“A Chimp’s Last Stimulus Bill Co-stars With A Nation of Cowards!”

If you were harboring doubts about whether, despite the election of President Barack Obama in November, there are still unresolved issues around the subject of “Race in America,” just refer to a couple of news events from last Wednesday. Let me stipulate, right off, the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are still the top billed headlines for the American people, and the current Administration. I would add, rightly so.

The President spent nearly an hour last night outlining a bold, ambitious agenda in his first speech to a joint session of Congress. While noting the “the cost of action will be great,” he added, “the cost of inaction will be greater.” President Obama reiterated his plans to cut the deficit in half over the next four years. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, tapped to deliver the Republican response to the President’s speech, labeled the $787 billion stimulus package irresponsible. He added the Republican Party would regain the nation’s trust.

But this post is about last week; not last night. Much has been said about the widespread notion that America entered a post-racial, post-partisan era, effective November 4th. Allow me to caution; not so fast! First, in its February 18th Edition, the New York Post ran an editorial cartoon depicting two police officers standing over a dead chimp, complete with two blood oozing bullet holes and the caption, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

A loud hue and cry ensued, much of it accusing Sean Delonas, of penning a racist cartoon, and the New York Post and Rupert Murdoch, its owner, of irresponsibility, or worse, latent racism. This view was countered by sentiments ranging from The Post and Mr. Delonas were exercising 1st Amendment Rights to Freedom of Speech and Expression, to, the protests were simply yet another instance of blacks crying foul, and displaying unwarranted sensitivity.

In response to criticism and complaints, including a suggestion from activist Al Sharpton, that The Post clarify its position on, and interpretation of the cartoon, The Post’s Editor-in-Chief, Col Allan said: "The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist." In a separate statement to CNN, Mr. Delonas characterized the controversy as "absolutely friggin' ridiculous."

Sober reflection would reveal that there may be several plausible reasons objective viewers might reach a different conclusion. A few of them include:

• The history of race relations in America, and a sordid collection of racial
stereotypes; including those comparing blacks with monkeys, apes, and or
chimps, for example.
• The fact that President Obama actively made himself the face of the Stimulus
Bill
• The cartoon ran the day after President Obama signed the Stimulus Bill
• The cartoon appeared on page 12 of that particular section of the paper;
opposite it on page 11 was a picture of President Obama signing the Stimulus
Bill

The Post initially refused to offer an apology. After a of day of reflection, and quite likely an assessment of the continued protests, buttressed by subsequent leaks that suggested even the paper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, found the cartoon in poor taste, the paper altered its position.

Citing a belief by African-Americans that the cartoon depicted President Obama, and concluding that belief had been the reason for the controversy, The Post issued the following statement in an editorial on its website entitled “That Cartoon”: “This most certainly was not the intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.”

“It was meant to mock an ineptly written stimulus bill. Period.”

In a move that caused some to doubt the sincerity and legitimacy of the apology, the paper also said it was not apologizing to all its critics.

“There are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past – and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback. To them, no apology is due.”

“Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon – even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.”

The story appeared in or was actively discussed by most major news outlets, and quickly went viral in the Blogosphere, where there are a host of both conservative and liberal commentators. One voice, conspicuous by its absence, is that of President Obama. When asked about the cartoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs downplayed the matter, and distanced the President from the subject.

“I have not seen the cartoon,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One as President Obama returned to Washington from Arizona, where he announced his plan to deal with the foreclosure crisis. “But I don’t think it’s altogether newsworthy reading the New York Post.”

In a second development, at a Black History Month Observance at the Department of Justice, ironically, on the same day Mr. Delonas’ editorial appeared in print, Attorney General Eric Holder caused more than a few raised eyebrows when he said, “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.” Even though, Mr. Holder took great pains to put that assertion into its proper context, he was panned in many corners for having the temerity to utter such a statement.

In clarifying, he noted, specifically, that:
• Average Americans do not talk to each other about race
• Given our nation’s history, it is understandable why we are ill at ease
• Making progress will require comfort with and tolerance of each other
• We must have frank conversations about the race matters that still divide us
• We have done a pretty good job of melding races in the work place, but:
o This interaction operates within certain limitations
o ‘American instinct’ and learned behavior inform us that certain
subjects are off limits, and exploring them risks, at best
embarrassment, and at worst, the questioning of one’s character
• Outside the workplace the situation is even more bleak
• On Saturdays and Sundays, America in some ways does not differ significantly
from the country that existed 50 years ago; that is truly sad
• Changing will be painful, but rewarding
• The alternative is to continue polite, restrained interaction that
accomplishes little

CNN’s Campbell Brown, she of the “No Bias, No Bull” fame, lauded Attorney General Holder, noting, he could have taken the easy way out, praising African-Americans for their sacrifice, or referencing President Obama’s victory, or his own confirmation as the first black United States Attorney General. Instead, he pressed all Americans to confront the unfinished business on the uncomfortable subject of race.

Among those who earnestly disagree with Holder, some argue his provocative word choice distracted Americans from his larger point, which was, we still have a great deal of work to do. Others, as did a Washington Post editorial this past Saturday, take Mr. Holder to task for not accounting for generational change; the paper argued as the country becomes more diverse, we will become less affected by the baggage of our horrific past.

These two distinct, but thematically overlapping news items combined last week to serve as a not so subtle reminder that even while we are navigating the tumultuous economic seas of a global financial crisis, focusing on efforts to gear down, responsibly, the war in Iraq, and creating a strategic design to gear up our involvement in Afghanistan, and possibly Pakistan, we are bound, inescapably, to deal with what W. E. B. Du Bois deemed in his 1903 Treatise, The Souls of Black Folk, “the problem of the 20th Century…the color-line.”

That we are still trying to resolve this challenge, a decade into the 21st Century, is instructive. It speaks to the complex and trenchant nature of the issue of race. As Americans, we are at a point where it is no longer sufficient to sing "Kumbaya," or even "Lift Every Voice and Sing", for that matter; we must commit to the serious, arduous and continuous work of building Racial Détente. Perhaps it is apropos that during Black History Month 2009, Mr. Delanos’ Chimp Co-starred in the news with Attorney General Holder’s Cowards to underscore that salient point.

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/. A new post is published each Wednesday.

For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/24/obama.speech/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/24/video.obama.sotn/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/24/sotn.jindal.speech/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXHDTch-Mpc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7nN2SCquwQ

http://themoderatevoice.com/26579/new-york-posts-chimp-cartoon-racist-or-politically-motivated-pc-firestorm/

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02192009/postopinion/editorials/that_cartoon_155984.htm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/18/ny-post-put-obama-photo-o_n_168016.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7900963.stm

http://cbs3.com/topstories/chimp.attack.cartoon.2.938541.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmU5UV3bnuM

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/18/campbell.brown.holder/index.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090219/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/holder_race

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/20/AR2009022003643.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/18/holder.race.relations/index.html

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6905255&page=1

http://www.newsweek.com/id/185286

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/opinion/21blow.html?_r=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift_Every_Voice_and_Sing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_History_Month