Black Media Protest Against The New York Post 'Racist Chimp' Cartoon

The New York Post has since apologized after their company published a racist cartoon (seen above) which referenced the President and his policies. 

The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) commented that the apology from The New York Post came across as weak, and so they vowed to boycott the company unless its editor-in-chief Col. Allan (seen-r) and cartoonist Sean Delonas were fired. 

The New York Post wrote an editorial on its website defending the cartoon stating,"[The cartoon] was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill, 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. Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon—even as the opportunists seek to make it something else."

"That was actually a half of an apology, without elaboration,” countered NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. 

"The drawing picks off the scabs of all the racial wounds,” he added. 

The cartoon in question which is seen above, displays two white police officers; one with a smoking gun in his hand and a chimpanzee laying on the ground in a pool of blood, with two bullet holes in his stomach. One officer says to the other, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill,” as if suggesting the dead chimpanzee was President Obama. 

"The cartoon is an example of thoughtlessness taken to the extreme," said NAACP Chairman Julian Bond. "Anyone who is not offended by it does not have any sensitivity.”

Reverend Al Sharpton had this to say: "The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that "Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill."

  
"Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?"

Moreover, in an open letter to The New York Post editor singer John Legend wrote, “I’ve read your lame statement in response to the outrage you provoked. Shame on you …offensive.

If you believe The New York Post should be held accountable for their actions, click here to sign a petition to boot the artist and editor out.

2009 LA