File puptcrit/puptcrit.0902, message 612


Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:55:27 -0800 (PST)
From: EM Martin <ffantona-AT-yahoo.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] STOP HATED & BIGOTED MEDIA/ART/SPEECH/MURDOCK


Michael,

The cartoon would be totally reprehensible, if it actually did compare President Obama to an ape. But it doesn't. Coded language doesn't have to enter into an interpretation of a pretty simple joke.

If the cartoon is in bad taste, it's because it makes light of a tragedy, the incident with a pet chimpanzee in Connecticut who ran amok and horribly injured a woman and was then shot to death by police.  The cartoonist's joke is that the stimulus bill is so bad only a crazy chimp could have written it.  He could have made that same joke about anything coming out of Washington.  It is a joke about our legislators and their staff and lobbyists and the so-called experts who wrote the stimulus package.  It is not about President Obama, who signed the bill, but didn't write it.

Our new Attorney General called on our cowardly nation to speak honestly about race issues. Okay, this is a great example of how a race issue can be manufactured to serve another purpose, just as you spell out in your demands. You want the editor and cartoonist fired, you want to embarass The New York Post, you want to embarass Rupert Murdoch. That's what you want to do, it has nothing to do with what's actually in the cartoon.  It bothers me when artists call for censorship and punishment of other artists. Every now and again on this list puppeteers complain about having to censor their shows.  I wonder which of your fellow Puptcritters should be punished for their shows that may have offended you, or which you think or insist mean something that they really don't.

But I started out by saying that if the cartoon did mean what you represented it to mean, it would have been awful. I felt it was pretty awful when American, European, and Middle Eastern editorial cartoonists portrayed Condoleezza Rice as a slave or as a pregnant woman giving birth to an ape.  An ape, remember.  And there are plenty of editorial cartoons that have been out there in the Arab media for years which like to portray Jews as unattractive, stereotyped, and greedy subhumans.  It would be terrible to have compared President Obama to a chimpanzee, but it's only silly to have compared President Bush to one for the past 8 years, or call him "Chimpy McBush."  I was at a National Puppet Festival where a potpourri act compared Bush to a monkey puppet.  The funny thing was that it was the puppeteer who looked like a monkey to me.  Lincoln was explicitly compared to an ape often, and by racists. But that was done by Democrats, not Rupert Murdoch.

Even if the cartoon was as offensive as you have taken it, or as you say you have taken it, I'm not sure how it relates to threats against President Obama. I also tend to doubt there has been a historic rise in threats now that he is president.  There are nuts out there. Some of them used to put on plays about assassinating President Bush. Some of them made a British film about what it would be like if someone killed President Bush that ended up all over Youtube. One of them, and his New York publishing house, put out a novel about how reasonable it would be to murder President Bush.  Yet President Obama was able to have an outdoor inauguration a month ago and shake hands as he walked along the street because he was in an environment that you could argue was a lot safer than you'd expect thanks to that same President Bush who really was called a monkey.

If we are artists and not political functionaries we should be scared of censorship. The real threats in your letter come from you, and they are directed at the livelihood and the freedom of expression of another artist and a newspaper editor, and therefore at all artists and producers and venue managers, and everyone on this list.  That's pretty depressing, especially since you've based your call to arms on what I can only hope was a sincere but dangerous misinterpretation and not a deliberate attempt to stir up controversy against a paper whose political opinions you simply despise. 

Here are some wise words for reflection I just happened to come across.

> "If you lose your sense of humor, it's just not
> funny." - Hugh Romney,  aka Wavy Gravy
> Please support rational/radical/revolutionary change -
> practice compassion in all thought/plans/actions.
> "Never impose on others what you would not choose for
> yourself." http://charterforcompassion.com/

Peace and be well.

Doris


--- On Fri, 2/20/09, Michael Moynihan <mmoynihan-AT-wi.rr.com> wrote:

> From: Michael Moynihan <mmoynihan-AT-wi.rr.com>
> Subject: [Puptcrit] STOP HATED & BIGOTED MEDIA/ART/SPEECH/MURDOCK
> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Date: Friday, February 20, 2009, 3:13 PM
> Dear Fellow Artists
> Yesterday, the day after U. S. President Obama signed his
> stimulus  
> bill into law, the NY Post ran a cartoon depicting the
> bill's "author"  
> as a dead monkey, covered in blood after being shot by
> police. You can  
> see the image by clicking on the link below.
> 
> In the face of intense criticism, the Post's editor is
> standing by the  
> cartoon, claiming that it's not about Obama, has no
> racial undertones,  
> and that it was simply referencing a recent incident when
> police shot  
> a pet chimpanzee. But it's impossible to believe that
> any newspaper  
> editor could be ignorant enough to not understand how this
> cartoon  
> evokes a history of racist symbolism, or how frightening
> this image  
> feels at a time when death threats against President Obama
> have been  
> on the rise.
> 
> Please join me and other ColorOfChange.org members in
> demanding that  
> the Post apologize publicly and fire the editor who allowed
> this  
> cartoon to go to print:
> 
> http://www.colorofchange.org/nypost/?id=2332-850403
> 
> The Post would have us believe that the cartoon is not
> about Obama.  
> But on the page just before the cartoon appears,
> there's a big picture  
> of Obama signing the stimulus bill. A reader paging through
> the Post  
> would see Obama putting pen to paper, then turn the page to
> see this  
> violent cartoon. The imagery is chilling.
> 
> There is a clear history in our country of racist symbolism
> that  
> depicts Black people as apes or monkeys, and it came up
> multiple times  
> during the presidential campaign.
> 
> We're also in a time of increased race-based violence.
> In the months  
> following President Obama's election there has been a
> nationwide surge  
> in hate crimes ranging from vandalism to assaults to arson
> on Black  
> churches. There has been an unprecedented number of threats
> against  
> President Obama since he was elected, with hate-based
> groups  
> fantasizing about the killing of the president. Just a week
> ago, a man  
> drove from Louisiana to the Capitol with a rifle, telling
> the police  
> who stopped him that he had a "delivery" for the
> president.
> 
> There is no excuse for the Post to have allowed this
> cartoon to be  
> printed, and even less for Editor Col Allan's outright
> dismissal of  
> legitimate concerns.
> 
> But let's be clear who's behind the Post: Rupert
> Murdoch. Murdoch, the  
> Post's owner, is the man behind FOX News Channel. FOX
> has continually  
> attacked and denigrated Black people, politicians,
> institutions at  
> every opportunity, and ColorOfChange has run several
> campaigns to make  
> clear how FOX poisons public debate.
> 
> I don't expect much from Murdoch. However, with enough
> public  
> pressure, we can set the stage for advertisers and
> subscribers to  
> think long and hard before patronizing outlets like the
> Post that  
> refuse to be held accountable.
> 
> You can help, by making clear that the Post's behavior
> is  
> unacceptable, and by asking your friends and family to do
> the same.  
> Please join me:
> 
> http://www.colorofchange.org/nypost/?id=2332-850403
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> - michael john moynihan
> "If you lose your sense of humor, it's just not
> funny." - Hugh Romney,  
> aka Wavy Gravy
> Please support rational/radical/revolutionary change -
> practice  
> compassion in all thought/plans/actions.
> "Never impose on others what you would not choose for
> yourself." http://charterforcompassion.com/
> 
> Please read my latest blog:
> http://blogs.bayviewnow.com/how__why/
> 
> Wanna watch my online vids:
> http://www.youtube.com/user/mkewi53207
> 



      
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