Apparently, racism isn't dead...
I’ve been trying to ignore the NY Post/Obama/monkey cartoon controversy because it seems like one of those situations where stupidity dominates all sides of the debate but it’s hard. I’ve managed to avoid any news story about it but still got snagged by a few quick TV segments on it.
Is the cartoon racist? Who knows and who cares? The cartoonist isn’t really that clever to begin with and his cartoons usually consist of throwing together random pop culture references – the more inflammatory, the better. A chimp just got shot and a questionable economic bill just got passed… isn’t there a small off-chance that this cartoonist was just careless? Nope, he must be a Klan member.
But the cartoon had to go past an editor, so, if not the cartoonist, aren’t the editors at least virulent racists? Maybe… or maybe they just realized that the cartoon would provoke people and bring much-wanted attention to their paper. Wait, but how can it be "much-wanted" if it makes them look like racists? This is the New York Post we’re talking about here. Maybe the rest of the country isn’t quite clear on the Post’s take on “professional journalism” but they will print anything to get attention. People pick up the Post expecting controversy. This one cartoon, which the Post predictably defended as not-racist, brought them nationwide attention and probably improved readership, rather than hurt it.
So how could this situation have been prevented? People could have just not made a big deal out of it. Instead of flipping out and slinging flimsy accusations of racism, it could have been ignored. People, black and white and whatever, could have made it clear that they didn’t care and they didn’t want their time wasted by a non-issue. But no, everyone flips out and the cycle of worthless news and inane debate continues.
So the next time Ann Coulter calls someone a fag, resist the urge to write an eloquent Facebook comment denouncing Ms. Coulter as a homophobe and do nothing. You might just not help her sell a few thousand copies of her next book.
Is the cartoon racist? Who knows and who cares? The cartoonist isn’t really that clever to begin with and his cartoons usually consist of throwing together random pop culture references – the more inflammatory, the better. A chimp just got shot and a questionable economic bill just got passed… isn’t there a small off-chance that this cartoonist was just careless? Nope, he must be a Klan member.
But the cartoon had to go past an editor, so, if not the cartoonist, aren’t the editors at least virulent racists? Maybe… or maybe they just realized that the cartoon would provoke people and bring much-wanted attention to their paper. Wait, but how can it be "much-wanted" if it makes them look like racists? This is the New York Post we’re talking about here. Maybe the rest of the country isn’t quite clear on the Post’s take on “professional journalism” but they will print anything to get attention. People pick up the Post expecting controversy. This one cartoon, which the Post predictably defended as not-racist, brought them nationwide attention and probably improved readership, rather than hurt it.
So how could this situation have been prevented? People could have just not made a big deal out of it. Instead of flipping out and slinging flimsy accusations of racism, it could have been ignored. People, black and white and whatever, could have made it clear that they didn’t care and they didn’t want their time wasted by a non-issue. But no, everyone flips out and the cycle of worthless news and inane debate continues.
So the next time Ann Coulter calls someone a fag, resist the urge to write an eloquent Facebook comment denouncing Ms. Coulter as a homophobe and do nothing. You might just not help her sell a few thousand copies of her next book.
posted by joketrump at 7:28 PM
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