Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I'm not Racist, you are. Clueless Jeff Danziger at it again.


Four years ago I extracted the written admission of the New York Times Senior Editor Bill Borders, that NYT Syndicate cartoonist Jeff Danziger had penned a clearly racist cartoon of Condoleezza Rice
The Following is the text of a letter sent to me by the NYTimes in which Bill Borders admits that the Danziger Cartoon is OBVIOUSLY both RACIST and OFFENSIVE.
"Mr. McBryde:

It is of considerable importance to us. I haven't gotten back to you again because I didn't have all the facts. I still don't, but I can see that I should have given you an interim report.

Obviously the cartoon is racist and deeply offensive. Whether that means that Danziger himself is racist I don't know and don't much care. My only real concern is whether and to what extent this cartoon had any relation to The New York Times. (It certainly was not published in the newspaper.) As soon as I can answer that question for you, I will. In the meantime, thank you for bringing it to our attention.

Best, Bill Borders"
Jeff doesn't think he's racist, you are.
Here Danziger mocks a cartoonist and the editors responsible for a recent editorial offering where a chimpanzee was shot, and the police officers comment that it must have been the monkey that wrote the "Stimulus Bill."

Once such cluelessness is established, its borders are limitless. Obama is said by many to have been subject to a racist attack in the "Monkey Shot" cartoon by the New York Post, but folks, Obama didn't write the stimulus bill.


The joke is a play the old query of how many monkeys, how much time and how many typewriters it would take to write Shakespeare or some other worthy literary tome. The idea being that intelligence is displayed by intelligent result, and the stimulus bill looks more like the work of a monkey with a typewriter. With that said, here is Danziger's latest, which apparently is published only in Vermont at the Times Argus, and as of yet, not available online.

The picture is from a camera phone, so I apologize for the quality. Depicted left to right are, An unknown constituent wearing a "George Wallace Lives" lapel button (and maybe spittin' some chew), the former Democrat Senator (now Republican) Richard Shelby, another apparent constituent with one of those cute '20's vintage 'Lil rascals frayed edge skullcaps, and an Alabama Senior Citizen Grandmother (?) that smokes a corncob pipe.

Let's not forget that Senator Shelby is wearing a conveniently plaid jacket, and doesn't think his constituents can read his "Talkin' points." The cartoon is titled "Senator Shelby (R-Alabama) Explains That Obama Isn't the President," and says "Now... You see here? Obama weren't even born in the USA. He was born in Africa or somewheres.....oh... sorry... Lemme read it for you...."

I'm not so sure what sort of bias is being displayed here. A sort of New England Northeast better than you are in the racist Southeast bias? An "I'm educated and you're not" bias? Living here as I do now, in Vermont, let me tell you, there is no superiority on display. I've only had two black people buy a car where I work since I've been here, and there are precious few on display anywhere.

Mr. Danziger apparently grew up here and was educated here, a famous alum of a local college. He draws cartoons for local issues and local papers, and apparently this is one that he did not see fit to place on his website. Yet. When that happens, or if it gets displayed at the local paper's website, I'll upgrade my copy of his latest brilliance.

But let me remind Mr. Danziger that I have the evaluation of New York Times editor Bill Borders that Jeff is a writer of racist cartoons. The Times syndicate distributes his editorial cartoons to this date. Bill goes to great lengths to tell me that he did not publish the cartoon in his paper, and for some reason doesn't think that drawing a racist cartoon, amounts to making the artist a racist themselves. I guess you have to be "right wing" to draw racist cartoons, with racism in your heart.

I'm going to dig around in my archives, for I am fairly sure I have a letter over the Condi Rice cartoon from Danziger himself, also apologizing. How soon he forgets and does it again. Until I find MY copy, I'll print this one found at Steve Darnell's site.
"The cartoon in question did indeed show Ms. Rice in the role of Prissy from the classic film 'Gone with the Wind'. I have indeed apologized for the use of that imagery. The film itself was full of racist stereotypes since it was made in 1937 and was intended to amuse white viewers. But the instances in the movie are so ingrained in American culture, and indeed world culture, that I used it without full thought. I draw several hundred cartoons a year and this one was an error. Except for the right-wing bloggers in this country, seeking to score some points about liberal racism, the cartoon was unpublished, and was withdrawn by me."
Steve, you might want to revisit Mr. Danziger on that racism thingy. I'm going to go diving for my copy of the Danziger apology letter. You also might want to consider that part of your problem with bias, Mr. Danziger, is your view of the "Right Wing." A man is defined, is he not, by his actions? Be careful what you pretend to be, because you are what you pretend to be.

By the way, Jeff, my curiosity regarding the Barack Obama Birth Certificate centers around his being asked for it, not producing it, and no one ever having seen it. That bothers me regardless of his racial makeup. At this point in time as badly as he's messing up, it might be a big relief to find out he was born elsewhere. Joe Biden couldn't do any worse.


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2 comments:

Elusive Wapiti said...

I didn't think that the chimpanzee cartoon was one bit racist, because I too thought of the monkey-and-a-keyboard thing. I guess you have to be a lefty racist to think black == monkey.

Oh, and I don't get the Condi Rice cartoon at all. What's up with the aluminum tubes? And how is Rice bottle-feeding aluminum tubes racist?

Hugh McBryde said...

I didn't see it the shot chimp cartoon as racist either EW. We both thought "monkey-keyboard-likely outcome gibberish" connection.

It's an old argument actually, against evolution using the idea that while a Chimp might actually type out one line that made sense, he never would string together a whole bunch of accidents that amounted to "War and Peace" or the Bible, instead he would produce nonsense. Touching on THAT cultural memory was what made the cartoon funny, and not the least bit racist.

Danziger though, thought it was along with the rest of the hypersensitive liberal "you're a racist and I'm not" media.

Only Danziger uses cultural insults and racism regularly himself, as I pointed out with the Condi Rice cartoon. Condi is portrayed as a character from "Gone with the Wind" in a role he saw as a racist portrayal of blacks, clearly establishing his mindset. He's admitted to that.

The aluminum tubes incident refers to a claim made about nuclear capability and Ms. Rice apparently knowing about them, and then not knowing about them. Danziger portrays Rice as a barefoot ignorant slave, Prissy, from "Gone with the Wind," who knew everything about "birthin' babies" until one showed up, and then didn't.

Danziger though takes the typical liberal tack that he can do a racist thing (as well as his editor Bill Borders) and not be racist. That's because he's on the left side of the issue. That makes his actions not motivated by racism, but insensitive, as opposed to the actions of the New York Post editors (cluelessly racist) or of any questioning Barack Obama's citizenship, which amounts to the racism of ignorance and stupidity of Shelby's ALABAMA constituents or the manipulative demagogue's racism (Senator Shelby).

I question Obama's citizenship. I want to know because I don't want a usurper as head of State because I think it is manifestly bad and ignoring it worse.

Danziger says it's racist, and in my mind he hasn't done enough time for his own racism in the woodshed, so I thought I'd take him back there.