Yesterday's New York Post had a cartoon by Sean Delonas depicting the author of the stimulus bill as a chimp.
There's an outcry today, from Rev. Al Sharpton and others. Here's Sharpton's statement.
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".
Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?
I must admit, I'm uncomfortable with this imagery. I sense racial overtones, and the chimp joke after the woman was attacked in Stamford, Connecticut is truly unfunny. With President Barack Obama paying his first visit to Canada, I ask you this... Do you think this cartoon is racist?
