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Sharpton Leads Protest Over Post Editorial Cartoon

2009_02_sharpprot.jpg About 200 people gathered outside the NY Post's offices in midtown Manhattan to protest the Sean Delonas-drawn editorial cartoon showing a dead chimp, shot by police who say, "They'll have to find someone else to write next stimulus bill." The protesters shouted, "Shut down the Post! Shut down the Post!"

WCBS 2 reports that Reverend Al Sharpton said, "Here, you have someone using race-tinged cartoons to racially offend the president...This inference is something that is divisive, something that is offensive and something that should not be quietly accepted," calling it worse than Don Imus's remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team. And NAACP president Hazel Dukes said, "I'm outraged that they'd have the audacity to use this cartoon and not think that it would have an impact for people…how in the world do you have the audacity?"

Post editor in chief Col Allan defended the cartoon yesterday, saying, "It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist." And Delonas spoke to CNN, saying the controversy was "absolutely friggin' ridiculous...Do you really think I'm saying Obama should be shot? I didn't see that in the cartoon." Daily News columnist Michael Daly thinks his rival paper should apologize: "The cartoon's conscious intent may have been to say the stimulus bill as written by Congress is such a mess it could have been penned by a monkey. But say 'stimulus' to readers and they rightly think 'Obama.' He is as much a personification of the package as FDR was of the New Deal."

Sharpton's organization, the National Action Network, says that Sharpton and director Spike Lee will "lead members of the National Action Network in showing their disgust and outrage by dumping papers outside the New York Post' Doorsteps on Friday at 5:00 p.m." Tonight, there's a strategy session at the NAN headquarters (106 West 145th Street at Lenox Avenue).

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Comments [rss]

  • redryder420

    shut down the NY post? aww man shut up.

  • snickerdoodle

    Race baiters like Sharpton help keep the liberal media in business.

  • widefive

    This cartoon has nothing to do with race. Anyone who says otherwise is an opportunist or is trying to change the subject from the true issue it speaks of.

  • NannyState

    I think the NY Post should apologize to Al Sharpton: for the role their cartoon played in his making a complete ass of himself...again.

  • Steven

    Sharpton is a douche plain and simple. He is always looking for attention.

  • freddynyc

    I just abhor bigotry of any kind - whether someone has a hooked nose or resembles a chimp should be irrelevant....

  • FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'
  • Polite New Yorker

    Obama did not write the stimulus bill. The cartoon makes reference to the attack by and subsequent shooting death of the chimpanzee in Connecticut, and if anyone should be offended by making light of that, it is the woman who suffered such horrible injury and her family. Yes, there have been racist comparisons to blacks and monkeys, but that is not the message of the cartoon, which is a critique of the fashioning together of the stimulus bill. Self-appointed racial "leaders" like Al Sharpton deserve to be put in the same media reject pile as David Duke. Shame on those who take him seriously.

  • FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

    Jews were not really stereotype as chimps, mostly as wolves, bankers, big nosed etc. but here is the new Jewish stereotype image

    http://www.finfacts.ie/artman/uploads/2/madoff_SEC_dec122008.jpg

  • GaryK

    i feel a little dumber for reading this thread.

  • FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'
  • FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

    they should use Alfred E Neuman to depict Obama. Bloomberg defended the NY Post. he stated they have the first amendment right yet Bloomberg turn NYC into a police state where activists are bullied, harassed and arrested. Fuck Bloomberg.

  • JacqueMehoff

    did the mayor really defended the NY post?

    now we know. I see he's going after the Staten Island, bensonhurst, and bay ridge vote early.

  • EmbarkOn

    I found this video that has news about the cartoon from a few different sources. It also brings up some background information about it.



    http://www.newsy.com/videos/firestorm_over_editorial_cartoon/

  • EmbarkOn

    I found this video that has news about the cartoon from a few different sources. It also brings up some background information about it.



    http://www.newsy.com/videos/firestorm_over_editorial_cartoon/

  • Felix Hoenikker
  • EastRiver

    Daily News columnist Michael Daly: But say 'stimulus' to readers and they rightly think 'Obama.' He is as much a personification of the package as FDR was of the New Deal."



    The New Deal lasted a decade and has been analyzed by historians for over half a century. Obama has been in office a month and the ink is still wet on this bill. Apple and oranges.

  • velmonk

    It seems pretty clear to me that if the chimp is meant to be Obama then it's racist. I have to say though that when I saw the comic I didn't think that. As has been said, Obama didn't write the stimulus bill. It seems more like a poor attempt to use the 'shot chimp' story to comment on the fact that the cartoonist thinks the stimulus bill was written by a bunch of idiots. Not every monkey reference is a racial one. Ever heard "a monkey could do that job"? It's not referring to black people, it's referring to lack of intelligence and competence. It seems to me far more likely that this was the implication of the cartoon. Now, if the quote was "now they'll have to Biden sign the stimulus bill"....that'd be different.

  • Gringcorp

    I don't remember this big a controversy over Delonas' habit of portraying Muslims with gigantic hook noses, or his homophobic-tinged cartoons. When oh when will bigoted unfunny cartoonists learn to pick their targets more wisely?

  • valeriob

    Well put. I wonder if people will catch on?

  • nycnewsjunkie

    Such a joke...

    because of all this I just signed up for the ny post home delivery.

  • nycviabos

    The cartoon was offensive because of the historical use of racist comparisons of Africans to monkeys.

    However, there are hundreds of more important issues and examples of racism to protest rather than the publication of a cartoon.



    Bush vs. Monkey Photos:

    http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blbushmonkey1.htm

  • Snoopy

    One other thing that comes to note is that chimpanzees are not monkeys, they are apes. Big difference.

  • EastRiver

    But where does it say the chimp is the cartoon is Obama? Why do you assume that?

  • Snoopy

    I didn't realize that Bush was Afro American. I am deeply offended.



    Let's not start with photos of professional athletes' comparative photos please.

  • Gothampc

    In the past, Jews, Italians and Irish have all been drawn in cartoons as monkeys.

  • valeriob

    You are correct, sir. This is historical fact.

  • valeriob

    Original Gothamist post here: Vote on the poll!



    http://gothamist.com/2009/02/18/does_this_post_cartoon_go_too_far.php

  • butterbutter

    I don't like that poll. You only have 2 choices.



    Its racist

    Its not racist, but it's not funny either



    Why only 2 choices?

    I didn't think it was racist, and I did think it was funny.

  • FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

    valierob, should you and your ninja turtles get lost?

  • EastRiver

    I'd like to know what people thought of the cartoon before Sharpton got involved and questioned in a way that didn't imply racism. You know, a scientific poll.

  • valeriob

    I'm tellin' you, it was a direct (yes, distasteful) shot (no pun) at the monkey who was killed by police for eating some woman's eyes and nose!



    http://tinyurl.com/bs2ygz

  • Gothampc

    Or maybe a poll that didn't force a specific answer. How does a person vote that thinks the cartoon is not racist and funny?

  • jaycjay

    "Or maybe a poll that didn't force a specific answer. How does a person vote that thinks the cartoon is not racist and funny?"



    When I first saw that poll I thought it was much funnier than the cartoon itself. If you pay attention to them, you'll see that Gothamist's polls are almost never serious.

  • EastRiver

    If the chimp is supposed to be the author of the stimulus bill AND President Obama, it raises the question: who actually believes Obama wrote the bill? The first thing I thought when I saw the cartoon was they were comparing the Congressional staffers and lobbyists who wrote the bill to chimps. Never crossed my mind that it was supposed to be Obama.

  • jaycjay

    "The first thing I thought when I saw the cartoon was they were comparing the Congressional staffers and lobbyists who wrote the bill to chimps."



    Same here. That's what happens when you're unfortunate enough to understand how the system actually works. You miss out on all the righteous indignation.

  • valeriob

    Well put. I wonder if people will catch on?

  • Gothampc

    It didn't cross my mind either because I know that the POTUS doesn't write bills.

  • valeriob

    Well it didn't to anyone else either until Sharpton opined.

  • MT

    Oh geez. Sharpton is trying another attempt at relevance again. Why do we have to continually suffer that idiot?

  • thefacts

    Do any of you commenters who bandy the charges of racism around so freely know who Tawana Brawley is?



    Do any of you know the history of that character in the red shirt left of Sharpton?



    Or the bourgeois cultural nationalist (West Coast Black Panther Party jargon for 'black racist') to Sharpton's right?

  • ChampionOfTheSun

    If the cartoonist had used a donkey instead of a monkey, then perhaps no one would have made a big deal out of this. But, by using a monkey, he should have known what the reaction would be, whether his intentions were racist or not.

  • sweetpanties

    yeah, if you are A. racist and B. no monkey was shot this week, then you can change your mind. but if you are not racist, and not thinking about a black person as a monkey, you don't change it. a monkey was shot this week, a monkey is stupid, and they made the comic.



    the only racist ones are the ones complaining about it, thinking about how just because a monkey is drawn it has to be a black person.

    race isn't real, idiots.

  • REALITY CHECK

    I hate Gothamist commenters sometimes.



    If you walk up to a black person and say, "Hello, monkey," it's not the same as walking up to a white person and saying, "Hello, monkey." C'mon, this is the real world we live in, you know what the term monkey/chimp/ape means. You aren't that stupid, are you?



    Anyone feigning surprise at the difference is full of shit. That's the hard reality. Sharpton is correct on this issue.

  • Reality Check: Exactly.



    The Rag known as the NY Post would have to be Complete Morons NOT to have known the implications.

  • Snoopy

    Big Al was hiding for a while and I am sure he reads all the quality papers that are printed in NYC. He was just waiting for this one.



    Meanwhile Obama and Al have very little in common. OB is half white and has intelligence. Al is all black and is stupid and a race baiter.



    That is called a reality check.



    Perhaps Big Al should pronounce a Fatwa on the Post's cartoonist, editor and publisher. And while he isn't doing anything with his spare time, shouldn't he be finding a final and permanent burial place for his good buddy James Brown?

  • valeriob

    You do understand that an actual monkey was shot by police on February 17th, and the comic is clearly a political reference to this...



    http://tinyurl.com/bs2ygz

  • Thespis

    I'm not sure if this was racist or not -- it may have been unintentionally so. But what I am sure of is that President Obama does not need, nor want, Al Sharpton fighting his battles for him.



    Off the coattails, buddy. You're black. Obama's black. But the similarities end there.

  • ANGRYGOD11

    What race is Sharpton's hair?

  • verbal

    obama's half white.

  • Thespis

    Fair enough -- and Sharpton's half horse's-ass.

  • JacqueMehoff

    God Bless You, Reverend Al Sharpton,

    the post knew what they're doing and it's not the monkeys and typewriter bit. if they think their readerships even remotely knows this reference, then I have a bridge to see you at Park Row.

    the Post, a right leaning paper. the right knows every GD

    connotation, inference, and blatant racial references in the entire world of right wingdom.

    from macaca, kafir, to yellow cur to who knows what.

  • valeriob

    You sir, are a moron.

  • JacqueMehoff

    you can go eff yourself

    did I touch a nerve? then I'm glad.

    you mean I'm not getting a xmas card from you?

  • valeriob

    BTDubs, you are getting a Christmas card from me.



    But lets just be friendz. kbai

  • FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

    Valreiob is an idiot. How old are you?

  • valeriob

    Felix, please stick to posts about horses.



    Should you decide stick your nose in more complicated subject matter, please be sure to seek advice before posting.



    There is a fine line between contributing and being a nuisance.



    Oh, and your posts about the NYU protest are ignorant irresponsible. Do you even have a job?

  • valeriob

    First seek to understand, then to be understood.



    You do understand that an actual monkey was shot by police on February 17th, and the comic is clearly a political reference to this...



    http://tinyurl.com/bs2ygz

  • JacqueMehoff

    really? you mean my PHD is useless on teh web?

    and again, the Post knew what they were doing.

    never under estimate the stupidity of the masses.

    you're telling me a majority readership knows anything on how a bill is passed, or any shakespearean works or references?

    did you read any of their reader's comments?

  • valeriob

    What do you mean, "you people"?

  • valeriob

    Sharpton is such a tool.



    I promise to never ever read another article with his face or name associated with it. EVER.



    I guess things have been pretty quiet for him and his renegade followers. Perhaps he should try his hand at a real profession?



    What a waste of MFn space this bigot is.

  • I think it was racist, So, I'm a racist too, right?



    Please. The NY Post ran that knowing it has racist implications. They wanted the attention and they got it.

  • EastRiver

    And you know this how exactly?

  • "And you know this how exactly?"?

    Um, what would that be exactly?



    <ul><li>I know I think it was racist.</li><li>I know the Rag known as the NY post wants attention.</li><li>I know the Rag known as the NY post would have to be managed by complete morons (Quite possible) NOT to know it has racist implication</li></ul>That last one is distinctly possible..

    Sooooo, what are you asking, exactly?

    I sure don't know.

  • EastRiver

    Direct quote from you:



    The NY Post ran that knowing it has racist implications.



    And I'm asking you how you know that. The chimp looks nothing like Obama. Obama didn't write the bill. In all likelihood they ran it not thinking it had any implications of anything.

  • "And I'm asking you how you know that. The chimp looks nothing like Obama. Obama didn't write the bill."



    And I answered (Quoting myself):

    "I know the Rag known as the NY post would have to be managed by complete morons (Quite possible) NOT to know it has racist implication



    So, Was I vague?



    Let me take a wild ass guess: You are ignoring the racial implications of associating an African American with a monkey, right?



    "In all likelihood they ran it not thinking it had any implications of anything."

    Again, that would be answered by my comment:

    I know the Rag known as the NY post would have to be managed by complete morons (Quite possible) NOT to know it has racist implication



    Clear enough for you? If not, that's quite a shame.

    Really. I'll loose a lot of sleep over it...

  • EastRiver

    It's lose, not loose. Nuff said.



    the NY post would have to be managed by complete morons (Quite possible) NOT to know it has racist implication



    Only if you assume the chimp is supposed to be Obama. And since you aren't inside the head of the cartoonist or the editors you can't make that assumption - especially since Obama, say it with me, DIDN"T WRITE THE BILL. To say you know what the cartoonist or the editors were thinking is crazy. Seems more likely you are just going off on the Post because it's conservative and calling the paper racist fits your agenda.

  • valeriob

    Actually, you will lose a lot of sleep over it.



    If you were to loose any sleep over it, you would be, grammatically speaking, an idiot.



    Here are a few guides:

    http://tinyurl.com/ac6cdn



    and my personal favorite

    http://tinyurl.com/lxsff

  • "If you were to loose any sleep over it, you would be, grammatically speaking, an idiot."

    (sigh)

    One typo and branded an idiot.

    Grammatically speaking, that is.



    Woe is me...

  • verbal

    the audacity of indignation.

    white guilt died on november 5th - go away sharpton.

  • sweetpanties

    he's so annoying, the only racist ones are the ones protesting for thinking it's racist. if they thought normally they would realize calling someone a monkey since there was a monkey incident isn't racist. god theyre annoying and make racist people (like themselves) want to be racist.

  • Toby von Meistersinger

    We need to start ignoring Al Sharpton. He is probably one of the biggest bigots out there.

  • Huffy6241

    In case anyone forgot - the economy is still all fucked up.

  • FunChop

    we've been calling bush a chimp for years, why is this news?

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