The New York Post today issued an apology for the controversial cartoon that has sparked much anger among some people.
Those commentators who have overreacted to a cartoon that is clearly innocent and meant to mock those politicians and lawmakers who wrote the much flawed stimulus bill in the United States. Their overreaction has in fact heightened racial tension and highlighted racial stereotypes. For them to assume that a chimp represents Barack Obama is to have racial sentiment themselves and instead of ignoring it and seeing it for what it is, it only gives ammunition to those who wish to further propagate those stereotypes.
The cartoon was topical and recent, taking influence from a recent news story about police officers shooting dead a chimp that had attacked a poor unfortunate lady. The cartoon was also relevant to the political debate about the strength of the stimulus bill, yes championed by Barack Obama, but not written by him. Does anyone really think he sits in the Oval Office typing out a huge document like this? Absolutely not.
The stimulus bill is flawed. It has provisions which were inserted to satisfy certain politicians who would not support it otherwise. It also brings into question the strength of the economics upon which it is based, that of spending money just for the sake of it to put more liquidity into the economy and hence stimulate it.
The good news is that Barack Obama is a black politician who has moved on from the reactionary angry politics of Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and is more conciliatory and is a politician and not a black politician. This is the process by which racism will be removed from society and that is why he is a natural leader. Anyone still looking for further apology or clarification from the Post needs to get over themselves and move on. History is history, lets get on with the future and help restart the economy.
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