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NAACP Calls For Firings of NY Post Editor, Cartoonist

2009_02_naacp.jpg
Photograph of NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, holding a sign to boycott the NY Post, by Diane Bondareff
The furor over the NY Post's editorial cartoon featuring a dead chimp killed by police continues as the NAACP called for the resignation of Post editor-in-chief Col Allan and cartoonist Sean Delonas, as well as anyone else "involved in the decision to print the image."

The Post made a sort-of apology for the cartoon, which shows a fatally shot chimp and one cop saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill"—which prompted many to think this was an allusion to President Obama, who is closely associated with the stimulus package (the Post claimed it was "meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill"). NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous wasn't convinced, calling the cartoon "an invitation to assassination" and that it "picks off the scabs of all the racial wounds."

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond said the cartoon represented "thoughtlessness taken to the extreme. ... Anyone who is not offended by it does not have any sensitivity." When the AP asked the Post for comment, the Post referred to the "apology" editorial. The NAACP website is collecting complaints to the Post. And the NAACP is celebrating its centennial this year; it was created in Springfield, IL after a race riot in 1908.

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Comments [rss]

  • Brainwash

    That racist organization asks for a lot of things.

  • "Anyone with common sense knows that would work to pickup the economy."

    (sigh)

    Every single time anyone quotes "Common Sense", I shudder...



    Among other things: Other than pissing away $200k, needed infrastructure improvements would ignored under that plan of yours.

  • govmentmule

    This is exactly what I responded to with regards to the Attorney General Eric Holder statement on CNN.

    This is the whole reason why people do not confront the race issue in this country. People (mostly white) do not have the money or time to fight off being accused of a hate crime. Because in this day and age, you are guilty until you can prove your innocent! Does not matter IF you said anything or not, all the person of color has to do is file a report. If your white...your going to be arrested and treated like you did it. Same goes for pissed off women getting back at a boyfriend etc... The idiots/do-gooders/can't hurt someone’s feelings of this country voted that man in now live with it. Not to say that in the past 20 years there has been any other alternative.

    If Obama wanted to jump start the economy he should have sent each person that files taxes and makes under $200,000 per year a check for $200,000 there would have been money left over to put into other programs. The banks would have received for the most part 80% of it. Anyone with common sense knows that would work to pickup the economy. My bank would be the first check I would right to at least dump 75% of it on my mortgage then pay off my other debt. Which in that case would free up my paycheck to go out and pump up the economy. Being a Democrat or a Republican does not seem to matter these days. Both are funding the top dog's hoping for the trickle down theory, the money being given out to the banks and auto companies is ultimately our money. We are the ones who will have to foot the bill so why not start with us? I beg to ask this question of any one in the government to answer that I am wrong.

  • freddynyc

    Is it me or do most of the higher-ups in the NAACP have lighter skinned complexions than most Caucasians? Hmmm....

  • felixthecat2

    Can people just stop buying the post if they are offended as I am. City council member Liu wants secret service to investigate the post when he should have the horse drawn carriage industry investigated for fraud and corruption. He is part of the consumer affairs committee and he does nothing.

  • valeriob

    DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO GO COLOR?



    Stop reading Gothamist, and certainly STOP POSTING COMMENTS.

  • rcltrh

    Ok, so I'm guessing here that either i was the only person in America to watch the news the day before this ad came out in which that nutty woman's supposedly intelligent chimp ate off her friends face and had to be shot by the police, or else everyone else who saw that story did not connect the dots to this cartoon that came out a day later. You see the freaking "intelligent and able to drive and do other human-like things" chimpanzee was shot by the police for attacking that woman. That's what the cartoon was lampooning, not Obama. The idea was that the bill was written by the chimp - the one that ate that woman's face - that was supposedly so smart..... Geez. Or maybe I just imagined that story was on the news and this was really just an out of the blue cartoon where they drew Obama as a chimp and show him being shot by cops for writing a bad bill? Is everyone really that stupid to think that this cartoon and the news story had nothing to do with each other? Does Sharpton watch the news and would he even know it was a comparison? I'm all about not being racist, but this is going WAY to far trying to call a damn cartoon that followed the chimp shooting story comparing it to the bailout bill racist. Is every story or cartoon involving a chimp from now on always going to somehow be construed to being racist? Geez it's no wonder the whole country is so fcked up.

  • grandeur

    It was my understanding that the chimp was trying to escape the house, and had even found a key to let himself out previously. So he obviously wasn't happy and wanted to be FREEEEE!!!!! Like the rest of us. He was smart enough to get himself out of that house so he was smart enough to write the stimulus bill.



    From the facts of the story, I do believe the cartoon is insensitive, I don't think it was malicious. But it wasn't thought through. The chimp wasn't stupid, so who are they talking about.

  • AnnaZed

    I say fire editor and cartoonist for aesthetic reasons. those cartoons are just so groan-worthy and plain bad at the best of times.

  • JacqueMehoff

    this ain't over,

    the sport's section will be decimated.

    no black or white athlete will speak to their reporters, they'll be doing reports while watching it on cable.

  • HughGass

    Add the NY Post to the list of NAACP shakedowns.

  • 57416421

    For those who do not know their racist history if you can not see how this cartoon is racist. Let me explain it to you. through out history and present, bigots and racist have refered to black people as "monkeys and apes"

    If you have never heard of this just do your research racial imagery. Secondly the caption in the cartoon refers to "someone", SINGULAR (one person) not people or congress. the caption is refering to the one person that the public views as the writer. The one that racist bigots would refer to as being a monkey (eg. the black man); Has been shot dead

    If you are blind to your history or uneducated to it then you will not understand what all the anger is about

  • ides_of_march

    I hear people being referred to as monkeys and apes often. It's how the Arab media refer to Jews all the time. That doesn't seem to uspet anybody.

  • ribaldry

    Thats because blacks actually resemble the lower primates.

  • jaycjay

    Calls in the US to boycott Arab media sources would be pretty pointless.

  • snickerdoodle

    Sharpton's racists at it again!



    Whatever happened to freedom of speech in this country? Nobody should be fired for exercising their right to express themself, that would be un-American.



    It's not the Post's fault a bunch of ignorant racist yahoos from a bigoted coaltion don't understand how U.S. politics works. I've yet to see any conclusive proof that the shot gorilla was indeed a reference to President Obama.



    I hope the Post sticks to their guns and doesn't buckle under the pressure from the Sharpton racists.

  • Roquentin

    This has gotten completely out of hand. At first I was at least a little sympathetic towards the protesters, but it's gotten ridiculous. It backs up my longstanding belief that the PC liberal crowd doesn't give a shit about free speech and never has. They love censorship as much or more than the right wingers in certain cicumstances. The criteria is just different. If something is racially insensitive, or simply offends their sensibilities in general whether overtly or implicitly they want it banned and the people involved fired.

  • JacqueMehoff

    God Bless you NAACP,

    this ain't over yet.

    You know what to do Mr. President.

  • valeriob

    Leave it to this clown to make a dumb ass comment again.

    You are consistent. You and (formerly)felixthecat should be best friends.

  • govmentmule

    OH that's right I forgot. I was told this by a "African American" right after the election. "That's right we're in control now". Everyone else forgets, his moma was white, so he's not the first "Black" President, but he is the first true "African-American" one.

  • ANGRYGOD11

    I'm wondering where in this country would anyone from any race NOT believe Obama is African-American before they knew anything about his family.

  • thefacts

    How much longer will the NAACP continue to tolerate the invidious inclusion of "Colored People" in its title?



    That is just soooo... racist!

  • Kreo

    the cartoon is funny. however i see how it can be twistedly interpreted as racist, because of Obama being half afro-american. NAACP is now making me think that afro americans look like chimps. Can I seek monetary damages from them for hurting my feelings and making me think as a racist?

  • Mr Mel

    Pres. Obama is not half Afro-American. He is 100% Afro-American (by choice). His parents were a white American Woman and a black African Man. He could have called himself, white or mixed race but chose to be an African American.

  • Kreo

    this may look racist - I am not racist, to clarify, not at all! NAACP be damned made me express something that can be understood as racist. I respect and like Afro Americans , just like any other group of people! Apologies if my message came off as racist.

  • bklynnative

    Where was all this outrage when the Brooklyn Museum had an exhibit that mocked the Catholic religion with art pieces that had fecal matter on Catholic icons.

  • jambi

    There were protests left and right. Giuliani sued to have government funding withdrawn from the museum.

  • thefacts

    The Left did not protest. It was mostly Catholics who protested. The Libs claimed it was "artistic expression" and protected speech, don't you recall?

  • jambi

    I didn't mean "left and right" politically, just that there were lots of protests.

  • ANGRYGOD11

    Stop blaming the messengers.

    If the editor-in-chief of a major NY newspaper cannot understand why this cartoon is racist, the he shouldn't have the job.

  • Kyle T

    so the president of the naacp is a greasy white guy?

  • ribaldry

    The NACCP and Sharpton are literally saying, interpret this cartoon the way we see it or you have no sensitivity. The next step is: view this piece of art our way or this passage in the bible. Also, never use the N word unless your an N. Thank God ain't nothing illegal about freedom of speech...yet.

  • sweetpanties

    this is making me hate black people

  • NYRefugee

    And your postis making me Hate Panties!! Sweet or otherwise! I think I shall from this point forward only court chicks who cavort Commando!!!

  • sharpshoota

    You will be the minority soon enough... and we can't wait.

  • PoliteNewYorker

    Indeed, this is racial chauvinism by taking offense and "sensitivity" taken to an absurd extreme. I don't normally read the Post, but I'm going to buy a copy today.

  • Toby von Meistersinger

    This reminds me of McCarthyism, but instead of a Communist under every rock it is a racist. The only ones who should be offended by the cartoon are chimps, since chimps are apparently a hell of a lot smarter than politicians.

  • PoliteNewYorker

    Absolutely, "anti-racism" has been the new McCarthyism for some time now. It will only get worse in the Obama nation unless all people of good sense take a stand.

  • ides_of_march

    This is more about Fat Al and the NAACP salivating over Rupert Murdoch's wallet than any perceived racial insensitivity.

  • Endless Ike

    *subscribes to the post*

  • ides_of_march

    Extortion dressed up as "civil rights."



    Bunch of thugs.

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