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Monday, July 19, 2004
Condi-slamming cartoonist protested
Conservative black group wants Ted Rall punished for 'vile language'
Posted: July 19, 2004
5:00 p.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A conservative black organization is calling on Universal Press Syndicate to drop distribution of Ted Rall's comic strips after the cartoonist ridiculed National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice using "vile language."
The strip in question, which ran July 1, suggests "appropriate punishments for deposed Bushists" that parodies alleged treatment of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison. The panel featuring Bush administration's Rice has her saying, "I was Bush's beard! His house nigga. His …" She is interrupted by a character wearing a shirt reading "You're not white, stupid" who says, "Now hand over your hair straightener."
Besides demanding the controversial cartoonist's strip to be suspended, Project 21 is calling on other African-American groups to join its protest.
"Is it OK for Ted Rall to use such vile language because he's using it against a black conservative?" asked Project 21 member Michael King in a statement. "I'm beside myself with anger over this comic."
Project 21 is asking the NAACP, the National Association of Black Journalists and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to make similar demands based on their past involvement in pressuring ESPN to fire radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh in 2003.
Last year, in his capacity as a football commentator for ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown," Limbaugh criticized the media for fawning over the performance of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, saying, "The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well."
Afterward, NAACP president and CEO Kweisi Mfume called Limbaugh's comments "bigoted and arrogant" and called for his removal. The NABJ demanded ESPN "separate itself" from Limbaugh. Rainbow/PUSH Coalition president Jesse Jackson called the remarks "not accurate and insulting." Limbaugh later resigned.
"From radical poet Amiri Baraka to singer Harry Belafonte and now cartoonist Ted Rall, too many people feel they have free rein to insult the dignity of Condoleezza Rice and have no problem injecting race into that abuse," adds King. "It's time for the civil rights establishment to stop allowing this assault on an accomplished black woman or they put their credibility at risk."
Leftist Rall drew fire earlier this year when he created a cartoon critical of Pat Tillman after his death. Tillman was the former NFL player who left his career to become an Army Ranger and was killed in Afghanistan. The cartoonist called Tillman "a sap," an "idiot" and a "cog in a low-rent occupation army that shot more innocent civilians than terrorists to prop up puppet rulers and exploit gas and oil resources."