Of monkeys and watermelons

https://www.clawscustomboxes.com/kcpn95gw3k This past week a mayor in California sent out the above picture in an email saying that there would be no Easter Egg hunt this year at the White House. Now, as you know, about two weeks ago, a mayor metropolitan newspaper published an editorial cartoon that showed an assassinated monkey as the author of the bailout bill.

Now, two weeks ago I actually wrote what I thought was a rather neutral post pointing out that various people had seen various possible interpretations and that I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Since then, two things have happened. One is that the owner of the newspaper has since apologized and basically recognized the inappropriateness of that editorial cartoon, and that it was racially tinged. So, I will go with the owner’s own interpretation. The second, of course, is the picture above. It now becomes significantly harder to argue that there was not a clear racist message in this picture. To me, the amazing part is that the former mayor of the town, who is now only a simple council member, tried to claim that he did not know that this would offend African-Americans.

https://blog.extraface.com/2024/08/07/oh4amd40 There is a person who regularly comments on this blog who claims that the subject of race is something that only the left keeps bringing up. I think that the last two weeks have sadly proven that this is not so. The mayor, of course, issued the obligatory modern apology in which he claimed that he had no idea whatsoever of what those images meant. Frankly, in this case, particularly of a mayor in California, one of the most liberal states in the nation, I find his excuse rather hard to believe.

Nevertheless, and most sadly, there already are people on the web defending him and accusing everyone else of an over-reaction. It was just good clean fun, they say. No, sadly enough, racism is not something the left simply brings up and keeps on the front burner. Nor does the election of President Obama mean that it no longer exists. No, not as long as there are chimps and watermelons in our humor, and people claiming that it means nothing.