Following the New York Post’s controversial printing of a political cartoon depicting two police officers shooting dead a chimpanzee; activist, city councilors, the black community and many other residents of the country are setting up protest rallies.
“They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” These were the words stated by a police officer in the cartoon of Wednesday’s paper. Historically, African-Americans have been negatively associated with monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees. As reported by The Amsterdam News, a African-American newspaper of New York City, the “so-called satire” has now turned to boycotting advertisers of The New York Post, until the necessary attention and action is paid to their hiring practices and News Corporation’s monopoly of ownership of print/broadcast news in New York City.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and councilman, Charles Barron are calling on boycotts of advertisers of The Post. One resident of Harlem, John Alonso, has refused to buy the post ever since he noticed their biased perspective and heard of the lack of diversity in their staff. “Every time you turn around The Post is doing something to anger someone. When I saw this picture in Wednesday’s paper I was was outraged. I knew this wasn’t going to go over well with many people.”
Other viewpoints can be found on this highly debated topic on the Black Voices blog site and CNN:
http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2009/02/18/new-york-post-monkey-cartoon/
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/02/24/cartoon.murdoch/
*blogs located in “From the Blog” at bottom of article
Many national protest are set to be held. On the weekly edition of The Amsterdam News (Feb. 26-March 4th) the cover has the word, “Outrage” spread across in bold print above a picture of a local protest. The protesters are carrying signs stating, “BOYCOTT RACIST: New York Post and Fox News.”
The CEO of the News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, insist that the intention of the cartoon was not to be racist and he is promising to be more aware of the sensitive issues of the community in the future. But, in making these comments he also addressed according to The Amsterdam News, that the stimulus was poorly written.
Currently, local and national communities are pressing for are more extensive look into News Corporations control over the city’s media. According to Al Sharpton, “You cannot have a disproportionate amount of media ownership of the town, then tell the citizens of the town they can’t question your editorial policies or cartoons.”
i personally feel that this is a sensitive issue, but i also feel that this extreme sensitivity is hindering progress. Could’ve had a racist undertone and it could’ve been a completely “innocent” politcal cartoon showing that the imperfections with the stimulus bill… “as if it were written by a chimp”
although it could’ve been an oversight, it doesn’t always have to be about race.
This cartoon is clearly a depiction of racism. Why a monkey chosen and not a different animal? The Post is already known to be a biased newspaper. By this cartoon the real issue of the stimulus plan failing is ignored and a new issue is raised.
Cartoons like these make people wonder how far we have come. It is racist, but people forget it is also exercising a freedom of speech. Although the president of the United States (popular or not) should never be depicted this way, feelings about his political actions often are. Unfortunately the Post’s cartoonist diminished his political satire with racism, an ignorant move. People should learn to make comments and opinions in more educated manners.
When I came across this cartoon, my initial reaction was that it was racism. Growing up in this country with the media training our minds to subconsciously work this way, it’s no surprise that there was controversy. The cartoonist had to have known this as well as the person who gave the ok to publish it. There are other means by which to express one’s discontent with the stimulus bill…there was nothing subtle about the cartoonist’s nor the paper’s intent.
using cartoons characters in publishing news……….is nice…….!but using monkey……..maybe it was a mistake…it was so based…..!hope it change.but i like your cartoons.!