Editorial cartoonists are bending over backwards a lot these days, as they try to satirize the nation’s first black president. And when they don’t, the result is the kind of outcry that erupted this week after a New York Post cartoon featured a bloody chimpanzee—intentionally or unintentionally evoking racist images of the past.
The problem is, cartoonists make their living by making fun of people—especially presidents—and exaggerating their features and foibles.
Political cartoonists have had a crucial role in American politics going way back to America’s first political cartoon, which appeared on Ben Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette. Making them walk on eggshells would be detrimental to the authenticity of this important art form.
For the record, I don’t think the cartoon was racist at all. I actually thought it was in bad taste because it took from a tragedy (where a chimp died and a woman is in critical condition) in order to make a joke. But for someone to concoct that the cartoon was racist would require a mind already predisposed to link an ape to an African-American person. The thought of said comparison didn’t even cross my mind when I first saw the cartoon. It wasn’t until I saw all the overblown outrage that I realized some were taking it that way.
I recognize our unfortunate history with racism in this country. All Americans, regardless of political ideology, are bound together by a deep shame when looking back at the way minorities were treated in the past. But that shame shouldn’t be a tool to perpetuate even more racism and even more antagonism in our present. That shame should be a tool to allow us the ability to look at others, not in terms of race or color, but in terms of people, in terms of personal ideas, in terms of unique traits, and in terms of my I makes me I and your you makes you you.
I am concerned over the effect that hyper-political correctness will have not only on political cartoonists, but on comedy itself. Being “nice” to our new President because of his race would actually be the racist thing to do. Not going as far with our criticism (as we have with previous Presidents) because of fear of being called a racist would in fact be the racist thing to do.
