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New Yorker's Obama Cover Touches Nerve
This week's cover of The New Yorker magazine portrays Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, standing in the Oval Office after winning the presidential election. Of course, that vision alone is enough to get some people worked up. But the illustrator, Barry Blitt, has pulled out all the stops in his portrayal of the would-be first couple. Barack wears a turban and tribal Muslim attire. His wife, who has combed out her afro, wears a semi-automatic rifle on her back and gives her husband a "terrorist fist-jab" beneath a painting of Osama bin Laden that hangs above a fireplace aflame with the American flag. In short, the cartoonist is capturing the essence of the right-wing's Obama nightmare/wet-dream. To my mind, it's a brilliant piece of satire, precisely because it exposes how laughably transparent many Americans are in their Obamaphobia. But not everyone agrees, of course, including the Obama campaign. Via ABC's Jake Tapper:
And (via Politico) the McCain campaign is also offended:
Said Obama spox Bill Burton: "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.
Knowing the liberal politics of the magazine, I believe the magazine's staff when they say the illustration is meant ironically, as a parody of the caricature some conservatives (and some supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.) are painting of the Obamas..."
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds quickly e-mailed: "We completely agree with the Obama campaign, it's tasteless and offensive."
Does Burton have a point? Sure. This image will no doubt become an e-mail-forwarded classic. To his enemies, the cover will represent not a joke, but the ultimate "I told you so!" Essentially, then, the argument against the cover is that it's too subtle for stupid people to understand. Thus, The New Yorker should lower its intellectual standards so that the basest among us (including those that the cartoon is lampooning) don't get the wrong idea.
To my mind, however, the cover art helps Obama more than it hurts him because A) it is funny, and B) it confronts the outlandish perceptions that many have Americans have of Obama head on. The image won't convert anybody into thinking Obama is a terrorist, it simply exposes the prejudices that already exist. Besides, it's good practice for when the real life Obamas take over residence in the White House. After all, an American president is perhaps the single most popular subject for cartoonists in the world.The New Yorker's Editor-in-Chief, David Remnick was asked about his decision to run the cover, and had this to say (via HuffPo):
Obviously I wouldn't have run a cover just to get attention--I ran the cover because I thought it had something to say. What I think it does is hold up a mirror to the prejudice and dark imagining about Barck Obama's -- both Obamas' -- past and their politics. I can't speak for anyone else's interpretations, all I can say is that it combines a number of images that have been propagated, not by everyone on the right but by some, about Obama's supposed "lack of patriotism" or he being "soft on terrorism" or the idiotic notion that somehow Michelle Obama is the second coming of the Weathermen or the most violent Black Panthers. That somehow all this is going to come to the Oval Office.
The idea that we would publish a cover saying these things literally, I think, is just not in the vocabulary of what we do and who we are... We've run many many satirical political covers. Ask the Bush administration how many.
Good for The New Yorker, and Remnick. And kudos to Barry Blitt for the spot-on humor. To those who think that the image somehow captures the real vision of things to come, the joke's on you. Blitt's target is irrational prejudice and fear mongering, not Barack Obama.
Recent Comments
(Page 1 of 79)Rick8:59AMJul 14th 2008
And with Obama is The White House this is exactly what you will get! NO WE WONT! NO Obama in '08!
kimmie9:01AMJul 14th 2008
free speech
Henry9:06AMJul 14th 2008
You Bigots will stop at nothing.Good try, But, not good enough.
lmay9:19AMJul 14th 2008
Heres more info on the true Obama...news conference today!! Go, Go...Andy Martin!!
http://contrariancommentary.blogspot.com/
P.S...the New Yorker magazine cover says it all!!!
We the sheeple of the United States in order to form a more perfect union will vote for Mccain in November!!!
Sandie9:22AMJul 14th 2008
I PERSONALLY AM NEVER OFFENDED AT THE FREEDOMS WE HAVE HERE IN AMERICA INCLUDING THE DRAWING OF THAT CARTOON! I THINK THAT LOOKS EXACTLY ABOUT RIGHT WITH OBAMA'S WIFE READY TO TAKE WHITIES EVERYWHERE SHE GOES AND WELL OBAMA JUST DOIN WHAT EVER "MOMMA" SAYS, AS FAR AS I KNOW "MOMMA" COULD BE OPRAH BUT WHO KNOWS, I ONLY KNOW THAT I LOVE THE CARTTON AND IT IS A GREAT LAUGH AND OBAMA IS A PUTRIDE HUMAN BEING AND IF HE DOES NOT HAVE HILLARY OR EVEN BILL AS HIS RUNNING MATE I WILL NOT VOTE FOR HIM. HE NEEDS A LEVEL HEADED CERTAIN STRONG BLONDE FEMALE TO KEEP HIM IN CHECK IF YOU GET MY MEANING AND GOOD BYE TO MICHELLE OBAMA WHAT A NUT JOB SHE IS!
JUDY fERGUSON9:26AMJul 14th 2008
Barry Blitt it is just so unbelievable how Racist and Ignorant you are, and I rebuke The New Yorker magaine for printing such racist material to incite Americans.
When will some of you ignorant whites start judgeing Obama by the content of his charactor and not the color of his and Michell's skin? Obama has had to rise above a lot of negativity even from Jesse Jackson, but he rose.
That suppose to be Cartoone was not fit for print, and it shows the unethical side of its publishers.
I am offended as a person of mix race and the magazine should be pulled off of store shelves, or store owners should just not sell that magazine.
FOXYLYNX9:34AMJul 14th 2008
I AM NOT AN OBAMA FAN - BUT THE COVER OF THAT MAGAZINE IS TOTALLY REDICULOUS! WHY PORTRAY THOSE OF US WHO DO NOT ENDORSE OBAMA AS WHITE RACISTS - SURE THERE ARE SOME, BUT MOST OF US ARE NOT JUDGING HIM ON THE COLOR OF HIS SKIN.
JUDY fERGUSON9:35AMJul 14th 2008
The New Yorker Magazine should be pulled from all shelves because it is offencive and intended incite
African Americans. It also shows how ignorant the cartoonist is along with its publishers. I find nothing humorous about that peice of garbage. Barry Blitt or whoever drew that tastless peice of garbage needs to walk down a dark street in Harlem and get a good old spanking for his childishness.
johnjpl9:45AMJul 14th 2008
I've been enjoying and laughing at New Yorker cartoons since the 1950's This is obviously one of the most provocative, satiric covers they've ever haver published--no doubt it's going to produce some strong reactions.
Unfortunately, judging from the first few comments on this page, some folks are not going to get the intended irony, and will view this cartoon as a valid expression of their deepest, darkest fears: The possibility of black people actually occupying the White House!
Shari10:09AMJul 14th 2008
My my my - ignorance drips from some people's pores. How sad, in a country that is wealthy not only in material resources but also in access to real information we have such copious ignorance! And, from individuals so willing to let the whole world see it. Lord have mercy on us all.
Meg10:11AMJul 14th 2008
Well, it may not be flattering, but it does portray the image that some folks have of those two. I'm neither racist (I don't think) nor stupid, but the image does disturb me somewhat. I'm an "older" American and it's an idea that goes a little too far. I wasn't going to vote for him anyway, though, although he's probably a very nice individual--just too inexperienced.
bob10:16AMJul 14th 2008
Are circulation rates down at The New Yorker?
The "Obviously I wouldn't have run a cover just to get attention - " seems a bit disingenuous. He had to know he was going to get plenty of attention with that one.
Jim10:21AMJul 14th 2008
I'd classify Obama as a Colobus monkey... They are black and white and come from Kenya..
Shari10:24AMJul 14th 2008
My, my, my. Ignorance just seems to drip from the fingers of some people. What a shame, in a country where there are not only an abundance of material resources with access to real information with which to become educated, ignorance by choice is so copious with those most held in its clutches most willing to put it out like a neon sign for all to see of them. May God help us all!!
jamn_man10:25AMJul 14th 2008
And now they're selling it online:
http://www.newyorkerstore.com/product_details.asp?sid=125383
Shari10:25AMJul 14th 2008
I apologize for the double post - I misunderstood an e-mail.
jamn_man10:26AMJul 14th 2008
And now they're selling it online:
http://www.newyorkerstore.com/product_details.asp?sid=125383
dearme10:29AMJul 14th 2008
I don't know why you laud the magazine for its "spot-on" humor. As if this is brilliant satire -- there is nothing brilliant about this picture. To anyone who's been following this election even remotely, this is the most obvious cartoon one could draw. And in my opinion, it is needlessly polarizing, because it suggests that those who do not support Obama feel this way only because they think he's a muslim terrorist.
Charap110:34AMJul 14th 2008
See, If Hillary would of won the Dem electon we won't have this kind of thing beening shown..........
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RIChris8:47AMJul 14th 2008
'To my mind, however, it helps Obama more than it hurts him'
To your mind, every nasty, sleazy, negative thing that portrays Obama is a "good thing". I suppose it would have to be because there are no actual "good things" that portray Obama.