Another Obama Cartoon

Here's another example that demonstrates America isn't cut out for this irony lark. They are devoid of sarcasm, devoid of duality of meaning, and, it seems, devoid of humour. You may remember that I got myself into hot water a while ago when I was particularly vocal about a cartoon of Obama that appeared in the campus newspaper. This story carries worrying similarities. Who wants to put money on the cartoon being reprinted tomorrow for journalistic merit? Not me. Al Sharpton, that religious zealot intent on decapitating what sense of conscious morality he has left was first to comment: "The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best, given the racist attacks throughout history that have made African-Americans synonymous with monkeys." This kind of appeal to history is pandering to the racism-conscious majority who deplore such ideologies, and linking the two in this way is a pathetic, transparent attempt to suborn the attitude that to defend the cartoon is to be racist. I'm somewhat comforted, however, by the New York Post's resilience; rather than kowtow to the sensitivities of the illiterate and 'apologize for any offense unintentionally caused' (the stock response of the bed-wetting editors of many other newspapers), they've stuck up for themselves and explained the satire behind the cartoon for anyone blind to it. There seems to be a group of reactionaries quite content to jump on the hyper-liberal bandwagon whenever the opportunity presents itself. This needs to be met head on.