However if people would take the time to read the caption and dig deeper they would understand that this is not a race matter. In fact the New York Post was not advocating that President Obama should be shot because the reality is that the President Obama didn’t write the stimulus package, Congress wrote it. In fact Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party of the House wrote the original stimulus package that some members of the Senate changed once they got a whole of it in the Senate. Nonetheless while President Obama and his administration might have put their ideas into the stimulus package but the reality is that they did not write the stimulus package. Congress writes all pieces of legislation that they vote on, not the President of the United States of America.
So let’s dig a little more deeper and address the issue that Rev. Sharpton and Mr. Martin feel that it is racist because African Americans for centuries have been compared to monkeys and other primates. However Rev. Sharpton and Mr. Martin, you seem to not find a problem with the whole idea that a black Greek Fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha quote unquote mascot is an ape and young men dress as an ape at various events for this organization. In fact many of the organizations flyers reference the ape as a promotion for the organization. Therefore it is funny how we as African Americans accuse whites of being racist when they equate primates to us but don’t say anything to organizations such as Alpha Phi Alpha who use an Ape to promote their organizations activities.
Also let me take us back to when the NAACP tried to bury the N-word at its annual conference in 2007. However the N-word can’t be buried until we as African Americans stop using it no matter what form it is. How can we as African Americans expect others to stop using the N-word when we don’t? Therefore how can we as African Americans expect for others to stop comparing us to primates when we have organizations created by us that use primates such as Apes as their mascots. I’m not saying that we as African Americans are primates but science has tried to associate mankind to primates for centuries. In fact while many always associate primates with African Americans, the truth is that we as human beings have been associated with primates for more than two centuries almost. While we as African Americans might be associated with primates more, it is unfair to say that the piece in the New York Post is suppose to be President Barack Obama.
I understand why so many might say it is a racist cartoon but the reality is that it is not racist when in Connecticut, police officers shot and killed a chimpanzee who took a women’s face off. While the cartoon was not tasteful and it was not appropriate, it was not racist when the caption says it is best that I guess they will have to find someone else to write the next stimulus package. Now if the New York Post caption read that I guess they will have to find someone else to sign the next stimulus package than it would have been clear that it was a racist ad and the Post should have been under investigation for promoting killing President Obama. Therefore we as a people need to understand why words matter. Remember when candidate Barack Obama was campaigning and many of you fought tooth and nail about words mattering. Well words do matter and the words the New York Post used in the cartoon caption show it. The word “write” was used instead of “sign” so it is a clear identification of what the paper meant by what they said.
As we continue to look deeper into the whole notion that the New York Post was being racist with the cartoon, we need to understand who was leading the charge to begin with. Rev. Al Sharpton and his network were leading the call that called Rupert Murdock and the New York Post race baiting. In fact Rev. Sharpton said that the New York Post had some explaining to do in regards to the cartoon because it looks as if they are saying President Barack Obama needs to be shoot. However even when the New York Post and the cartoon drawer explained the cartoon to the public, Rev. Sharpton and his network still marched on the post. In fact Rev. Sharpton said that I guess Mr. Murdock and the New York Post thought we were chimpanzees so now we are out here calling for the FEC to look into Mr. Murdock’s businesses in New York.
I call Rev. Al Sharpton an opportunist and a shark. Rev. Sharpton only looks to take on things that will get him media attention and for those who follow him don’t seem to ask Rev. Sharpton how many of his activities are funded. Let’s be real people, whenever there is a race issue or major injustice that gets media attention, Rev. Sharpton is there leading the initiative and while in front of the public, he is speaking a good game but behind closed doors Rev. Sharpton is getting pay checks and other lump sums of money under the table. Rev. Sharpton and many of our the quote unquote African American civil rights leaderships are not only informants for the FBI but they have also benefitted from the marchers and protests that they participate in by having money given to them to stop fighting against companies, people and other organizations who do quote unquote unjust things. Therefore if you think about the history of Rev. Alp Sharpton and his activities, how can we take his words today seriously when he is only into things for the media attention and monetary perks he can get out of it?
Thus if we get beyond the Rev. Sharpton and others race baiting theory and really think about the photo more seriously, we can say that the photo is a clear example of injustice in America. The New York Post cartoon is not appropriate and it is not tasteful but it really gets to a huge problem in America which is the police and law enforcement abuse of power when it comes to shooting people, particularly low income individuals. While the law enforcement abuse of power when it comes to shooting takes place in underprivileged neighborhoods where majority of African Americans reside, the cartoon brings up images of what took place in New York City when an African American man was shoot by police officers and it brings up the current image of the Oakland police killing a man who they had a tough time restraining. Nonetheless, I don’t call these issues simply race issues because this abuse of power takes place to all Americans who are underprivileged.
I refer to these incidents as injustices in America that we as people all need to fight against. Therefore the New York Post cartoon only reinforces these injustices and that is what Rev. Al Sharpton and Roland Martin should have been talking about. The truth of the matter is that the New York Post cartoon is not a race matter but it is more an injustice that takes place in this country practically every day. The cartoon simply brings up the issue of how unjust American is when it comes to law enforcement in urban underprivileged America. There are more cases of police brutality and cases of police shooting innocent people taking place in urban underprivileged America than any other place in this country of ours. That’s why when I saw the cartoon it reminded me of just how unjust our nation’s justice system is when police officers walk free when the evidence shows that they have abused their power and they think they are above the law because they have a shield and a badge.
Regardless if you agree with me on this matter or not, I encourage all of us to dig deeper when looking at issues regarding race because not everything is about race. In fact I am willing to bait that most things that we look at as race issues are really more of injustices than race. Nonetheless, continue to look dig deeper people because our nation needs all of us to look at issues as more than black and white but to look at it deeper than the average person so that we are able to look at it from all angles. Let’s continue to dig deeper people.
STILL, DIGGING DEEPER
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