A New York Post cartoon that some have interpreted as comparing US President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police has drawn outrage, with protesters saying it echoed racist stereotypes of blacks as monkeys.
A New York Post cartoon that some have interpreted as comparing USu00a0 President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police has drawn outrage, with protesters saying it echoed racist stereotypes of blacks as monkeys. Others said the cartoon suggests that Obama should be assassinated.
The cartoon in Wednesday's Post by Sean Delonas shows two police officers, one with a smoking gun, standing over the body of a bullet-riddled chimp. The caption reads: They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill. It refers to a chimpanzee named Travis who was killed on Monday after it mauled a friend of its owner.
The cartoon set off a furious response against the Post. Its phones rang all day with angry callers. Protesters picketed the tabloid's offices, demanding an apology and a boycott and chanting shut the Post down. Critics called the cartoon racist and said it trivialised a tragedy in which a woman was disfigured and a chimpanzee killed.
Col Allan, editor-in-chief of the Post, defended the work. The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut, Allan said in a statement. "It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy."
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs declined comment. "I have not seen the cartoon," he told reporters aboard Air Force One. "But I don't think it's altogether newsworthy reading the New York Post."
It is not the first time that Delonas, the longtime cartoonist for the Post's Page Six, has raised eyebrows with a heavy-handed caricature. An earlier Delonas cartoon made fun of Paul McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills for having only one leg, and another compared gay people seeking marriage licenses to sheep lovers.
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How could the Post let this cartoon pass as satire? said Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists. To compare the nation's first African-American commander in chief to a dead chimpanzee is nothing short of racist drivel.
State Senator Eric Adams called it a throwback to the days when black men were lynched.
Reverend Al Sharpton called the cartoon "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys".
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