Do you think the NY Post Chimp Parody is Racist?

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Permalink Reply by Charles McCauley on February 25, 2009 at 11:55am

Hello Jami, and congratulations in building this excellent page. Unfortunately my first real entry will be in response to your question posed in your blog. I will begin by saying that I'm in total agreement with your sentiments. As an artist myself I know the subtle nuances available to the illustrator to convey perhaps multiplicity of messaages, but none so confusing that the message is unclear; simply, we use art and other media to reach masses on the common level, as you said a layperson.... Our craft is fine tuned as we progress in experience, perfecting our skill at effective communication and establishing our proficiency. On that note, I will relate this paradigm to Mr. Delonas, who is in the tenured employ of the New York Post (mortem, we hope); his "thinly veiled" swipe at the Stimulus Bill was a blatant-as-a-brick, well thought out effort to express the sentiment of the Post, it's management who poorly dealt with the outrage, and all who possess a myopic vision of race and feed daily on the New York Post to sustain their outdated beliefs. Surely the solution to this madness is to work at rescinding the excessive reach of Mr.Rupert Murdock, who was given practically unlimited reach to establish his media empirein America despite the rules that initially prevent foreigners from such an enormous foothold on our shores... This is where the focus must be at the upper eschelons and our people must acertain where their dollars go, and redirect them away from Mr. Murdock's media empire. I wish you continued success in your endeavours and as always, I'm in your service....

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Permalink Reply by Jami Jackson on February 25, 2009 at 8:22pm

Thanks Charles! I definitely understand what you're saying. Mr. Murdock was able to attain so much power in the US, yet he has not been sensitive to the diversity within our nation. Although he has apologized, the question is, is an apology enough? Will there be an attempt by the NY Post to improve their newspaper and make it more sensitive to the demographics of NYC, or will they simply move on as business as usual until the next infraction?

Charles McCauley said:

Hello Jami, and congratulations in building this excellent page. Unfortunately my first real entry will be in response to your question posed in your blog. I will begin by saying that I'm in total agreement with your sentiments. As an artist myself I know the subtle nuances available to the illustrator to convey perhaps multiplicity of messaages, but none so confusing that the message is unclear; simply, we use art and other media to reach masses on the common level, as you said a layperson.... Our craft is fine tuned as we progress in experience, perfecting our skill at effective communication and establishing our proficiency. On that note, I will relate this paradigm to Mr. Delonas, who is in the tenured employ of the New York Post (mortem, we hope); his "thinly veiled" swipe at the Stimulus Bill was a blatant-as-a-brick, well thought out effort to express the sentiment of the Post, it's management who poorly dealt with the outrage, and all who possess a myopic vision of race and feed daily on the New York Post to sustain their outdated beliefs. Surely the solution to this madness is to work at rescinding the excessive reach of Mr.Rupert Murdock, who was given practically unlimited reach to establish his media empirein America despite the rules that initially prevent foreigners from such an enormous foothold on our shores... This is where the focus must be at the upper eschelons and our people must acertain where their dollars go, and redirect them away from Mr. Murdock's media empire. I wish you continued success in your endeavours and as always, I'm in your service....

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Permalink Reply by TDanielle85 on March 8, 2009 at 9:41pm

Hey Jami!! First off congrats on this great website!! I definitely agree with the fact that the NY Post Cartoon was blatantly racist towards President Obama. To compare any human being to an animal is just cruel anyway regardless of the position that they hold in our society. It almost brings you back to the whole "porch monkey" name that was so often tagged to African Americans in earlier years. Furthermore, the whole chimp incident was I am sure very devastating for the victim and her family. She has suffered some life altering injuries. The chimp bit off her eyelids, nose, lips and hands. She has also suffered major brain damage from the whole ordeal. I can't believe the NY Post had the audacity to find that comical, making a cartoon using the chimp. They may argue that the cartoon was not solely directed towards the chimp incident but it was still offensive. Not only have they offended those who heavily support President Obama, they have also offended those who were saddened by the physical damage and horror that the victim from the chimp attack suffered. People really need to think about how their readers will interpret these cartoons that they come up with and that goes for any magazine or newspaper that includes cartoons in their material.

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Permalink Reply by Jami Jackson on March 9, 2009 at 9:55am

Thanks a lot for the comment!! Yea, it was horrific what that monkey did to that woman. Not a laughing matter at all!

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