Offensive cartoons
Feb. 7th, 2006 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eyelessgameA decade or so ago, the Sac Bee ran what I considered one of the best, gutsiest, and pointed editorial cartoons I've ever seen.
It portrayed two Klansmen. One was holding a paper showing a recent quote from the news: "One cannot be a racist by talking, only by acting. - Louis Farrakhan." The other was nodding, saying "That nigger makes a lot of sense."
As one might imagine, there was a firestorm of protest at the use of that word in a newspaper.
As far as I'm concerned, there was no other word that could have been used. Absolutely no other way to make this point in the forceful way it was. And that, and that alone, made it a justifiable offense.
The firestorm died down, partly because the Bee apologized, but also because many people recognized the irony that the offense they were taking -- at deliberately racist language -- proved the point of the editorial cartoon.
Consider how powerful it is. You, reading this, probably think I overstepped even to quote the cartoon, even in context, even to make a point. I could have censored myself. You're right. The word itself pisses you off, almost beyond reason. It does to me too. I shuddered when I typed it, and thought long and hard before actually posting this. Communication is damned powerful, and communication that offends is the most powerful of all.
From my admittedly limited understanding of Islam, visual portrayals of Mohammed are, roughly speaking, about as offensive to them as the N-word is to African-Americans. It is an offense against their entire culture, and against their understanding of their God.
Now imagine if the N-word had been used in an editorial cartoon, not to make a forceful point about the power of language, but to mock African-Americans by reinforcing stereotypes about them.
Would there be riots? You bet your ass there would.
It portrayed two Klansmen. One was holding a paper showing a recent quote from the news: "One cannot be a racist by talking, only by acting. - Louis Farrakhan." The other was nodding, saying "That nigger makes a lot of sense."
As one might imagine, there was a firestorm of protest at the use of that word in a newspaper.
As far as I'm concerned, there was no other word that could have been used. Absolutely no other way to make this point in the forceful way it was. And that, and that alone, made it a justifiable offense.
The firestorm died down, partly because the Bee apologized, but also because many people recognized the irony that the offense they were taking -- at deliberately racist language -- proved the point of the editorial cartoon.
Consider how powerful it is. You, reading this, probably think I overstepped even to quote the cartoon, even in context, even to make a point. I could have censored myself. You're right. The word itself pisses you off, almost beyond reason. It does to me too. I shuddered when I typed it, and thought long and hard before actually posting this. Communication is damned powerful, and communication that offends is the most powerful of all.
From my admittedly limited understanding of Islam, visual portrayals of Mohammed are, roughly speaking, about as offensive to them as the N-word is to African-Americans. It is an offense against their entire culture, and against their understanding of their God.
Now imagine if the N-word had been used in an editorial cartoon, not to make a forceful point about the power of language, but to mock African-Americans by reinforcing stereotypes about them.
Would there be riots? You bet your ass there would.
