Why we worry about seeming racist

Newsweek writer Raina Kelley attempts to seal the large divide that seems to have been a result of our newfangled black President. No one seems to know what to do or say, and how to fess up when they cross a line. She swings in the right direction, but still falls prey to a glaring lack of empathy.

Just because the New York Post got into hot water for an editorial cartoon depicting cops shooting a chimp identified as the writer of the stimulus plan does not mean that all pictures of monkeys “inadvertently … conjure racial stereotypes,” as The Washington Post wrote in its apology to readers. Will The Washington Post now forgo pictures of chickens and basketballs in case it brings to mind unbidden racial stereotypes?

In case? Make sure the chicken is fried and the basketball players are apes coached by a white man, and I’m sure there won’t be many doubts left. My point is, this is too easy, and to dismiss the rabid watchdogs of racial injustice makes the cartoon no less offensive. If you can pick and choose the obvious examples of chickens and basketballs, there’s some merit to the outrage. And just to make it clear, if you seriously are going to look at that comic and the first thing you think about is the woman attacked by a chimpanzee, then you’ve got heavy blinders on. The responses are beyond frustrating, too.

How are we supposed to have a conversation about race, when we can’t even have a conversation about monkeys?

Or, in conjunction with that daft little one-liner, a comment so off that it’s ironically on point.

Coming next week: the Post regrets using the phrases “attacked and badly mauled woman” and “conjure racial stereotypes” in the same paragraph.

(cartoon of a monkey carrying a white woman away from a white man)

Yeah, cuz when I see “monkey carrying white woman over his shoulder,” I totally think “black dude”!

Maybe she’s never heard of jungle fever. Another sad but oft example of White privilege. When it’s funny, laugh. When it’s wrong, feign ignorance. If you dismiss it, we’ll just shut up and stop talking about that chip on our shoulder.

Undercover Black Man has a lengthy but informative post on where the possible origins of the monkey as a symbol for black men came to exist.

Southern whites didn’t have to bother defining Negroes as animals while they were enslaved. But once the Negro was free – and politically empowered during Reconstruction – that’s when the defeated white Southerner felt the need (psychologically, not just politically) to put forth this ugly idea.

And guess what? When white Southerners reclaimed their political dominance and disenfranchised black people, the monkey thing stuck.

It’s a real eye-opening post, and written a little ways back in 2007, but still very relevant to the today. Despite this misstep, the article by Raina Kelley does transition into a bigger and, thankfully, better idea.

Meanwhile, nobody’s having the kinds of discussions African-Americans would like to have—like whether increased diversity in the newsroom can prevent the negative racial stereotyping we saw during Hurricane Katrina, when black people were reported as “looting” while white people were said to be “foraging.” Why can’t we debate why, according to “The Black Image in the White Mind” written by Robert Entman and Andrew Rojecki, a mug shot of a black defendant is four times more likely to appear in a local television news report than one of a white defendant?

Ultimately, we want to get to the deeper issues that plague our country, but it’s hard to root for the good guys if they don’t field any of the dirty punches. And while I’m all for lightening up the mood a bit, many people are, sadly, not on the same page.

This is just another roadblock, pandering to our inability to communicate certain inalienable truths.