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Defenders of Post Cartoon Prove That Eric Holder Was Right
BlackAmericaWeb.com
So now, it seems the defenders of the New York Post’s despicable chimpanzee cartoon have veered way off the path of common sense and context to find a scapegoat.
They did some reaching and came up with … Eric Holder.
The nation’s new attorney general recently shook the realm of right-wing punditry and denial-ridden citizens by saying, during a Black History Month speech to Justice Department employees, that Americans needed to have more honest dialogue with each other regarding race and to understand the history of black folks in the United States.
“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Holder said.
Holder should have known better.
He should have known that calling Americans cowards on the unfinished business of racial equality and on the frank discussion of racial matters, especially when so many of them voted for President Barack Obama and literally believe this county is the “home of the brave,” would set off a lot of folks.
For many people, historical truth is no match for patriotic hype.
But now, some pundits are using Holder’s bluntness to defend what amounted to a racial slur splashed on the New York Post’s editorial page. Cartoonist Sean Delonas recently drew a cartoon of two police officers who had filled a chimpanzee full of bullets – with a caption saying that “They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”
The Post initially issued a half-hearted apology, and defended the chimpanzee as symbolic of Congress, not Obama. The Post’s owner, News Corp magnate Rupert Murdoch, today issued a stronger apology.
But scores of black people, many of whom remember a time when some whites thought they had monkey tails and how even today, know that police use slurs such as “porch monkeys,” and “gorillas in the midst,” to denigrate them, aren’t buying the Post’s explanation.
And, for that matter, neither are a lot of whites.
So the Post has been inundated with complaints and picketers. The NAACP has demanded the firings of the editor and Delonas, and the Rev. Al Sharpton is calling for a boycott.
And the commotion over that, say the cartoon’s defenders, is precisely why the country will never be able to speak frankly about race. If white folks say the wrong thing, some pundits argue, they will be labeled as racists. The way they see it, if white folks are cowards, it’s only because black folks are bad sports.
What hooey.
First of all, the people who are using Holder’s words as an excuse to defend the cartoon are guilty of the same kind of racial arrogance that keeps racism alive. If thousands of people, black and white, saw racism in the cartoon, then that means something is wrong.
At that point, it makes more sense to try to understand why that cartoon offended so many, rather than defend it.
Like Holder said, it’s time to talk.
Secondly, the Post’s cartoon debacle, if anything, is precisely the reason why more black people and white people ought to stop shying away from confronting the subject of race. Had the Post had any black editors or blacks in higher management to look at that cartoon, or if Delonas had spent any time at all talking to or absorbing the history of any real black folks, he would have known that such a cartoon was going to spark outrage.
In other words, if more whites and blacks were having honest conversations about race, there would be fewer transgressions like the one committed by the Post – because everyone would know better.
But therein lies the problem.
There are far too many white people who believe that because they voted for Obama, or because Obama won, that means there’s no more need for talking. Even before Obama won the presidency, I would constantly hear from white readers who somehow believe that because they take coffee and cigarette breaks with black co-workers, all is well with race relations.
As if sharing a cigarette suffices for sharing understanding.
Unfortunately, such scenarios tend to be reassuring to many whites. That is, until someone like Don Imus calls the black women on the Rutgers University basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” Or when a newspaper cartoonist draws a violent, tasteless cartoon that comes way too close to comparing the first black president of the United States to a deranged chimpanzee.
Then, everyone is clueless as to what the fuss is about.
But there would be no fuss if more of us everyday black and white folks, were talking and listening to each other about the sometimes uncomfortable topic of race. If we were, we would know better than to cross certain lines. We’d know more about the pain of each others’ past.
That’s why Holder says people ought to quit being cowards and talk.
And those who claim to be so outraged by what he said would be better off if they quit hiding behind his words – and muster the courage to confront the reality that he described.
BlackAmericaWeb.com
So now, it seems the defenders of the New York Post’s despicable chimpanzee cartoon have veered way off the path of common sense and context to find a scapegoat.
They did some reaching and came up with … Eric Holder.
The nation’s new attorney general recently shook the realm of right-wing punditry and denial-ridden citizens by saying, during a Black History Month speech to Justice Department employees, that Americans needed to have more honest dialogue with each other regarding race and to understand the history of black folks in the United States.
“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Holder said.
Holder should have known better.
He should have known that calling Americans cowards on the unfinished business of racial equality and on the frank discussion of racial matters, especially when so many of them voted for President Barack Obama and literally believe this county is the “home of the brave,” would set off a lot of folks.
For many people, historical truth is no match for patriotic hype.
But now, some pundits are using Holder’s bluntness to defend what amounted to a racial slur splashed on the New York Post’s editorial page. Cartoonist Sean Delonas recently drew a cartoon of two police officers who had filled a chimpanzee full of bullets – with a caption saying that “They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”
The Post initially issued a half-hearted apology, and defended the chimpanzee as symbolic of Congress, not Obama. The Post’s owner, News Corp magnate Rupert Murdoch, today issued a stronger apology.
But scores of black people, many of whom remember a time when some whites thought they had monkey tails and how even today, know that police use slurs such as “porch monkeys,” and “gorillas in the midst,” to denigrate them, aren’t buying the Post’s explanation.
And, for that matter, neither are a lot of whites.
So the Post has been inundated with complaints and picketers. The NAACP has demanded the firings of the editor and Delonas, and the Rev. Al Sharpton is calling for a boycott.
And the commotion over that, say the cartoon’s defenders, is precisely why the country will never be able to speak frankly about race. If white folks say the wrong thing, some pundits argue, they will be labeled as racists. The way they see it, if white folks are cowards, it’s only because black folks are bad sports.
What hooey.
First of all, the people who are using Holder’s words as an excuse to defend the cartoon are guilty of the same kind of racial arrogance that keeps racism alive. If thousands of people, black and white, saw racism in the cartoon, then that means something is wrong.
At that point, it makes more sense to try to understand why that cartoon offended so many, rather than defend it.
Like Holder said, it’s time to talk.
Secondly, the Post’s cartoon debacle, if anything, is precisely the reason why more black people and white people ought to stop shying away from confronting the subject of race. Had the Post had any black editors or blacks in higher management to look at that cartoon, or if Delonas had spent any time at all talking to or absorbing the history of any real black folks, he would have known that such a cartoon was going to spark outrage.
In other words, if more whites and blacks were having honest conversations about race, there would be fewer transgressions like the one committed by the Post – because everyone would know better.
But therein lies the problem.
There are far too many white people who believe that because they voted for Obama, or because Obama won, that means there’s no more need for talking. Even before Obama won the presidency, I would constantly hear from white readers who somehow believe that because they take coffee and cigarette breaks with black co-workers, all is well with race relations.
As if sharing a cigarette suffices for sharing understanding.
Unfortunately, such scenarios tend to be reassuring to many whites. That is, until someone like Don Imus calls the black women on the Rutgers University basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” Or when a newspaper cartoonist draws a violent, tasteless cartoon that comes way too close to comparing the first black president of the United States to a deranged chimpanzee.
Then, everyone is clueless as to what the fuss is about.
But there would be no fuss if more of us everyday black and white folks, were talking and listening to each other about the sometimes uncomfortable topic of race. If we were, we would know better than to cross certain lines. We’d know more about the pain of each others’ past.
That’s why Holder says people ought to quit being cowards and talk.
And those who claim to be so outraged by what he said would be better off if they quit hiding behind his words – and muster the courage to confront the reality that he described.