The NY Post chimp cartoon

There's a storm brewing over this morning's New York Post cartoon using the news item of the shot chimp to make a point about the stimulus package in Washington. Many readers see a reference to Obama's race and think the cartoon despicable. Details and a link to the cartoon are available at the Political Intelligence blog where a heated back and forth has raged in the comments since this morning.

I don't know the cartoonist, Sean Delonas, and haven't spoken with him, but I have a guess at what happened here. It seems highly unlikely that the intent of the drawing was to compare Barack Obama to the fallen chimp. The target was Congress and their authorship of the stimulus package, and he was probably referring to the well-worn cliche about "a bunch of monkeys could have done better than.... (whatever)." But that doesn't mean the Post and the cartoonist are off the hook.

Some images are so powerful and laden with historical baggage that journalists ought to recognize them right away as radioactive. The ape, in the context of depicting black people, is one of those images. Like the drunken Irishman, the hook-nosed Jew and the buck-toothed Asian, the black as monkey has had a long, ugly history in 19th and 20th century American cartoon iconography.

Why assume the cartoon was about Obama? The stimulus package is his signature legislative issue. (I know, I know - he didn't literally "write it" as the cartoon says, he just inspired it.) Put that together with the fact that he's the first black president and that his physical safety is a subject of worry. It's not a huge leap for readers to register the drawing as a disturbing racial slur.

Cartoonists should offend people intentionally, to make a point, not by mistake. A good editor would have waved Delonas off.

UPDATE 2/19 The New York Times City Room has an account of reactions to the cartoon from politicians, academics and employees of the Post. Ted Rall, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, gives his analysis on the site of the Poynter Institute, arguing the cartoon was a "misfire" and agreeing with me that an editor should have stepped in.

UPDATE 2/20 The New York Post has issued an apology (sort of) for the chimp cartoon.