Fry, You are my superhero for today. Thank you.
Honestly the cartoon sucked. Racist, no.
Some people just decide to read WAY too much into it.
And as for my avatar, the point of it is irony, not racism. I am not racist. I don’t give a flying shit what color a person is. But I love me some irony.
However, out of respect for you all if anyone is offended by it I will remove it.
Actually, I’m going to voluntarily remove it now.
i already said i dont find it racist just in terrible poor taste. you all know monkey is a term when used towards a black man or woman is meant to be derogatory, its not this big secret, and obama is the person most people correlate the stimulus bill to, so its not hard to connect the dots. so it was for shock value like most on here try but fail miserably at. so of course you probably wouldnt immediatly go there with it but as someone who ahs been called a monkey i can see how people would get to that point
No, but it’s a technical point that a majority of Americans will not understand. It’s his bill, in the media, and in their minds.
A cartoon which says a monkey wrote the bill is at best written and published by someone completely oblivious. However, the fact that it’s simplified for cartoon format does not preclude it from pertaining to a black man who happens to be our President in a way that we should legally, but not socially, tolerate.
Just because you don’t, doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Even if it wasn’t consciously put there (arguable, given the cartoonist’s history) doesn’t mean it didn’t require at least 2, probably the better part of a dozen people being completely worthless in order for it to get published.
I got a little too defensive. A couple of points:
- I have no right to tell anyone else what they should and shouldn’t be offended by.
- I’m not offended by the cartoon because I didn’t personally associate it with President Obama’s race.
- I can certainly understand how a lot of people would associate the cartoon with Obama’s race.
Good point. To most people, the stimulus bill and Obama probably go hand in hand. If this is true, then the cartoon is calling Obama a monkey, and from there it’s up to the viewer to decide if monkey means funny little lower primate or derogatory racial slur.
“Meaning” is personal. Nothing has meaning until you give it meaning. What the NYTimes should have done (and maybe they did) is consider how many people would associate the monkey with a racial slur for our black president.
Given that this is our first black president’s first month in office, it probably would have been classier of the Times to err on the respectful side of things and not print a cartoon that can so easily be interpereted as racist.
I’m glad I come off as a moron to you! I’m excited that you enjoyed my point. Points are usually edgy as they are a literally taper point. Unless you are talking about pointing at something then it is less a edge and more a direction, am I right?
Lets try another point.
No one said life was fair and that everyone will be equal. Well not in my book at least.
Question: Are you an English major, with a psychology minor, looking for a job? Are you debating if you should go back to school for a masters or continue down this path, so you can find a job because you are currently unemployed or your current job sucks? Rationalizing the economy as a reason why your not working or working in a place or position you want to. Also do you drive a economy car with a custom plate somehow referring to MPG? Thanks
I’m just playing with you man, but seriously. 
It is a joke and society is already beyond fixing so (drum roll please) who cares?!
I like everything you’re saying except this. If meaning is purely subjective, then language and symbolism are pointless gestures. The point is that there’s a degree of objectivity in every symbol, every word, and every subtle communication.
You shouldn’t argue that the n-word has no meaning - the history behind it gives it meaning, and it’s inane to argue otherwise. The history behind the use of simian imagery to demean and dehumanize the African race is just as real, and it’s just as inane to argue that the meaning is only invested by us. The root is the same, it’s simply that the racism is more subtle.
No, but all people should be allowed equal opportunity to succeed. To me, this means that all schools should be equal, and that we should strive to make sure that no child is taught that education is wasteful, meaningless etc. This is a huge problem in the urban poor culture.
I have a BA in History with a Political Science minor. I’m working as a Workers Compensation claims examiner, make good money, and have been accepted into a Top 30 law school with a full tuition scholarship for this fall.
My job is fine. It’s completely immune to economic fluctuations, unless the United States or New York State collapses completely.
My car is supercharged and I don’t have a custom plate.
Hope this clears up everything for you.
I know. I’m fine with funny offensive jokes, but I’m offended by stupid jokes, regardless of whether they’re offensive.
I’m up in arms because this is reasonably offensive and amazingly unfunny.
So instead of referring to the actual animal as a monkey so we don’t offend anyone it is now–a nonhuman primate mammal
One could easily argue this the other way too. Why should an equally qualified (or perhaps even higher qualified) white candidate not get (or be eligible) a scholarship, into a school, job, etc over a minority due to quotas, affirmative action, etc? Where’s the equality there?
You didn’t have to literally answer the question as I was just trying to portray you as token crying liberal. (Not that any one side is more correct then the other, I suppose.)
Congrats on the full ride though! I wish I had one for my under grad, but I only got partial. Weak.
Even though this cartoon was amazingly unfunny, most are.
It is sad to say, what the mass of society thinks becomes what everyone must take into account. That trumps any personal meaning of anything to a single view. If that view is not equal with the mass of (stupid) society, then you are wrong.
I see no harm in calling my friends niggers. Maybe you do, oh well. I am most clearly in the wrong though, because society buried the word, and it is generally not accepted as a greeting between friends, as it is for me. I, for one, am going to, try to, put in, as many commas, in this one sentence, as I, possibly can. I mean really people, how sensitive will this cuntry become? Will it get to the point where there will be no human interaction at all in fear of offending someone? Why can’t people take a deep breath, and let it go a little?
i didnt even see this as racist, i was pretty sure it had to do with the monkey shooting
NY POST
the cartoon is about travis the chimmp cmon guys
I don’t remember travis having a govt. job?
picard
I don’t believe in affirmative action. I believe in the best qualified person getting the job. However, we need to fix schools that are not equal. Inner city schools, disproportionately servicing poor blacks, are worse funded, and worse performing. I believe in fixing those.
I don’t believe in reverse-discrimination to try and patch what’s already broken. Trust me. I’m a white male law school applicant. People with worse qualifications than me got into schools that I did not get into because of racial factors, and it makes me very unhappy.
But there’s more options than (A) admit there’s a problem and accept affirmative action as necessary; and (B) deny that there’s a problem.