3.02.2009

confession: a drama in 4 acts

curtain rises
okay, so. if you know me, you know my arm can get tired from a lot of things, but never from raising my black power fist. i fight the good fight for a living and when i say i love my people, i strongly believe love is an action word. making life better for us is a passion of mine. however, i just got (another) email from the naacp that made me feel i had to come out of the closet on this issue. as you know, on february 18 this delonas character drew this cartoon for the ny post. the outcry has been tremendous to say the least and i have to say. . .i feel some kinda way about it.

act 1: what i feel you need to be able to understand this cartoon
  • a monkey is used to symbolize, among other things, a creature lacking in intelligence. e.g. the classic american idiom 'a monkey could do your job'. . .certain people have been likening dubya to a monkey for 8 years.
  • a very large stimulus bill was recently passed. nancy pelosi and other members of congress wrote the bill--it has undergone editing and revisions in order to be passed. president obama signed the bill on february 10.
  • conservatives widely disagree with the stimulus bill for one reason or another. some conservative governors have even said they wouldn't take the money allocated to their respective states as a sign of protest
  • the new york post is a conservative newspaper
  • on february 16, police in stamford, connecticut shot and killed a chimpanzee that mauled a woman. his owner kept him as a pet/child and even admitted to giving him xanax on occasion
if you put all of this together it = the author of the cartoon is a conservative, he thinks the stimulus bill is stupid and was written by a stupid person/persons. coincidentally and unrelatedly (unless you're a cartoonist who makes money off of depicting current events tied together in a way that no one else really thinks of as related), a monkey was recently shot and killed by police. he makes a cartoon. it is not the first one he has done that shows someone getting shot, that criticizes the stimulus bill using unrelated current events and/or animals (see post cartoons from feb 5 and 11) whether it is "funny" is debateable; but i don't see where race enters the picture. . .this is where i diverge from the outcry and collective 'we'.

act 2: the naacp, et al
the naacp turned 100 this year. true to its name, it has advanced the plight of colored people in this country for 100 years. i respect it as an organization, even though i know some of its dirty little secrets and things it uses to execute what it feels is the most effective strategy. however, when i got the second in a series of emails about this topic, it infuriated me. in relevant part:

as roger vann, our senior vp of field operations and membership, explained, the racist cartoon "outraged our members by comparing african americans to primates. and it sullied police officers at a time when many communities are torn by suspicious police killings of young African American men."


huh??
i mean, if any one person should be offended by this cartoon it should be nancy pelosi--but i'm sure even she wouldn't take offense as she knows she is not the only one responsible for this bill. rather than the chimp representing one person, it likely represents the collective body responsible for what the conservative author considers a 'dumb' bill--and from what i can tell, he has no problem blaming all the congressional dems.
why do i single out the naacp? because they are quiet about too many other things and this time their 'strategy' card is showing. i know the naacp isn't as upset about this cartoon as it is seizing the opportunity to get at ol' rupert and faux news. but the timing is bad. it makes me mad bc they have been oh so quiet about billey joe johnson (have you even heard of him? the superstar 16 year old who supposedly shot and killed himself with a shotgun during a routine traffic stop--it was ruled a suicide and the gunpowder on the police officer's fingers? oh that was just from him handling his service gun earlier in the morning. right.) and i'm sure you won't hear anything from them about the 15 year old girl who got beat up in that holding cell in seattle (the deputy is on paid administrative leave bc, you know, sometimes you have to brutally beat up a defenseless 15 year old girl--let's give him a paid vacay while we wait to hear his side). there are real battles to fight, not just the ones that get press because they stem from someone with money and can get you on tv. this isn't our battle to fight. we are not always the monkey.

act 3: faux news and rupert murdoch
don't mistake this post to say that i don't believe there is MUCH room for reform and diversity at rupe's organizations. if they had more diversity on their staff, they at least would have had a stronger leg to stand on. they are guilty of doing a whole bunch of shady, institutionally racist crap. we see their media bias, their lily white producers/gate keepers, and all the other underhanded stuff they do. i wrote my honors thesis on bias in the news media and did extensive research. it needs to stop and if the naacp can change that, that's great--but this isn't the horse to latch that buggy to. you see, the key is that there is a difference between insitutional racism and traditional racism. . .you know they are too smart for the latter. the smart, rich, most threatening white people would never be so blatant as to call us monkeys to our faces. they know there's too much to lose--in private, you bet they do (and they issue quick apologies and even offer to resign when they're caught), but only the dumbest ones say it in in public. and they are written off as dumb almost immediately and the 'progressive white people' try to distance themselves from it. you know, they'll admit to being 'conservative' but not racist! they have like 5 black friends, you know. . .
all this to say. . .rupe and faux take shots at obama, it will be less blatant than this--and trust, they will be taking shots, so watch for the hook ;)

act 4: my people
to take a line from my play godfather dr. west 'i can say this about my people because i love them'. there is a hindu proverb that says 'all change is not progress, as all movement is not forward'. this is why i get so mad at the naacp. we are in such desperate need of leaders that if we hear a rallying cry from such a venerable organization, we feel it's only right for us to join forces (i'm hearing ludacris, 'when i move you move' lol). but they need to be careful! yes, it is great when we come together to effect change and forward movement--but it needs to be progress and forward movement! we can't just be wasting energy. i fear, in situations like this, we lose credibility as being 'too sensitive'--so it makes it that much harder the next time there really is an issue. i mean, there will always be people who say black people complain too much and are too sensitive--but i for one want to make sure that i am on the side where i can say, no, this is a real issue, this isn't about me trying to promote an agenda or just get my mic turned on. this is important to me bc i do this for a living. and when the backlash from my cases comes, i like to know that i know what i'm fighting for and i'm not just whining or trying to make a point because i can.
also, (in love, my people) this type of situation requires context--these are intellectual cartoons that require a knowledge of current events, and in this case, a little knowledge about legislative process. i love that we love obama and are willing to ride for him. . .when it's time. but this isn't time. of all the people implicated when one says write the stimulus bill, our beloved b-rack isn't one of them. in delonas' other cartoons you can see he clearly sees the stimulus thing as dems v. republicans. this looks like we're making an ill-informed argument--volunteering to be the monkey and grasping for straws (linking it to police brutality in our communities??) so as to build an equally weak platform. we are an angry, hurt people. . .and for good reason. but we need to channel our anger in a way that will give us credibility and make us productive. i just don't think this is it.
curtain closes

1 comment:

i used to live in the world said...

I agree wholeheartedly with you. That's basically what I thought when I saw the cartoon. However, I think the initial reaction to the cartoon stemmed from the fact that the Post chose to place it directly behind the story about Obama signing the stimulus bill. You have to wonder what they were thinking.