What's Black and White and Arguably Racist?

I've shown a yellow card to my flu every day for the past three days. No luck as of yet. I'll keep trying. Maybe I need to show it some sterner stuff, like what I'm about to show to The NY Post.

This morning the NYC rag ran an editorial cartoon by Sean Delonas which drew its satirical inspiration from the much-reported story of the Long Island chimpanzee that turned on its owner. Pretty frightening and sensational stuff. It not hard to guess why the Post is mining it for material. But did this one cross the line?

In Delonas' cartoon, the rampaging chimp is shown shot dead, two of NY's Finest and most befuddled standing over it. One quips, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." There's the obviously figurative interpretation, which likens President Obama to a chimp, or there's the literal interpretation, which suggests Congressional democrats (remember, GOP rank and file refused to back the bill) have adopted a new logo.

It's not hard to see why the Post might compare Congressional democrats as rabid anythings, being flush with new found power. But the obvious connections to President's Obama's as of yet signature legislation should be impossible to ignore. Was The Post, with the wisdom of a stack of wet newspapers, betting folks would just look past the century of racial implications swirling around Delonas' cartoon, however unintentionally they were put there?

We like to think of drawing as art, a creative outpouring of ideas beyond reproach, but drawing for a political satirist at the New York Post is also work, and not everything one does as work is beyond reproach. I have lots of good ideas and many bad ones in my professional life, and I assure you, just because they are creative, my bad ideas are not worth putting on television or publishing for all to read.

It's arguably impossible for a newspaper editor worth his or her salt to see a drawing of primate accompanied by text evocative of a black man and not know the shit storm likely to follow its publishing. Of course, in Newspaper World, controversy equals sales and web traffic. The Post knew exactly what it was getting. But when Rev. Al Sharpton called the editorial "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans," The Post had the audacity to respond by calling Rev. Sharpton, "a publicity opportunist."

Now, that's the pot calling the kettle black! (No offense to Rev. Sharpton.)

The New York Post is asked to cease and desist with obvious racial innuendo per Sec. C-6.