Here's the cartoon that was published in the New York Post the other day that's been going around the intrawebs and blogosphere ever since it hit the newsstands.And as soon as Al Sharpton sees this and interprets what many folk see as a pick at President Obama, folk seem to have gotten up in arms arguing that Sharpton is an opportunist and defending this foolishness saying that its a pick at Congress. Though I can understand both sides, this doesnt excuse the cartoon in the least. Surely enough, the cartoonist knew what he was doing to construct something that could swing "both ways".
Is it real art because it's 'so vague' in what it's really saying? Or is the artist really ignorant to what the age-old monkey/black person stereotype is and the fact that racism is still alive and well to begin with? Is all art up for interpretatioiin? With this, I think not...but that's just my opinion, of course.
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3 comments:
I think what's missing from this debate is a bit of context.
Paying attention to the news of late, you'll see something about this story: Animal experts are baffled by chimp attack. The story (in a nutshell): A lady's pet chimp attacked her friend and ripped the friend's face off. Cops are called, they come to the house & shoot the chimp. That happened a few weeks ago.
Also, the NY Post is considered a worthless rag here even by people who read it, so that should tell you something about its credibility. They'll do anything for sheer shock value.
Knowing those 2 facts, I think it's:
a. hasty to scream racism, and
b. worthless to give those asshole the attention they're grasping for.
My $0.02
What's up? This ya girl DS in the building!!!
I didn't hear about this till late and that's because I was at the part time job trying to be the A plus electronics sales associate...
But anyway...
The art work is plain ignorance to me and I am glad our president seems to be the type of man who looks above and beyond such foolish tactics. The internet is blowing up so much that I am suprise that the isp's still got things up and running.
Stef: I know of the recent news and the ape attack. None of that is 'news' to me at this point. However, the ape incident IS unrelated to the entire message being drawn to begin with. To segue that in with this picture, which is clearly tied to a political standpoint and the Stimulus is a reach and is unnecessary.
Considering the fact that Blacks and Monkeys have been made synonymous for ages is what makes me wonder even more why this was drawn. It would be a bit different if this picture featured several chimps in opposed to ONE to represent Congress (bc from what I and the rest of the world know, Congress is comprised of a TEAM, not a one man show) or even if someone had told the artist to throw a tshirt on the chimp that says, "Congress" to make this 'joke' a bit more plain so folk would ease their rifles, I'd better understand.
Right now though it says none of that. There is no indication so to the folk that call my and other ppl that agree with me and our stance "overly sensitive", I say that the artist did a piss poor job of illustrating what he wanted, which I think was comedy. He gets an "F". Period.
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