When the NY Post published their now-infamous chimpanzee cartoon some odds week ago, I was one to exercise temperance. I told all of my friends and relatives that I didn't see the cartoon as that big of a deal. There was no need to protest, no need to demand an apology. Call me naive, but I was one of the few people who seemed to miss the connection between monkeys and the President of the United States.
If anything, I saw the cartoon as a jab towards Congress since it's the Members of Congress that wrote the stimulus bill, not the President.
As I've been telling people, the president merely signed it.
At the same time, if the cartoon indeed was an affront to President Obama, wouldn't he have issued a statement through his press secretary or something? How come Al Sharpton was the first person (and not Robert Gibbs) to sound the proverbial alarm, denouncing the publication and its entire staff? My theory is President Obama neglected to engage in the whole melee because he realized what I also realize.
There are bigger fish to fry -- the economy, health care, education, so on and so forth.
Why fight a battle without any spoils?
Now, I'm sure the president understood the whole history of blacks being stereotyped as monkeys, as I now do also after having a in-depth conversation with one of my loving aunts.
Still, Obama decided to take the high road. For this reason, I applaud him. Besides, anybody with a fully functioning brain comprehends how ludicrous and preposterous it is to compare a black person -- or any person, for that matter -- to a monkey.
Hello?
Through it all, I imagine I felt like how Chris Rock must have felt when he appeared as a guest on Larry King last September.
That night, King asked the comedian for his opinion on Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings remarks about Sarah Palin. On the subject of Governor Palin, Hastings said, "Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.”
What was Rock's response?
"Larry, are you calling me a moose? Are you making the news or reporting the news? Let's find the craziest black quote we can find! What the hell do I have to do with a moose, Larry?"
Similarly, in more polite terms, I'm trying to draw this link between black people and monkeys. Confessedly, I've been unsuccessful.
Yesterday, I received a chain e-mail from another one of my aunts, whom I also love dearly. The e-mail was entitled "I will not shop at Barnes and Noble or any of [its] affiliates!" Because I love Barnes and Noble, I had to find out what this e-mail was all about.
Curiously, I scrolled to the bottom of this message, only to find a picture of a display window full of books written on (or by) President Obama. But there was also a Sesame Street "one of these things do not belong"-element to the picture.
Lo and behold, a book on monkeys was located front and center amid all the other Obama books.
What to do?
The NY Post comic sketch was questionable. This window display, on the other hand, was blatantly racist.
Now I still intend on shopping at Barnes and Noble, for I don't subscribe to extreme practices. One bad book store need not ruin it for all the other responsibly managed stores. Be that as it may, the employee who thought this was cute needs to be fired ASAP.
Meanwhile, I'm still trying to draw this link between black people and monkeys.
Confessedly, I've been unsuccessful.
I read something recently by Steven Katz entitled the Ethics of Expediency (it has a subtitle that escapes me right now). It discusses rhetoric and how the classic definition put forth by Aristotle (discovering in any given case the available means of persuasion) has been perverted. Katz argues that individualism and utilitarianism have deteriorated the ethics and virtue in rhetoric. In other words, people will use rhetoric to gain what is most expedient irregardless of the consequences. This relates in that I believe the bookstore manager and the editor for the newspaper knew the negative connotations associated with comparing Black people to monkeys. They chose to use their rhetoric (political cartoons and bookstore displays are forms of persuasion, thus rhetoric) to inflame people and gain media and public attention. Everyone must recall the hackneyed phrase: "There is no such thing as bad press." More people will google the NY Post and that particular Barnes and Noble and more people will gain an interest and more people will buy that newspaper and walk into that bookstore. Therefore, I must agree with you that President Obama's choice to ignore the comments was the best course of action to stalwart the effects that these either greedy or ignorant (probably both) people hoped to achieve. Most importantly, we do have more important things to worry about.
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