OK, let's reverse it:
Now is it offensive?
Posted on 01/09/2005 7:31:05 AM PST by American Infidel
I know I shouldn't be nearly as angry as I am over this (In fact, I know I shouldn't even care), but I couldn't help but notice that featured prominently on the top of the front page of the comic section of today's Philadelphia Inquirer (big surprise) was today's blatantly racist Boondocks comic strip. The strip in question consisted of one frame in which two young black characters observed a white character jogging in the snow while dressed for warm weather. The line written for the black characters is simply “White People”. The implication was obviously that only white people would do something as stupid as to go jogging in the winter, while being dressed for warmer weather. Imagine for a moment that the strip consisted of two white men waiting for a bus to take them to work while observing a black man sitting on the corner, drinking a 40 ounce malt liquor beverage, with the line, “Black People” coming from one of the white characters, implying that only black people would be sitting on the corner on a week day, getting drunk while other people were on their way to work. Not only would this strip never see the light of day, but all future strips from the cartoonist would have been cancelled. The Philadelphia Inquirer on the other hand, chooses to run the strip and to feature it prominently at the top of the front page of the comic section. I understand that Aaron McGruder is the “voice of angry black America” and that he must be treated with kid gloves, otherwise they will be accused of being racist and no corporate entity wants that kind of P.R., but this is ridiculous. It's not the strip itself that ticked me off (it was sort of humorous actually), it was the hypocrisy and the double standard of UPI, the Philly Inquirer, and the other urban newspapers that I am sure ran the strip today. OK that's my rant. Thanks for listening.
I cancelled my local paper because of a Boondocks strip. The paper's circulation has since declined, in sync with MSM declines everywhere. That paper has since dropped Boondocks, which is indeed racist.
Hey, anything goes as long as you're on the left side of the fence. You can make a movie titled "White Girls" or "White Men Can't Jump", or if you're a stand up comic who happens to be (insert ethnicity), devote a third of your routine to making fun of whitey. Hell, I think some of it is pretty funny myself. Its just the feigned indignity and crocodile tears shed by the suddenly sensitive leftists when we return the favor that galls me.
i don't see where it is even funny...is the humor supposed to be that they are mocking the runner for running in shorts in snow: or running with a fancy outfit on: or just plain running to be running?
my first reaction is to be resentful that some paper thinks this is acceptable.
I wonder how the Philidelphia Inquirer would react if he drew an effiminately dressed man standing there and said "gay people".
The correct term, IMO, should be "bigoted," which Boondocks definitely can be at times. Including, I think, now. MacGruder occasionally shows a real level of cluelessness about the very culture in which he lives. This is an unfortunate consequence of seeing every single thing through a prism of racial divide. Yeah, he can be funny, but I usually avoid Boondocks because more often than not, he makes me sad.
If you had two white people doing a waltz, and observing black kids doing break-dancing; and the white couple said "Black People", the cartoonist would never work again.
If a white person is the target, everything's OK.
I HATE double standards.
"Just damn" ping?
"Its a Black Thing"
OK, let's reverse it:
Now is it offensive?
Isn't that precisely what you're supposed to take away from this cartoon?
I'm white and a runner (albeit treadmill, not outdoor) and found this funny. It's the running in the snow bit. I think the joke could have been handled more tactfully if it were framed in a general "Why torture yourself" way instead of pointing out the skin color.
Foxtrot did a comic like that and it was pretty funny.
Jason: "Why does Mom run, Dad?"
Dad: "To keep herself good-looking and healthy."
(Mom passes by, sweaty, wheezing, tired, frazzled hair, etc)
Jason: "No, really, why does Mom run?"
Your comic idea is funnier.
i got on board the civil rights movement in the 60s because it was obviously needed. my parents strongly disapproved of racial bias.
but since then the left has increasingly made race a partisan issue. i object to that.
i notice that the young blacks in my city spit when they see mexicans. that is just wrong. period.
Sure, that's one way of looking at it, although I personally never have taken away the feeling that MacGruder thinks that white people are inherently inferior to black people. I've always thought he's commenting on the cultural differences, which gets tiresome by itself. Like I said, I may be naive.
your cartoon was funnier...universally acceptable...
thanks for the insight - sometimes I chuckle at runners/bikers like sKerry whose clothes cost more than my car...
Or you could reverse it even more and have the white guy saying "black people."
Actually, I look at those folks out running in the rain and snow on a road with no sidewalk and call them something else. It's not nearly as nice as "white people".
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