The New Yorker’s Obama oopsiedoopsie?

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Diary: I Feel Pretty

Password: iamloved

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Alright the whole media world seems to think this is a big deal. Okay. I’ll bite. The New Yorker’s most recent cover ignited the bloggers and news at 11. Every sentient joe with a sense of political or moral compass played the game indignant. Blasphemy!! Democrats howl. Republicans cackled, choosing to ignore the jab at their own political looking glasses. The New Yorker puffed out its chest: it’s satire, we are making fun of you duhh.

If you have no inkling of what I am rambling about…your rock is bigger than mine. And my rock is famously large. It shields me from celebrity relationship statuses and common sense – among other things. The cover in question is a cartoon depicting Obama in Muslim garb in the white house fist bumping his wife who is sporting a major afro and a terrorist -esque gun. Behind them is a framed picture of Osama Bin Laden and an American flag burning in the fireplace.

Every simpleminded negative stereotype is covered in this cartoon. Let’s break it down.

1) Obama has ties to the Muslim community. His name is foreign.  Allow me to make some completely rational and intelligent leaps. OMG OBAMA = MUSLIM = TERRORIST = WEIRD NAME = TERRORIST x 2 = APPLE PALTROW WTF KIND OF NAME IS THAT – THAT BABY TERRORIST IS OUT TO GET AMERICA.

2) Obama made a "hip" guesture (or so he naively thought), daring to fist bump his wife while they were on stage. Allow me to continue with my completely intelligent rational: OMG FIST BUMP? THAT IS OBVIOUSLY SOME SIGNAL TO THE TERRORISTS TO ATTACK. WE R SOOO SMART IN THIZ DECODZING GAME.

3) Michelle Obama has an afro (which she does not have in real life). Intelligent assumptions continue: BLACK WOMAN. BLACK PANTHER. AFRO. IT WILL ALL MAKE SENSE IN A SECOND….AHA! TERRORIST.

4) American Flag and Osama. Assumptions: OBAMA, OSAMA. IT RHYMES. OHMYFRIGGNGODZ. TERRORIST.

And so on.

People in america actually think this way. I’ve seen it on may web trolls in forums, articles, and youtube videos talking about or tagged Obama. We are uneducated racist America. Hear us roar.

Good lord, people. There is way too much trust in the Christian White Male and some serious unwarrented exclusion of good people because of this. I’d half a mind to run as a christian president and then convert to wiccan just to FREAK YOU ASSHATS OUT. I’d open every white house press meeting with a voodoo cursing of our enemies and the white people of america. I’d have a sordidly public affair with my barber’s waiting room couch and hold meetings to consolidate America’s deepest darkest secrets with my wohabbist advisors. I’d threaten to drop a gay bomb on the american people if they DID NOT START WATCHING 30 ROCK. (Gee whiz people, know a good thing when you seee it).

So what am I trying to say in so many many many words?

Adjectives used to describe the NY cover: offensive, tasteless, incendiary, republican!

The New Yorker, a left leaning magazine, was obviously dipping in political satire here. Lines were tangled when people assumed that satire has to be funny. You just made an ass out of U and Me. Satire is an author’s- or in this case a cartoonist’s- attack on a certain aspect of society. It often uses humor, but the funnybone is not required. The New Yorker never intended to be funny. It intended the cartoon to be a poke (perhaps a right hook) at the ignorant stereotypes that obstruct Obama’s image. On the surface the cartoon is offensive; every stereotype it utilized is very offensive. To me. And to Obama. And to intelligent rational human beings that don’t look at a fist bump as terrorist activity. The cartoon’s message was manipulated immediately by the media to seem one dimentional – as an attack on Obama when this is obviously not true. The problem is America’s lust for face value. How dare you suggest another layer to the cartoon? The lack of context (if one assumes that the magazine’s reputation itself is not context) helped balloon this into a "big issue".

 

I am not about to suggest that cartoons do not matter. A few dead people in Denmark (over a cartoon depicting Allah) would bitchslap me from the grave. But really. News at Eleven needs a life. You need a life, America.

I do not find the cartoon offensive. I see it as a clever snub, so slyly subtle that its message is being perverted against itself.

Whether you find the cover offensive or clever, the magazine should keep the right to publish what it wants. I cringe at the soapboxers demanding censorship. Are those soapboxes made in China? I hope they break, and soon. Obama has a campaign to run and while I am not sure I am going to vote for him  my decision will not be tainted by thoughts of Obama as a terrorist. (Wow did you see that terrible metaphor there? I suppose it means that chocolate chips before bed – not the best brain food).

 

I really want to slap the asshats that actually believe the stereotypes put forth about Obama. I will be the Pied Piper, luring those ignorant asshats out of the country (off the planet) with my trusty pipe – spewing such idiocy that only asshats would follow me.

 

the end.