Editorial cartoonists are like any other artists: they are charged with presenting an accurate depiction of the world, as they see it. Now, they are all shook up about offending folks in the age of Obama, and this is a problem. They need thier freedom. I’d rather see offensive editorial cartoons lead to dialog, not diatribes. No sense in getting all heated up over a drawing.
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I stopped telling white folks what they were doing wrong a long time ago, and it has probably added years to my life. The reason your blood pressure is high now is from answering stupid questions about being black. You can’t be anyone’s Negro Tourguide through Da Race Problem, and you are all kinds of wrong for trying. I see moments of manufactured media outrage not as teaching moments—-because, let’s be honest—white folks actually DO know better—-but as telling moments. Moments to be listening. When folks of any stripe tell you who they are and what bag they are jumping out of, you just take note. You can’t change them, no matter how much they donate to your organization or how much you sue them for. I don’t want to live in an America where the editorial cartoonists are afraid to show us who they, or what kinds of people they work for. I prefer my racists loud and proud, not slick and quasi-liberal.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so let the editorial cartoonists draw freely, I say…. and tell you what you need to know.
Single Father, Author, Screenwriter, Award-Winning Journalist, NPR Moderator, Lecturer and College Professor. Habitual Line-Stepper
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