Something About Two Steps Forward....

...and 10 steps back. Isn't that how the saying goes?

You know, I don't think I have ever been so eager to credit the source of a picture.
I usually try to remember, sometimes I forget...but this time, I want FULL credit to go to, not only the artist of this cartoon, but the editor of The New York Post who saw fit to print it.

Please enjoy this bit of brilliance from New York Post cartoonist Sean Delonas.


Now the question is, who's ultimately responsible for such a blatantly racist cartoon?
Or more importantly, who's responsible for serving it up to the masses?

Obviously, the blame first falls on the mind of the creator. It's clear, much like it was CLEAR when Seinfeld's Michael Richards went on his racist tirade at the Laugh Factory in 2006, that Sean Delonas has a racist foundation. That's the funny thing about racists...in a lot of cases, they actually believe that they aren't. They'll attempt to justify their actions by claiming it's a social commentary of sorts.

You see, there are certain moments and actions that pull the covers off you, so to speak.
Michael Richards had one of those.
Sure, he tried to apologize over and over again, but the problem was, his apology was so transparently phony, that I think it only served to infuriate people more, and subsequently destroy his place in Hollywood.
Richards claimed that he didn't even know where his words that night, were coming from. That would be ok, if there was some sort of stuttering or verbal mis-steps as he was completely unraveling on stage. BUT, the words simply flowed from Richards mouth like a well seasoned auctioneer trying to move an original, one of a kind, autographed Byron De La Beckwith "I Killed Medgar Evers" T-Shirt.
We knew that not only did Richards know where the words came from, he was very comfortable with the source material.

Sean Delonas is clearly familiar with that source material too...or at least appears to be. But, Delonas can draw whatever he wants. That's the beauty of being an artist. You can create ANYTHING your heart desires, and if your heart desires continuing racial divide in a Country that just experienced a great leap forward in that realm...well, so be it. Make your cartoons, and post them at Arayan websites all over the internet.
You have a *right* to be hate filled if you want to be.

BUT, does a newspaper to the masses like The New York Post, have the right to spread such hate? Or I guess a more accurate question is, is it not completely irresponsible and reprehensible for them to do so?

Yesterday, The New York Post issued an apology for the above abomination.
Here's a segment from The Telegraph's article:

The newspaper acknowledged that the cartoon published on Wednesday had drawn controversy because African Americans and others saw it as a depiction of Obama.

"This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize," the paper said in an editorial on its website headlined "That Cartoon", which quickly became the site's most-viewed story.

"It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period," the paper said.

After explaining that the cartoon had been misinterpreted, the editorial concluded: "Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else."

OH, I see now!!! I feel like such a fool.
See, I was sitting here thinking that Obama had, just the day before, signed the very stimulus bill that's being referred to in the cartoon...PLUS being that I've lived in America for 38 years now, I'm very familiar with White America's past depictions of Blacks as monkeys, tar babies..and similarly degrading things...AND I believed logically that Delonas saw an opportunity to use a story about police having to kill a chimpanzee this week as the "covers" that I referred to above because the two stories have no other logical connection...well...I connected the dots, is all.

You are so smart, New York Post!
You completely schooled me!

Here I was thinking that I was looking at something so patently racist that I believed the entire chain of command from the Editor down to the artist should be fired, and was wondering why that hasn't already happened. But you showed me how I was just part of a group of "opportunists" that tried to "make" it something else. You took something that was clearly black, and showed me how it was really white!
By the way, how bad ass of me was it to tie that saying into this article? Black...White...get it?
Oh, I slay me, sometimes!!!

Where was I now?
Oh yeah....FUCK YOU, New York Post!

This was not only an appalling cartoon to publish, but your apology, much like that of Michael Richards', only serves to make me more disgusted with you.
I can only hope that the backlash does irreparable damage to your paper.
You've further insulted the intelligence of the public with this half-assed "apology" while attempting to redefine the word "opportunist" as someone who sees something terrible and responds to it accordingly.
I guess you would have refered to Abel Meeropol as an "opportunist" for writing the poem "Strange Fruit" after he was appalled by seeing Black Men hanging from trees?

But I'm disgusted by you mostly, because you've left me saying something I NEVER thought I would hear myself say....
"YEAH, Al Sharpton...YOU'RE RIGHT!!!"

And for that, New York Post, I hope there is a special place in Hell reserved for your entire staff.