Well, I don't see "everyone screaming racism" in the press or on forums.

Have some people claimed that the cartoon is racist...yes.

Is there some element of racism in the cartoon?

Perhaps yes...

After all perception is reality right?

Just a couple what if's.

How would that cartoon read if the animal was a dog?

If it was a dog would people perceive it's meaning differently if it were a pit bull? What if it were a white gay president and he was illustrated as a poodle? Or a straight white southern president and he was portrayed as coon dog? Or a Hispanic president and the dog was a chihuahua? Or an Alaskan president (thank you God it's not) and it was a white sled dog with a pregnant pup beside her? (haha I can hear Elizabeth Hasselbeck defending Sarah and calling the cartoon unfair now and be honest it's not a jump)

Be honest...

You know the scary part....

an Alaskan husky gave birth today at the shelter O_O

while i agree that there would be outcry with other references, this one in particular did have an outside reference. if there had been no chimp attack, even I would find that closer to the border or racism because there was no reason for it to be a monkey. yeah, there is the phrase i said before but it's also substituted with other terms besides monkey.

it all comes down to perception. This article clearly (to me, anyway) tied two recent (perhaps too recent as the victim is still in ICU) events together. it was a logical path for me. For others, i guess not so much.

This editor had to know how this cartoon would be received.

If he didn't he shouldn't be an editor.

Part of my wants to defend the cartoon and it's publication but the common sense part of my wants to say'"geez, come on Mister Editor, you knew exactly what you were doing there didn't you?"

His defending it pointing to the chimp attack and playing dumb about how it would be perceived makes me shake my head. Come on...man up!

I have looked at the cartoon and failed to see anything racist about it.

Are you suggesting that black people are monkeys? Why is this cartoon should be even remotely suggestive of Obama?

HA HA HA

Nice try nogames...you play dumb almost as well as the editor does.

Or maybe you really are ignorant of the history of race relations in this country and how black people have been represented in hateful literature in the past and present.

It's been around for a long time. Remember the comment made by Howard Cosell back when?

Enlighten me.

Cosell drew criticism during one Monday Night Football telecast in September 1983, for stating "look at that little monkey go", when he referred to a play by black wide receiver Alvin Garrett of the Washington Redskins.

Ok., now what?

I always refer to government as to something criminal. So what? Does this reference now becomes a definition?

Genetic study shows us that while or Caucasians are just as far from primates as negroes or blacks.

I see no monkey in negroes. I think that if you feel this is offensive, then you probably silently agree with Cosell that there is a monkey in a negroe.

If you do not agree with his observation, then how does it become offensive to anybody?

Come on nogames...I don't care for you but I am quite sure even you are not that stunningly simple minded.

Again...good try but really, it's time to try a new angle.

Come on Lynann, do you secretly identify negroes with monkeys?

Hey hey were the monkeys!
And people say we monkey around!
But were too busy singing
To anybody down!

I can see where they get the racism in this cartoon, though I do think it's undermined a bit by the fact that Obama didn't actually write it...

I can also see what the cartoonist was actually trying to get at about the chimp. In all honesty, when I first saw it I thought of the "infinite monkey theorem", which states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. But maybe that's just me?

I still think the cartoon was in bad taste though. No matter the intention, anyone reasonably intelligent should have been able to see it being interpreted from a racism-sensitive angle.

That being said, I really don't think it's worth much of an uproar. Sometimes I feel like everyone is on the lookout for discrimination a little too much; whether it be about race, sex, age, religion, etc. I took a Women's Studies course awhile back, and some of my assignments were to listen to popular country songs and watch popular TV shows and look for underlying messages, stereotypes, etc. against women. What surprised me was how easy it was to turn EVERYTHING into something suspicious.

Don't get me wrong, watching out for discrimination is definetly important. But what people need to keep in mind is this: if you go looking for something offensive to you, you're going to find it. I just think we need to keep the intention in mind as well.