African Americans criticized a New York Post cartoon as racist Wednesday, saying it likened President Barack Obama to an ape -- a potent image in the history of racism toward blacks.
The cartoon, which the newspaper defended as a parody of Washington politics, depicts a police shooting of an ape, playing off the real shooting of a pet chimpanzeee in Connecticut this week. One of the police officers says, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
Because Obama promoted the $787 billion economic stimulus that he signed into law Tuesday, critics of the cartoon interpreted the dead chimp as a reference to Obama, who became the first black U.S. president on January 20.
"The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African Americans as being synonymous with monkeys," civil rights activist Al Sharpton said.
Calling the cartoon "offensive and divisive," he promised to stage a demonstration outside the Post offices Thursday.
New York City Councilman Leroy Comrie said he received numerous calls from outraged constituents.
"To run such a violent, racist cartoon is an insult to all New Yorkers. This was an unfortunate incident in which a human being was seriously injured, not an opportunity to sling dangerous rhetoric," Comrie said in a statement. Full Story
02.19.09 The NY Post Apology
A day after publishing a cartoon that drew fire from critics who said it evoked historically racist images, the New York Post apologized in a statement on its Web site -- even as it defended its action and blasted some detractors.
Many of those critical of the cartoon said it appeared to compare President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee in a commentary on his recently approved economic stimulus package.
"Wednesday's Page Six cartoon -- caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut -- has created considerable controversy," the paper said about the drawing, which shows two police officers standing over the body of a chimpanzee they just shot.
The drawing is a reference to the mauling of a woman by a pet chimpanzee, which was then killed by police. In the cartoon, one of the officers tells the other, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
The Post said the cartoon was meant to mock what it called an "ineptly written" stimulus bill.
"But it has been taken as something else -- as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism," reads the statement. "This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize."
But the statement immediately swerves to fire back ... Continue Reading
02.24.09 The Rupert Murdoch Apology
New York Post Chairman Rupert Murdoch has apologized for a cartoon that critics said likened a violent chimpanzee shot dead by police to President Barack Obama.
Murdoch published a statement Tuesday, saying he wanted to "personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted." He says the Post will work to be more sensitive.
Murdoch says last Wednesday's cartoon was intended only to "mock a badly written piece of legislation."
It depicted the body of the bullet-riddled chimp Travis — killed in Connecticut last week after mauling a woman — and two police officers. The caption said: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
The Post also apologized last week in an online editorial, although the newspaper also said the image was exploited by its longtime antagonists ... Continue Reading
