Are Americans 'Cowards' About Race? Anti-NY Post Protesters Speak Out

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted February 20, 2009.

" … The truth is, it's not a good cartoon. Because it is an awkward attempt to combine two unrelated news stories, it doesn't resonate … You many not even get the cartoon at all (stimulus=monkey?), but that's understandable because it's not that funny; it's just not racist either. Sometimes a joke about monkeys is, well, just a joke about monkeys."

Putting aside the irritatingly glib the-only-crime-is-a-failure-to-be-funny refrain that is so common when discussing race-baiting editorial cartoons, given the number of times monkeys appeared during the presidential campaign in reference to Barack Obama, it seems willfully ignorant and disingenuous to shrug off this cartoon as "just a joke about monkeys."

As psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff wrote on Wednesday, the Post cartoon "is not far removed from the 'Curious George' Obama sock puppet, a 'Curious George' Obama T-shirt, a Japanese advertisement depicting Obama as a monkey, and countless other Obama/monkey comparisons that cropped up throughout the year-long Democratic primary and presidential campaigns. Psychological science has long known that words and pictures, far from harmless, can be the very instruments of dehumanization necessary for collective violence-regardless of how innocently they are intended."

A History of Violence

Indeed, it is the violence of the cartoon, even more than the chimpanzee image that many people found disturbing enough to warrant protest. At the rally, one large sign read:

RACIST NEW YORK POST CHOOSES BLACK HISTORY MONTH TO INSULT PRES. OBAMA THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN PRESIDENT

THE NY POST IS ENCOURAGING LUNATICS TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT OBAMA

BOYCOTT THE NY POST AND ITS SPONSORS

In many ways, the sign cut to the heart of the matter. The possibility that white America would sooner see Barack Obama assassinated than allow a black man to reach the White House was a very real fear throughout the presidential campaign. And with good reason. One African American protester named Maggie has lived in New York since 1965 but grew up in Selma, Alabama. She compared the New York Post's cartoon to racist attacks on Martin Luther King Jr -- attacks that live in her memory. "They make racist statements to denigrate people of color," she said. "They see someone [of color] succeed and they try to bring him down."

Maggie said it didn't come as any shock that the Post would run such a cartoon after the election of Barack Obama. "I wasn't surprised," she said, "I am used to seeing that."

So, too, are New Yorkers used to seeing protests over the actual shooting by police officers of African American men -- protests often led by Rev. Sharpton. "People knock Al Sharpton hard," Dorothy said. "But you know he's the only black activist taking this on."

As the protest wound down, an older man named Joe, who lives in a homeless shelter downtown and who heard about the rally from Pacifica station WBAI, commented on the good turnout. "Not bad for 24 hour notice," he said, then shook his head. "Here we are, in 2008 -- and we're still seeing this crazy shit."

Go here to see photographs from yesterday's protest.

See more stories tagged with: racism, barack obama, black history month, eric holder, new york post, sean delonas

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