New York Post Cartoon: Al Sharpton Calls Monkey Cartoon Racist

According to TMZ, Al Sharpton is accusing the New York Post of racism. He claims that a New York Post cartoon featured in this morning's edition is a racist swipe at President Obama. You can see the cartoon here.

You can see that the New York Post cartoon references and blends two recent high-profile news stories - the signing of President Obama's historic stimulus bill (officially know as the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), and the shooting of Travis the chimpanzee after his brutal mauling of Charla Nash in Stamford, Connecticut.

Here is Al Sharpton's statement on the New York Post cartoon:

"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. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that 'Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.'"

Is the New York Post cartoon a blatant act of racism? Probably not intentionally, but, Al Sharpton does have a point. Which is to say, the New York Post cartoon is open to interpretation and one could interpret the New York Post cartoon as racist.

Al Sharpton is correct when he says that racists have historically equated blacks with apes and monkeys. It is a particularly egregious accusation that is advanced in an effort to to dehumanize and degrade African Americans. Anti-black racist literature is replete with reprehensible images that attempt to associate black men with ape-like savages. Thus, it is understandable why the New York Post cartoon might hit a nerve.

But, to give the New York Post and the cartoonist the benefit of the doubt, one could just as easily interpret the New York Post cartoon in a way that this humble citizen journalist believes it was meant to be interpreted. Which is to say, the New York Post cartoon is not implying that President Obama is a chimpanzee, but, rather, that the stimulus bill is so weighted down with pet projects and out-of-control spending, that it is so non-stimulative, if you will, that it couldn't have been cobbled together by President Obama and his team of wildly intelligent economic advisors. No, it must have been written by a deranged chimp.

If this interpretation is off the mark, and Al Sharpton's interpretation is what is really being implied, it would be highly problematic. But sometimes when something is too far-fetched to believe, it is just that: too far-fetched to be believed. Would a high-profile publication like the New York Post knowingly and purposely publish a piece of vile racist garbage in this day and age? It's just too far-fetched to believe.

Sources:

Sharpton Spanks the monkey cartoon, TMZ