In today's edition of the NY Post, the above editorial cartoon appeared, illustrating a recent incident in which a rage filled chimpanzee had to be killed by police after mauling the owner's friend. The statement by one of the officers depicted in the cartoon seems to refer to President Barack Obama who spearheaded the U.S. economic stimulus bill. The NY Post has long been known as one of the right-wing, conservative voices in NYC, published by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. As a long time reader of the Post (you always need to see what the other side thinks), its not the first time that they have displayed poor judgement, distaste and seemingly racist slant to some of their articles. As of today, I am boycotting the NY Post until something is done other than issue an apology, which they have not. As reported on MSNBC this morning, a spokesperson from the Post defends the cartoon by referring to "those" in Washington who structured this bill, not to President Obama. From the above caption, the officer seems to speak about "someone" not "others" referring to more than one being resposible. The HUFFINGTONPOST published a statement by the Reverend Al Sharpton:
"The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that "Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill."
"Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?"
