[ken21]

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.

[Arkie2]

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".

[bigsigh]

Boondocks racist! I'm shocked. This has been going on for a few years. The liberals think he's cute, so he'll continue even if no one reads it.

[isthisnickcool]

How about a large group of asian people running way from a huge wave about to fall on them and kill them. And the caption is "Gooks can't run fast"? Or maybe a caption something like "Hope they make it to the mosque, it's the only building built right".

I doubt the paper would print things like that but "white people" is OK.

Now, as far as runners go, the cartoon itself is funny. I've never understood why some runners run where they do and when. For example, a guy running next to a very busy street with cars spewing exhaust gases. That has never made sense to me.

[sgtbono2002]

I remember the Movie "White Men Cant Jump" always wondered what would happen if they made a movie called "Black men Cant Read".

When people ask me if about racism I always reply,Are these folks racist? Maxine Waters, Charles Rangel, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Cynthia McKinney, Barbara Brazille the list goes on and on. These people have either been elected because of their race or gotten rich race baiting.

For some reason black people get a pass on their racism, the Congressional Black caucus is as racist as the KKK.

[Drango]

Well I do think he's insulting the two black slackers. That said, we need to lighten up. Political and editorial speech is a well protected right. Next people will become overly judgmental of a comment or two that pushes the envelope on FR.

[discostu]

Not only is it funny, it's true. In my life in Tucson I've lived near two of the three most popular jogging/ biking paths in town, and the people out there are 99% white, and the people out there in bad weather are 100% white. And there is something innately hilarious about how only white people will go out in crappy weather risking pnuemonia for the sake of burning some calories and avoiding a heart attack.

[shellshocked]

[verity]

Perhaps you accidentally overdosed on your sensitivity meds.

[yarddog]

Only slightly racist but not very funny.

[solitas]

I looked forward to reading those little (nippers) in the paper every day - it always gave me more proof at their inferiority (the comic - not the species as a whole).

The Connecticut Post (local paper in southwestern CT) picked them up for about a month or so and dropped them without fanfare after people started writing letters; naturally those "at the other end of the greyscale" were incensed at it's being dropped so the paper filled the slot with another similar-type 'comic'.

[Atlas Sneezed]

It reflects a classic (and often true?) racial stereotype:

Black people displaying bitter resentment at white people who work harder at improving themselves while the black people generally do poorly by such measures. (More severe obesity epidemic among American blacks than whites.)

An analogous cartoon could have been a white kid trudging through the snow into a public library with a stack of schoolbooks, while a couple idle black kids stood by bitterly muttering "white kids." It might even be more potent it if were "Asian kids".

[1rudeboy]

You guys are reading this all wrong. The runner is racist, not only because he's white, but also because he is more lightly-clothed and mobile, while his two observers are heavily-clothed and immobile . . . a symbol of the oppression that the African-American (and the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/questioning) community suffers every day!

[cyborg]

ping

[csvset]

It would have been funny if the "jogger" was saying, "Black People! ".

[TexasCajun]

"BuckWheat" strikes again!

[cyborg]

Are you going to write letters? It's no use ranting to the wrong people.

[HairOfTheDog]

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.

Well, first off, your comparison example is not apples to apples. The guy out jogging doesn't have the reason for embarrassment or shame that the morning wino has. He's doing something "silly", not something self destructive.

But secondly, your exampl stereotype doesn't apply. My experience is ~NOT~ that the typical homeless drunk is black.

[World'sGoneInsane]

LOL...calm down and think about it as if the two joggers are two liberal journalists out jogging. Most of these newspaper editors and journalists are the "stupid" white people that would go out jogging in the snow. Now this makes them double stupid, because they had to print it anyway.

I'm white, and if I was standing at the bus stop with these two kids, I'd be rolling in the snow laughing. I would not be out jogging--that's for sure. I'd be thinking, these kids are smart enough to know better.

[dinodino]

So, if someone were to reverse the roles in the cartoon and show the two kids sticking up the jogger at gunpoint, and him saying, "Black people!", would that be racist?