OK, I’ll bite

I don’t understand why this cartoon everyone’s getting worked up about is so offensive. The author is clearly making the point that the bill (and the scattershot stimulus plan in general) reads as if it’s been written by a monkey, not that Obama himself is a monkey worthy of killing. And Obama isn’t the author of the stimulus bill anyway: the House/Senate are the culprits. I might agree that the cartoon doesn’t make a ton of sense–it strikes me that the artist was trying to shoehorn a very popular/horrifying story into a context that doesn’t quite work–but to say it’s offensive? Um…no?

Which brings me to this post by Rod, focused on Eric Holder’s assertion that Americans are moral cowards when it comes to race. A taste:

Who in their right mind wants to have a frank talk about race with people of another racial background? The professional and personal risks are too great. If you say the wrong thing — and really, who can say where the land mines are buried? — you risk things blowing up in your face. Once upon a time, I was referred to a supervisor by a minority co-worker for referring to a particular group of Arab terrorists as “those savages,” thus creating a “hostile work environment.” That’s it. That was the substance of the complaint. We had to have a conference about it. And this Holder wants people — white, black, Hispanic, Asian, whatever — to take a chance of setting off a social bomb in their workplace, or in their personal lives, in their churches and neighborhoods? Please.

You should, as they say, read the whole thing.

Of course, the readers over at Feministing are good for a laugh on this. Or any other topic related to race, really. Check out the comments. The best?

My gut reaction is that this ought to warrant being questioned by the secret service to make sure the cartoonist isn’t actually threatening assassination here.

The post-racial America, ladies and gentlemen! Get it before it’s g…Oops, already gone. Should’ve seen that one coming.