The monkey cartoon!

A whole class period over a cartoon yesterday! Even worse I was late and we didn't even talk about religion. The only time we talked a little religion was when the discussion turned to Obama and Jeremiah Wright or the belief that JFK's assassination was because of his Catholicism and finally when we're going to have our first exam.

There was a lot to be said about the cartoon that drew a firestorm earlier in the week that portrayed two police officers shooting to death a chimp. BTW, called this chimp a monkey doesn't fly. When I say monkey cartoon everyone will know what I refer to, however I prefer to call that animal in the cartoon an ape. Chimps aren't monkeys but apes. Monkeys have tails.

Anyway, let's not forget that we're talking about a room full of black males talking about an issue that's got them riled up. Unfortunately there are those who see the racial connotations especially since once upon a time many thought blacks or Africans weren't much different than the common ape. We were supposed to be inferior.

I argued in an earlier post that I see the firestorm as an over reaction. People are taking more meaning out of it than is actually there. Then again a cartoon hasn't exactly aroused my anger in only that perhaps I'm not looking for outrage or meaning other than the context of the cartoon.

All there is is two police officers, a dead ape, and a caption saying that they'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus. So who was this cartoon referring to? President Obama or the Congress or a specific member of Congress who wrote that bill?

Whatever the case people are pointing the finger at who they believe this cartoon represents, Obama? Thanks to whatever racial connotations that might exist in their thoughts. Thus some argued yesterday that this constitutes a direct threat against the President. Indeed if the cartoonist didn't intend to put out such an idea the idea is probably implanted in some troubled person for whom this cartoon could be an influence. I would consider that weak, but the idea is there.

That was surprise people were talking about the racial aspect, but many were talking about the possible threat from this cartoon. They were more upset about that. It was also mentioned how attached people are to Obama. You can't say anything bad about the President for whatever reason they may have. Probably doesn't even matter if you agree with his policies, got a problem with the policies, then you got a fight with them.

Let's get back to race for a moment.

A couple of guys were talking about playing on XBox. They mentioned the nastiness that occurs because somehow they found out someway that their fellow players were black. They would start asking crazy questions like are you a coon, n*gger, or whatever. In some instances they'll find ways to take you out of the game. For the most part I could attribute this to ignorance or even sheer stupidity. What makes you think you can say crap like that to anyone? I'm sure there is anonymity in these games so that makes them even braver in their stupidity.

It brought to mind a video I found a while back. A black teen was with his white friends or counterparts and all the sudden this black teen gets assaulted for no reason by his fellow whites. The black teen was asking constantly, "What's going on yo?" He had no idea what just happened.

My idea is this. When teens do things like this it's probably funny to them? Perhaps all they know is that they assaulting for kicks some poor black teen and look at this they got it all on tape. It could be a racial thing perhaps they thought they'll get a good fight out of him since perhaps they seen blacks get themselves in trouble all the time. Who knows?

Either way event though we now have a black President, what might go thru the mind of a budding racist or anyone like that will still exist. It'll take time to eliminate from everyday speech these ugly words that we will use towards each other. One day it won't be funny to call a black person a coon or a n*gger. One day it'll just be a word that we can laugh off or indeed it won't be a sign of disrespect and indeed those who use it will realize that anytime it's used it's disrespect.

As for this cartoon, I really want nothing to happen to Obama other than for him to finish his term and hopefully be successful. Not do I hope that nothing happens to the President but also his family because I understand that there are threats against them as well. Such threats in my opinion would be vile, well any threat is vile, but who would threaten to kill not only a powerful man, but his wife and children as well. That ought to bother all of us.

Anyway this was what happened in our religion class Friday. That class is very interesting!