Images matter. If images didn’t matter, most of us cartoonist-types would be out of work. Certainly my critics, and fans (hey, I have one out there somewhere) would be much less emotional when they contact me. I’ve always thought the power of the graphic image gave us cartoonists a way to "short circuit" readers. Images cut to the chase and often avoid all that complicated left-brain intellectualizing that my editorial writing colleagues must deal with.
Well, here’s a short circuit if I ever saw one. It’s one of the stamps Mexico recently issued that are causing a bit of an uproar north of their border. You can read a defense of the stamps as published in the LA Times right here. Click here for the other view, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. My view:it’s inexcusable.
So why do we accept stereotypes like the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo???
Seems to me, and to plenty of Native-Americans, to be in the same league, no pun intended, with the Mexican stamp. But folks go ballistic whenever the issue comes up. Somehow you’re trying too hard to be "politically correct" when you disdain goofy demeaning images of American Indians. Looks almost as bad as that stamp to me.
Maybe we Americans could use a dose of what Dr. Seuss is applying to our brains in this cartoon from 1942. Don’t forget to click to enlarge the image. Of course, even the good doctor had his slip-ups now and then. Here’s another of his cartoons from the same era in which he employed a bit of the old stereotyping that still goes on all over.
Hard to avoid being shocked with all this short circuiting going on.
5 Comments
Three days posted, and still no comments? What does that say about us?Images of that type have been the tools of bigots and propagandists ever since caves were first painted! The first step in any hate campaign is to make your enemy out as less than human. That makes killing him that much easier.The Dr. Seuss example is bad enough, but WWII inspired some much worse racist depictions of both Asians and Germans.The Mexican stamp, while bad, is just another in a long tradition of racist stereotypes that reached it’s height(?) in this country in the 1930’s and 40’s, and probably played it’s part in the lynchings of that period.It’s the dark side of the cartoonists art, and should never be considered acceptable.
To paraphrase damoon:Making fun of people is a time honored tradition in our country, it part of living in a free society.
Hey Madoon,There’s a distinction to be made between making fun of someone and creating vicious stereotypes of groups.Too often, those stereotypes result in violence and discrimination- our history is chock-full of examples! We really don’t need any more.
Stereotypes are funny because they are often true!
Hey Ian,I can understand your fascination with stereotypes since you’re a hispanic white suprematist catholic anti-semite. That’s an awful lot of stereotypes to carry around! We’ll all remember how funny it is when they string you up.