Here is the controversial New York Post monkey cartoon that predictably stirs up passions. The author of the Obama stimulus bill is depicted as a monkey shot dead by police, a message that lampoons the Obama stimulus plan and some say carries racial undertones by depicting a black president as a chimpanzee.
(NYPost.com)
New York Post Cartoon Offends Animal Lovers but Is the Obama Monkey Depiction Racist?
The inspiration for the political cartoon by Sean Delonas is the chimp attack that occurred earlier this week in Stamford, Connecticut. A pet chimpanzee named “Travis the chimp” who was high on tea seriously mauled a woman and was finally shot as he cornered two police officers. Click the above image and visit the New York Post to see the cartoon.
The message of the cartoon is that the Obama stimulus bill is such bad legislation that a monkey could have written it himself. The policeman with a smoldering gun says “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”
Since Obama’s hands are dirty all over this pork-laden legislation, a reasonable presumption is that the chimp is Obama himself as an inept president. Therein lies the controversy.
Is the monkey Obama? That may be what Sean Delonas intended but the beauty of good editorial cartoons is you do not get a road-map. The Post subsequently attempted to clarify by stating that the primate merely represents the Washington Democrats collectively who produced the flawed Obama bill.
The next question is should the left by so vehemently outraged by the identification of our president as a chimpanzee. One suspects there are short memories at work here and tiresome partisan shouting. A frequent pastime of our liberal friends was to call Bush “chimp.” What is the difference? Is the New York Post cartoon racist?
They will say that the difference is that Barack Obama is half-black, and that the ancient depiction of a black man as a monkey is a stereotype that cannot be tolerated. Predictably, Al Sharpton has already weighed in on the cartoon controversy:
“The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys.”
As a person of color I say get over the stereotype. Come to think of it that may also be Sean Delonas point in the New York Post cartoon. When a black man can finally be elected president of the United States, anything goes now. The race-baiting of Al Sharpton becomes irrelevant while the rest of us move on.
We have entered the era of post-racial politics thanks to Obama’s election. If the last president can be a chimp, so can Obama. And that is wonderful progress for our country. Ook ook.
Obama Chimp Inspiration (Video)
February 18th, 2009 at 11:44 am
You’re an idiot.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:46 am
If memory serves me correctly( and there’s a chance it doesn’t) I seem to remember seeing Pres. Bush portrayed as a monkey and chimp on more than one occasion. I think it’s meant to portray monkey business, nothing else.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Poor monkey.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:53 am
The New York Post needs to apologize to President Obama:
http://www.floodthelines.com/nypchimpcartoon/
Our President is no Chimp!
February 18th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Yea, you cant do monkeys and black men in the same sentence without hypersensativity gushing from everywhere.
From what I’ve heard the monkey that got shot was pretty smart. Took the keys and tried to start the car once
February 18th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
FLMom.
Its the intellect or lack of that makes the joke.
Not the assumption that all black men are monkeys.
Really, tell me, if thats the case then shouldnt just about every liberal rag in the country that analogized Bush next many things such as H*tler or Nazis be apologizing also ?
February 18th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Personally I think the cartoon is funny. Why’s there always got to be a race card played?
February 18th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
“I’m black and it doesn’t bother me” is not a valid argument against racist imagery or assumptions.
Bush was characterised as a chimp because of the unthinking ways he acts.
Obama has done nothing that is chimplike. At every step, no matter whether you agree with him or not, he has demonstrated intelligence, compassion, foresight. Referring to him in this way can only be a reference to his racial identity.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
if this is the best this cartoonist can do he’d better look for a new job. I think we can write this one off as a bad joke.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Racism and Right Wing ideology go hand in hand. Who woulda thunk?
February 18th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I support the cartoonist’s free speech rights 100%. The stimulus is a product of an out-of-control President. Mr. Sean Delonas has made a critical analysis of the stimulus fraud and has used his free speech rights to comment on it. Some people are overly sensitive and to them I say “get over it.” Dissent is not rac*sm.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
You really think we’re in an era of post-racial politics? Really?
February 18th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Can “Rev” Sharpton stop seeing such horrible ugliness…
February 18th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Joanne,
I think you are correct. But that was funny because Bush is dumber then a monkey. Or so the left thinks. But to compare Dalai-Bama to a monkey is hate speech and plays the race card. Did you know that Dalai Bama is black? Well 1/16th.
Liberals should be able to take a joke without getting their panties in a knot. They have elected Carter, Clinton, and Obama. And they nominated Al Gore and John Kerry. Now that is funny.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Unbelievably rac*st defense of an unbelievably rac*st cartoon.
For shame!
February 18th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
isn’t there any requirement for the cartoon to have some relevancy, humor or political message. We can’t just accept it because it takes two current events and puts them in the same cartoon. This is bogus.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Well when you start off saying that his hands “are dirty” with the stimulus bill you give a way your predilections on the subject don’t you.
1)There’s a big difference between equating Bush with a “chimp” and Obama. The reason Bush got equated with a chimp stems from “Curious George” and the reason for Obama being called a chimp is because he’s black and is an allusion to Social Darwinism. Sorry, you can’t simply remove the reason from the equation and ignore it.
2) The “inspiration” for the chimp attack notwithstanding, no one views the article and thinks Oh, he’s saying that the crazy chimp wrote the stimulus bill” No one thinks Travis the Chimp. People look at it and think, oh, the Chimp is Obama. There’s absolutely no way you can reasonably expect me to believe the “artist” had that in mind when he drew it.
3) Race aside, ANY depiction of ANY US president being assassinated is hugely over the top. Were there anything close to that while Bush was in office, the author would still be sitting Guantanamo Bay right now.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
This “cartoon� WAS /IS shocking, rac*st, and ignorant…that said let is also be understood that most American’s are smarter, stronger, and more secure than to be influenced by the ignorance of The Post. This is obviously an attempt to instigate moral and racial friction; forcing the American people to a face to face confrontation with political terrorism and inhumanity.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Kelly,
Point 3 is bogus. There was a game out last year that the mission was to kill Bush. There was hip hop video about killing Bush. There was a movie out about killing George Bush. No one was sent to Gitmo because of it. Your hate for Bush supercedes your defense of the Dalai Bama.
We have freedom of speech and that covers stupid people like this cartoonist. It even allow you to make statements that are untrue.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
It doesn’t matter. The problem is that a person has to result to innuendos to get someone to pay attention to him.
There are funnier, and more intellectual ways to get your point across. Letting the race card go, its just plain stupid and its not funny. Not funny. The only people who think its funny are people who really think President Obama is a chimp (now ask yourself why do you think Mr. Obama is a chimp, then swallow the jagged little pill and accept the fact that you have a problem with a person of non-White descent being your President then get the counseling you need to get over it)….
If you don’t think he is a chimp, you are not going to think it is funny. It wasn’t funny when people thought Bush was a chimp either….Even though in reality, like a chimp, he didn’t think things through enough. But the cartoon is what it is, and it is POOR JOURNALISM.
Free Speech is the cornerstone of Journalism, but actually do something worthwhile and eloquent if you want to have an actual respectable reputation.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
This is ridiculous. The monkey isn’t supposed to be Obama. If it was, they’d have labeled it as such or made it look like him. And nobody’s going to make a cartoon of Obama getting shot – give me a break.
The idea behind the cartoon is obvious to anybody with half a brain: this stimulus bill is so hosed up, a monkey must have written it. Obama – as much as he’s responsible for this nonsensical stimulus crap – didn’t write it.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Travis could not be reached for comment.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
A Black man is President for three weeks and anything rac**st goes huh? Anything goes? Why are you are advocating rac**sm? A round of rac**sm all around! It’s the American way! Ook ook! Bush was a monkey – so now Obama is too! That’s American? No – that is not American. That is ignorance. Grow up.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Bob,
I agree, but there are people that want to be affended every day about something. Like someone saying that Bush was like a chimp because he didn’t think thing through. You know like people that voted for Obama thought thing through.
Listen anything negative said about Obama or his policies or his package, will not be because his is wrong and people disagree with him., It will be because his is black. For the next four years that is the cry we will hear.
February 18th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Why not show him hanging from a tree? We are that evolved ..why not just go all out!