer that the cartoonist was implying the president of the United States.
You know, the black guy.
And that’s where the problem comes in.
When you read stories like this, you will realize that it is really just a crapshoot as to whether someone will take a shot at our President, just because he is black. Seeing a cartoon depict that brings home that reality. And no one should be laughing.
EDIT by cassandra_m: I’ve added some pictures after the jump that should remind everyone where they’ve seen these same monkey references in the last 6 to 8 months.
