Cynics Unlimited

The New Yorker, known for its satire in both words and illustration, seems to have crossed a critical line with a recent issue’s illustration of Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

The illustration shows Obama clad in the traditional Muslim garb giving a fist tap to a rifle slinging Michelle (presumably dressed to look like a member of the Black Panther Party). The couple smiles devilishly while an American flag burns in a nearby fireplace underneath a portrait of Osama Bin Laden. Titled “The Politics of Fear”, the controversial magazine cover has ignited debates across the nation concerning what’s in poor taste. Both Obama’s camp and Republican rival John McCain’s camp denounced the sketch as offensive.

It must be asked – why the outrage? Surely, with a title like “The Politics of Fear” it should be clear that The New Yorker’s real target is the ignorance among Obama’s detractors rather then the politician himself. Animated TV shows like South Park and Family Guy have thrived making similar light of human prejudices, mostly without incident. Moreover, a president Obama would surely expect to be targeted by unflattering cartoons likely to attack everything from his inexperience to his unusually large ears – without any context belittling the intelligence of his detractors.

Got Milk?

The second Obama-related controversy this week concerned comments by archaic political pundit John McLaughlin:

On the edition of the syndicated program The McLaughlin Group that aired the weekend of July 11-13, while discussing recent comments made by the Rev. Jesse Jackson about Sen. Barack Obama, host John McLaughlin said: “Question: Does it frost Jackson, Jesse Jackson, that someone like Obama, who fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo — a black on the outside, a white on the inside — that an Oreo should be the beneficiary of the long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fighting for?”

Again, controversy erupted over McLaughlin’s use of a slur against blacks accused of acting white. Once again, the context of the question is lost amid the concentration on the words – McLaughlin was indirectly referring to Jesse Jackson’s recent off-air-yet-on-air tirade at Fox News where he berated Obama for “talking down to blacks” and states the desire to “rip his nuts off”.

If you happen to be black and have done more than one of the following…

1. Enjoyed music not found in the “Urban” section of the record store
2. Written an essay in proper English that did not deal with oppression or slavery
3. Spoken several consecutive sentences deemed coherent by the average Kiwanis Club member
4. Refused to beatify any black poorer than yourself as the epitome of cultural legitimacy

then there’s a strong chance someone has called you can oreo and/or sellout behind your back, if not to your face. Blacker-than-thou hyperbole is a staple in black intraracial political debates (one poster at black political blog Booker Rising made quite a reputation for himself by referring to myself and anyone else to the right of Stokely Carmichael as boot-licking uncle toms ready to re-sell ourselves into slavery to win the affections of the massa’). John McLaughlin was simply stating in plain words what is frequently implied of the half-white Obama’s refined persona and his propensity to appeal to white audiences rather than demonize them.

The Easiest Route to Presidency - Martyrdom

Both of these so-called controversies are mostly noise and the Obama camp knows it. Their swift reaction, along with the terse reaction from high-profile supporters seems designed to draw his opponent into a losing debate. The McCain camp -often expected to deal in race identity politics to energize to their southern and Evangelical base- were wise to quickly distance themselves from the New Yorker image, which could be taken literally by the less intelligent among our southern neighbors to be literal commentary. Had the Republicans not distanced themselves from the implications, swing voters could revolt via voting for Obama just to prove America is not a nation of knuckle-draggers.

Alas McCain did not take the bait and will make every effort to avoid being drawn into a racial debate. Most of the sniping seem so far has come from conservative partisans and entertainers, with most of it being no more serious than harping on Obama’s highly cosmetic relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright (who was summarily dismissed once Obama needed to appeal to a different audience) and constant iterations of his full name: Barrack HUSSEIN Obama. Get it? Hussein? Like Saddam! Obama’s middle name proves his ties to radical Islam and points to a secret vendetta against America!

Sadly enough, some people actually buy that reasoning. Thus, one can’t blame Obama for attempting martyrdom.

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