Is This Cartoon Offensive?

The controversial political cartoon that offended me came from the New York Post in February 2009. The cartoon featured two uniformed police officers shooting a chimp, shown lying on the ground, as one officer says to the other: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." The depiction of the chimp is apparently a reference to the 200-pound chimpanzee that mauled a woman in Connecticut couple days before officers had to shoot the animal to death. "The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event," explained Post editor-in-chief Col Allan, who denied that it was intended to refer specifically to Obama. "It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy," he said. This is a racist cartoon aimed at the president of the United States. This cartoon incorporated two news stories into one. But that terrible incident was taken and put in a political cartoon. The Post should at least clarify what point they were trying to make in this cartoon, and reprimand their cartoonist for making inferences that are offensive and divisive at a time the nation struggles to come together to stabilize the economy if, in fact, this was yet another racially charged cartoon. At the same time this incident was taking place, a massive stimulus package was begin discussed in congress to help boost the economy. There was a lot of heated debate over the stimulus and whether it would be a good thing for the economy. There was massive destruction of the economy and Wall Street almost collapsed a few months prior. There was a need for government spending in order to offset the lack of consumer spending to give the economy a boost. What this cartoon shows in an opposition to the stimulus package and to cops shooting a monkey. The monkey is a representation of the president Barack Obama. The cops saying that someone else would have to write the stimulus bill says to me they are taking a shoot at the president.

This cartoon is offensive on many levels. There is the racial imagery of a monkey being equated to the president who is black. There is also imagery of gun violence and also the imagery of police brutality. I can understand those people who say that this cartoon represents an image of a stimulus package that is so ridicules it looks like a monkey wrote it and that it’s just humor that it’s shoot dead by cops to represent the opposition to the package. I would say that this is not the case. If that were true then the cartoon would have spoken for itself. I argue that something that is great does not need an explanation because it is so genius that it just speaks for itself. When some people see police officers shooting a monkey and then a caption saying someone else has to write the stimulus package they would connect that monkey to the president. In American history the image of the monkey has been used to represent African-Americas. Now that the country has an African-American president who was vocal about passing the stimulus package, it is obvious why this cartoon would be so offensive. There is also the image of police brutality by the cops shooting the monkey and saying what they said. The cartoon shows the police killing the monkey because they disagree with the stimulus and not because it was self-defense. Again with the history of police in America it brings up images of Rodney King. I understand this cartoon was meant to poke fun at the stimulus package but it was distasteful. There are other ways to show that the stimulus is ridiculous without implying that it was written by a monkey.