Julian Bond and the NAACP: NY Post Cartoon Controversy

The NAACP has weighed in on the New York Post cartoon controversy.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, and other leaders are demanding a pound of flesh. They've called for cartoonist, Sean Delonas, and others at the Post to be fired, including editor-in-chief Col Allan.

From CNN:

Leaders of the NAACP on Saturday called for the firing of the New York Post cartoonist whose drawing lampooning the federal stimulus bill has drawn charges that it's racist and encourages violence toward President Obama.

Speaking at the civil rights group's annual meeting in New York, NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said that if Sean Delonas is not fired, the group will call for protests of the paper and Fox television affiliates, which are owned by Post parent company News Corp.

"There is consensus that if the Post does not ... get rid of the journalists who are responsible for this bit of hate speech seeing the light of day, that we will move this from a local, regional issue to a very national issue," Jealous said.

The group also called for the cartoonist's editor to be fired.

Many critics said the cartoon played on historically racist images by appearing to compare Obama, the nation's first black president, to a chimpanzee that had been shot by police officers.

..."This is tastelessness taken to the extreme," [NAACP Chairman Julian Bond] said. "For the publication to suggest the only people who object to it are constant critics of the New York Post is beyond ridiculous.

"This was an invitation to assassination of the president of the United States and anyone who was not offended by it doesn't have any sensibilities."

More, from the New York Daily News:

The head of the nation's oldest civil rights group is urging a boycott of the New York Post - for publishing a cartoon he says is an invitation to assassinate the President.

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous blasted the fact-challenged tabloid for its attempt to apologize for the racially charged cartoon - and said Post editor in chief Col Allan and cartoonist Sean Delonas should get the boot.

Jealous hammered the Post Saturday as NAACP leaders gathered in New York for an annual meeting of the century-old organization, which is still seeking reparations for slavery.

The Post's decision to publish the cartoon "picks off the scabs of all the racial wounds," Jealous said, and is "an invitation to assassination."

Last Thursday, the Post commented on the cartoon and the controversy:

[The cartoon] was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.

Period.

But it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.

This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.

However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past - and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.

To them, no apology is due.

Obviously, Bond and Jealous and Al Sharpton and Spike Lee aren't satisfied with that.

I think it's time for Barack Obama to address the situation. He's the self-proclaimed healer of the nation's racial wounds.

Let him take a stand.

Does Obama believe that cartoonist Sean Delonas was encouraging the assassination of the president of the United States?

If so, the Secret Service should be questioning Delonas.

Remember this, Al Brandtner's artwork titled "Patriot Act"?



This "art" isn't open for interpretation.

Death of a President, a film about the assassination of President George W. Bush, is a work that graphically depicted Bush being killed.

Were these clearly violent images condemned by the people now speaking out against the Post's cartoon as inviting the assassination of the president of the United States?

If agents of the U.S. government believe that Delonas is threatening Obama's life, they should get involved immediately.

I would like to know if Obama believes that Delonas should lose his job, along with others at the Post.

Does Obama believe that the cartoonist used Travis, the chimp run amok, to personify him? Does he think the cartoon was a raical slur and encouraging violence against him?

What does Eric Holder have to say?

Does Holder view Obama as a "coward" for failing to address this ballooning cartoon controversy about race and violence?

As Attorney General, what does Holder plan to do in regard to Delonas?

By the way, where were Julian Bond, Benjamin Todd Jealous, Al Sharpton, Spike Lee, Eric Holder and Barack Obama when Michael Steele was being pelted with Oreos?

Their silence was deafening.

Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican.

Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.

Operatives for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) also obtained a copy of his credit report -- the only Republican candidate so targeted.

But black Democrats say there is nothing wrong with "pointing out the obvious."

"There is a difference between pointing out the obvious and calling someone names," said a campaign spokesman for Kweisi Mfume, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

State Sen. Lisa A. Gladden, a black Baltimore Democrat, said she does not expect her party to pull any punches, including racial jabs at Mr. Steele, in the race to replace retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes.

"Party trumps race, especially on the national level," she said. "If you are bold enough to run, you have to take whatever the voters are going to give you. It's democracy, perhaps at its worse, but it is democracy."

Delegate Salima Siler Marriott, a black Baltimore Democrat, said Mr. Steele invites comparisons to a slave who loves his cruel master or a cookie that is black on the outside and white inside because his conservative political philosophy is, in her view, anti-black.

"Because he is a conservative, he is different than most public blacks, and he is different than most people in our community," she said. "His politics are not in the best interest of the masses of black people."

During the 2002 campaign, Democratic supporters pelted Mr. Steele with Oreo cookies during a gubernatorial debate at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Disgraceful double standard?

Absolutely.

Note to political cartoonists: If you want to avoid a firestorm of criticism and protect your job, DO NOT use any images of chimps in your work under any circumstances related to any topic. You'll be sorry.