THE NEW YORKER Too? What the Fuck!!!

70 Responses to “THE NEW YORKER Too? What the Fuck!!!”

1. Chuck Says:
   July 14th, 2008 at 4:00 am

   this is fucking disgusting…..

   what makes it worse is they’re going to hide behind the “satire” thing… bullshit.

2. Signal to Noise Says:
   July 14th, 2008 at 4:12 am

   Yeah, that’s not even close to satire. What part of the cover, without comment or mention of the articles on the front, shows the images for the “obvious distortions” that they are?

   Conde Nast’s magazines are having a great year when it comes to stupid cover decisions (Vogue and LeBron, Vanity Fair with Miley Cyrus, and now this.)

3. The Most Known Unknown Says:
   July 14th, 2008 at 4:48 am

   If the Senator and his wife were white, things like this wouldn’t happen. So my question is, what year is it…1908? Same things don’t change.

   This is proof positive of why there is a serious need for black journalist to unite and write REAL editorial, and not this poor excuse for satire.

   Forget the white media, they will not employ us black writers, but they have black people on their headlines, and on the cover of their magazines.

   We do we get frozen out?

4. Mizzo Says:
   July 14th, 2008 at 4:48 am

   Did anyone notice this “caricature” takes place in the Oval Office? As if to say…”Yeah we got ya’ll asses now!”

   White folk ain’t slick. This is some bullshit.

   S2N this is the perfected evolution of the noose and the LeBron covers.

   America is on some real ha ha very funny mothafucker shit right now. I just got off the phone with Chuck D because I wanted to be calmed down…to no avail…Peace Chuck…

   We are going to see some things from now to election time that we’ve never seen in human existence.

   And it ain’t comin’ from us…

   Dig the title and the piece now…because it will be tempered with wisdom later this morning.

5. The Most Known Unknown Says:
   July 14th, 2008 at 4:51 am

   I meant to ask the question of WHY do we as black journalist get the cold shoulder for writing jobs?

6. Mizzo Says:
   July 14th, 2008 at 4:53 am

   For this very reason brothaman.

   They DO NOT want us in the boardroom when financial windfalls like this are made available.

   I will say this. Black people do not get too angry about this. I’m so sorry that I’m so angry right now. I wanted my angry documented, but that’s just me. We have to be able to put this in their box…not ours.

7. Inkognegro Says:
   July 14th, 2008 at 5:14 am

   No response by Obama would suffice.

   End of the day, he may as well brush your shoulders off and KIM.

   What you have hear, brothas and sistas is a fundamental lack of respect.

   That aint to say that the NYer has a right to get their satire on…it’s to say that the notion of restraint just doesn’t apply, it’s the Satirical pedal to the metal. Who is gonna be offended? hell he gets to be president so surely he can take a little good natured ribbing, right?

   Yeah, how ABOUT that Obama friendly press….smh.

8. michelle Says:
   July 14th, 2008 at 9:45 am

   OH HELL NO! What is this? Who is responsible? This is CRAZZZZZZY! Now I have to go to work on a rainy monday with an attitude. Thanks New Yorker!

9. thebrotherreport Says:
   July 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

   Mizzo, I told you back in March that things were going to really get crazy the closer we got to November.

   What is really disturbing is that we’re the only ones that are pissed about this and it’s looked upon as “Overreacting or Living in the past.”

   Anyone that defended that Vogue cover, I would like to see them defend this.

10. Eric Daniels Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    I don’t know why anyone is surprised by this B.S. the angry black man and woman has been big buisness for the media ever since the 60’s and Wolfe’s “Mau Mau and the Flack Catchers” article. The New Yorker is doing what they really think of Black Americans that we

    1. Hate America and it’s white values
    2. Hate White Americans
    3. Want to overthrow the government
    4. And are constant whiners
    5. Celebrated Sept 11 like it was Junetennth
    6. And will give retribution in money and improvments to Black Americans

    The White Media like they have since this Republic’s founding has always treated us like soiled toilet paper that they would like to flush down the drain, now you have people who really are scared that a Biracial President could be elected by guilt-ridden white liberals and those “unpatriotic niggers” White Americans don’t want the Obamas nor more than they want Condi or Colin, they want someone like Clarence Thomas or Shelby Steele (Alan Keyes is just too nuts for white conservatives) They media has shown their true selves as a tool of the U.S. corporate government power and that is to keep the status quo. I say there will be worse and more racist articles, post and whatnot, we should put this in our memory banks and never forget what happens this year.

11. Okori Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

    my face hurts from all of this foolishness.

    could someone explain to me how it is, how in the blue hell, that anyone with a brain could have thought this was funny? anyone at all? What drunken moron decided to green light THIS?

    And as we all know Mizz its not all white folks who think this is meaningless or funny. But if you are someone now is the time to speak up. Show yourself. Say this is not cool.

12. Signal to Noise Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    The essential problem with magazines like the New Yorker and the Conde Nast empire is a lack of staffers (black, white, female, male, or otherwise) able to say in the story conference or cover decision: “Wait a minute, what if this goes over people’s heads? Does this go from satire or art imitation way past into some unintended places?”

    There’s really an insular environment at work here.

13. TADOne Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    Satire my ass. I cannot believe it is 2008 and shit like this still can see the light of day.

14. Miranda Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    I’m not buying the “its only satire” bit at all. This cover along wit the hit job article about Obama (because that’s what it is) go hand in hand - although it is their hope that no one will figure that part out. The New Yorker got what they wanted, which is the same thing that Vogue wanted - “oh tsk tsk, these niggers just cant take a joke”.

15. Mizzo Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    To the journalists–inside and out of sports–who have railroaded against Black folk giving corporate interests a pass just to keep a pay check, this is on your neck too.

    You helped create the climate which made this type of bullshit acceptable.

    Where are the revolutionaries?

    Chuck was so right when he shouted Shut em down!

16. Mizzo Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    Okori..not all, but most.

    Until White folk made a fearless, honest and true stance against racism this will continue to happen.

    It’s as simple as that.

17. thebrotherreport Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    What’s equally disturbing is the response of some people regarding this: I was on CNN.com and read:

    1. Ahh! A tase of what Hillary endured!

    2.That’s what you get for not going away and quitting so that our Hillary could become the next President.

    3.Hey, folks, let’s all pitch in and buy Obama a sense of humour!

    4. Does the Obama camp ever stop crying?? Once again, this is an attempt to throw attention anyplace but Obama and his lack of substance. The fact that McCain and Obama are our candidates for President truly shows that the electorate in this nation is a confederacy of dunces!!

    5. Maybe Mr Obama should stop whining. I guess it was ok to trash Hillary everyday, but the thin skinned, whining Obama’s can’t accept a little satire! I still think David Brooks had it right, when he called him Fast Eddy. It’s a perfect name!

    6. Truth Hurts

    7. How do we know this is not a realistic picture of the Obama family especially with a middle name like Hussein?

    8. Oh he is sooooo sensitive !!!!!

    This is the country that we live in people. I’m so close to not wanting Obama to win this election but it would be the wrong attitude. I’m getting to the point where I’m going to start painting with a broad brush again.

    I’m getting that Rosewood, Mississippi Burning state of mind. Remember how you wanted to react after you left the theater?

18. Carolyn Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

    I will say it, Okori; this is not cool.

    Mizzo, there are no “buts” on these lips.

    To say nothing is to endorse.

    I am ashamed. I am sad. I am fearful. I am angry.

    I am not black. And I will not pretend to begin to understand what it is to be black in America.

    I am one voice holding on to what I was taught by people who did not believe it when they preached - all men are created equal.

19. Mizzo Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    Carolyn thank you.

20. Miranda Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 5:09 pm

    Damn:
    http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/14/mclaughlin-takes-heat-for-oreo-comment/

21. Mizzo Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

    Thanks Miranda. I previously posted McLaughlin’s comments, but posting the link reminded me to check youtube for the clip.

22. origin Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 6:13 pm

    Great post Mizzo. As I said also (like brotha thebrotherreport) before its only going to get worst.

    And like brotha Eric Daniels said they love the angry black man and woman angle.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if the media pulls out a print out showing Obama’s credit score. Saying how can we let a man run the country who has a credit score of 600.

    Or come November I bet they pull out some old photo of Obama kissing a white woman back in college. Boy that will really get those good ole boys hot.

23. rashad Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 6:14 pm

    I really wish I could hear Ralph Wiley’s take on this. He was a huge fan of satire, and a couple of his book titles were heavily criticized. I wonder what take he’d have on this..

24. rashad Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    The New Yorker usually goes for the less obvious form of satire. This is just obvious, lazy and unfunny. Now if McCain and his wife were in this exact pose, THAT would be funny.

25. Nicole 10/20 Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    For awhile now, I have wondered why in the hell he would want to govern these assholes??? Each instance of stupidity only makes me wonder more…hopefully Black America is waking up to this media shit… I am talking about Uncle Tom Black America… I’m talking about the black assholes who come on television and defend the constant degredation of black people in general…Stories like this only reinforce my mantra “this says more about you (The New Yorker) than it could ever say about him”…Something is truly wrong with these people… I wll say it again “when will we have a town hall meeting on CNN to discuss the downfall of the white community?”

    It must be all of that rock and country music or the violence on televison….. or maybe it’s all the white fathers who abandon their children…. or the middle class white families who continue to raise these racist assholes…..or maybe its because whites are not dominant in sports anylonger because the field has been leveled… maybe they have been breastfeeding too much…. I just figured it out…its the immunizations!!!!

26. CAL Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

    I think people are being WAY TOO sensitive about this. It’s a satire on the whole “terrorist fist jab” nonsense from a couple weeks ago. Nothing more. Nothing less. Seriously, think of the New Yorker’s audience. They get the joke. People who don’t aren’t going to vote for Obama anyway.

    I mean, look at the image. Then look at other New Yorker images. Is it the most particularly clever thing in the world? Hardly. But it’s so over the top — from the flag burning in the fireplace, to the machine gun, to the Bin Laden painting, to it being set in the Oval Office — that it seems to highlight the ridiculousness of the right-wing smear campaign against him more than anything else. To think it would cause Obama’s campaign serious harm or to be offended by it seems silly.

    If anything, the outrage over the image has created a situation much larger than the image itself could. To me it’s another ratings driven cable news non-story that’s come into prominence in the age of the 24-hour news cycle and book-hawking pundits from both parties in search of air time.

    I think a lot of us in the Black Community are so very invested in this and so very nervous about a negative outcome that we’re treating BHO like a china doll. Like any conversation about his race or what the right is going to do to Willie Horton him will tip the balance and wake America up to the fact that they just might elect a black man. Ultimately, this country is either ready to elect Obama or they’re not. He’s the better candidate, and that’s all there is to it.

27. Mizzo Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    So they couldn’t add a small caption absolving themselves of not doing this to sell magazines?

    As far as this being media driven. Isn’t the mag itself in fact media. Who the hell do you think leaked that this issue was dropping today?

    Cal do Blacks in any way portray Whites as something so sadistic on a mainstream mag?

    Satirical or otherwise?

    Man this shit has to stop! Aren’t you tired of having to address foolishness like this every couple of months?

    SATIRE MY ASS!!

    You can bend over if you want, but I’m sick of this shit.

    I don’t want my children dealing with having to look at themselves in any substandard manner because we as parents don’t kick this stuff in the ass as soon as it happens!

    Laughing it off giggling like some dumb ass monkey. Don’t be fools people because they damn sure are laughing at us right now. Check the comments on any forum where this is the topic.

    My anger was over the top for a reason. It has to start somewhere, but once again, some Blacks are gonna turn the other cheek and assimilate in the process. Like I said in the Tiger Woods piece linked above: What’s gonna happen the next and the next and the next and the NEXT?

    Man up Black people.

28. thebrotherreport Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    On a worldwide scale we’re the only race that this happens to on a continous basis, anywhere in the world you look someboby’s fuckin’ w/Blacks.

    They’re doin blackface minstrel shows over in China!

    I don’t know about everyone else but I’m tired of being laughed at.

29. CAL Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 9:43 pm

    Mizzo,

    Look, I get how the MSM often subtly uses coded language and media saturation to prop up white athletes, politicians, musicians and cultural figures (why oh why does anyone care what J.J. Redick — there aren’t stories on Mouhamed Sene’s minutes), but I still think you have to consider the source. I’m sure the New Yorker had an agenda — sell magazines. But I’m also quite sure their agenda didn’t include taking down Obama. Now, if we’re going to go after every newspaper, magazine or blog with an agenda to raise their profile, then we might as well call it open season on capitalism (which is another conversation I’d be more than willing to have).

    Not to mention that it was the cover’s complete LACK of subtilty that so cries out satire. The image that keeps coming up in my head is that of Woody Allen, dressed as a Hasid while sitting across the table from Grammy Hall in “Annie Hall”.

    I understand the difference in nuance (Allen wrote, directed and starred in “Annie Hall”, so he was in full control of the image while BHO was on the outside the decision making), but it’s still pretty fitting.

    I also think back on Chappelle’s brilliant racial pixie sketch from the last, ill-fated season of Chappelle Show. If anything, this cover surfaces from the same question of an unintended audience not getting it or laughing for the wrong reasons.

    Again, I see it as satire. The artist lampooned a ridiculous idea for what they hoped would be a comic effect. As someone who works in comedy, I can tell you, you never really know whether the audience will laugh or not until you tell the joke.

    At the very least it’s sparked a discussion that’ll probably put to bed in the mind of the public at large the very fear-mongering rumors it’s skewering.

    I know what it’s like to work in an industry that doesn’t know or care one iota about black culture or cultural sensitivities. I know what it’s like to swim upstream against that current, fight fights and win. My own twin has been in the belly of beast along side you in the mainstream sportswriting game. Yeah, it’s a mess. And hell yeah this is a racist country. But this cover isn’t. It’s satire. That’s all.

30. Mizzo Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 10:16 pm

    First thanks for coming on the site.

    There is no way of you or I knowing the intentions of the editor.

    What’s dangerous is that most folk aren’t going to get it.

    Sorry, but we can not excuse this. Not during this time. There’s been too much bs over the last year to make this satirical “attempt” excusable.

31. mark Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

    Cal is absolutely correct. The whole point of satire is to make fun of those who hold those ridiculous views. It makes the right wing look like fools, not our next president.

32. Mizzo Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 10:37 pm

    It would be ridiculous to post something like this and not know what satire is fellas.

    I get that.

    Do you honestly think America…at it’s deepest roots…can handle such imagery?

33. Miranda Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 11:23 pm

    Well mark, if the point of that particular cover was to make the right wing look like fools, why isn’t there a reference to THAT point on the cover? Many have asked, why wasn’t the image in a bubble over the gigantic sized cartoonish heads of the three neo-con stooges Klannity, O’Lielly and LimBarf??

34. Nick Renkoski Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

    Mizzo,
    You mention in your piece that whites will try to downplay this and maybe somewhere in my lillywhite subconscious, that’s what I’m doing but I’d like to consider myself decently attuned to racial issues and I’ve turned this over and over and I’m at a loss, I can’t see that image as anything other than satire.

    Maybe, and there isn’t much of a maybe, this was bad timing on the New Yorker’s part. In this most racially charged of presidential elections the backlash to a Black political candidate has been at an all time high. I often say the America is the most racist country on Earth (which it is) but that is particularly because it is also the most tolerant nation on Earth. On side always pushes against the other. So perhaps the New Yorker is adding an uneeded match into that fire, but this image is an attack on the people that perpetrate this hatred towards Obama. It is designed to make the racists detractors look bad. And I think it does. To look at that cover and believe it was meant literally is ludicrous. I can understand the anger, there has been more than too much bull shit that has hit the surface this election cycle and I’m tired of it too. But I have more faith in the American voter than to point to this cover as what might eventually do Obama in.

35. Nick Renkoski Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 11:35 pm

    And miranda, the entire cover is a not too subtle knock at the right wing reaction. Just look at the Obamas (Michelle drawn as some Black Panther revolutionary, which she has been painted by many a right wing pundit and Barack as a Muslim,which many have decided he is with no regard for the truth). They are engaged in a fist pound, so famously announced as a “terrorist fist jab” by Fox News. It’s a clear slight of the right wing reaction to Obama.

36. Miranda Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 11:44 pm

    Nick,
    I get the satire…I got it last night the first time I saw the pic on the DailyKos….but it isn’t just the “right wing” who hold these idiotic views of the Obamas. The editorial staff of The New Yorker knew this particular issue would be globally viewed and critiqued all over the internet and every national news show today, you’d have to be naive to think they didnt. Forget the right wing…there are many on the so-called LEFT wing who have these “well maybe he is” thoughts…there are many HRC supporters holding this mag up today and screaming “well there’s some truth in all satire”. That’s the problem. You may say “well they cant be responsible for the conclusions those people reach”…and to that I say exactly…that’s why I’m pissed they did it in the first damn place.

37. Nick Renkoski Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 12:00 am

    I hear you, Miranda. I’m sure the New Yorker knew this would cause a stir. I’m sure that was there very intention. But I’d like to think that they’re intention was ALSO to poke fun at these ideas as to tear down these ideas. Whether that will work or not is yet to be determined but I do think that was the idea. However, I would agree that the country is not in a place to be doing the whole “make light of the situation to show how ridiculous it is.” And I do know that it isn’t just right wingers who feel this way. However, I feel that this cover was designed to serve the same purpose as “The Great Dictator” or “Blazing Saddles,” to ridicule the offender into no longer being offensive. We’ll see if it works.

38. CAL Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 12:10 am

    Mizzo,

    Love the site. Been lurking for a while. Thought I’d chime in now.

    Miranda,

    When all is said and done, again, I don’t see the damage this cover does. It’s not going to cost him votes. Those who say “there’s truth in satire” are never going to vote for him. The “terrorist fist jabbers” are never going to vote for him. The pissed off HRC followers are never going to vote for him. This isn’t not even like the bogus Rev. Wright mess, which gave Democrats the excuse they were looking for to let their bigotry pull the lever while allowing them to stay in the closet racists.

    If anything it clears the air on any Obama misconceptions. The uproar is only going to serve the purpose of bringing the truth out.

    Finally, it provides an opportunity for BHO to show, yet again, how he responds to controversy — even if it is making a mountain out of a molehill.

39. Jdubb Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 12:47 am

    Let me give you a view from Europe. Already this has sparked a match here and this is not taking as Satire. You already have(I hate to quote stats, when I can not find references but..)you have 30% of the German population interview today, thinking that BHO is a muslim, You have news reporters taking this picture like its gospel and having sit down discussion on how BHO and his alleged muslim ties can be bad for the economy…
    Satire…maybe, but when I saw the cover.I was thinking another way to fuel the fire of racist imagery this year that African Americans have been exposed too.
    This is suppose to be Satire but it “aint” funny. Ask the Dutch, they know exactly how not thinking clearly about the images used in the name of Satire can backfire

40. mark Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 12:52 am

    The vast majority, and I mean vast (it’s backed up by the polling numbers - of HRC supporters are going to vote for Obama. Period. And it seems to me that the best satire is often the most outrageous. I think what Nick says here is right on target.

    “If anything it clears the air on any Obama misconceptions. The uproar is only going to serve the purpose of bringing the truth out.”

    Amen Nick. I think this way of ridiculing those who hold these beliefs about Obama is more effective than genuine outrage.

41. Temple3 Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 1:05 am

    There has to come a point where you, I, we as free-thinking conscious people within the Black community see these “expressions” as ONE thing — not millions of discrete events. These “expressions” are not discrete events. The events are unified parts of a centuries old construction of identity. If you see them as discrete events, you’ll feel the need to respond to each single event.

    Imagine how foolish it would be to take that approach in a thunderstorm. Is this not akin to developing a strategy against every single rain drop?

    Save your time and effort. Change your mindset and your approach to see the larger picture.

    With that said, I agree that this is a satire — but that’s hardly the point. I believe that Miranda and Nicole are closer to the crux of the matter. Candidate BHO and the lovely MO are positioned as subjects for interpretation — while the actual OBJECT remains invisible and left to the intelligence, genius and insight of the reader. This tactic, in and of itself, is problematic when there are “collective group power dynamics at work.”

    The visible, positioned Obamas represent ALL BLACKS. The New Yorker, by insinuating the absurd, is (as many of you have noted) expecting its readership to “get it.” The broader issue is that this image is itself a sweeping narrative — and it SUSTAINS the anonymity of white privilege. It allows white liberals to recall their lament at the passing of fellow white supremacists Russert and Snow — while rejecting any close connection to the Hannity’s of the world.

    This is the precise game in which Jemele Hill was ensnared recently. She invoked the VISIBLE (Adolph Hitler) to make a satirical point. She could have used a traditional invisible villain and escaped scrutiny. So too could the New Yorker have escaped scrutiny FROM BLACKS by positioning our most visible adversaries in the satirical position of perhaps Breaking Bread with Barack, Jesse and Sharpton at a Last Supper Scenario with Barack pictured as Jesus. That would have been equally satirical and absurd — and it would have made the point.

    The New Yorker is incapable of this because, as one of your astute posters noted, they lack the diversity among their personnel. To that I say, “Big phukkin’ deal.” It is their newspaper and it is their right to hire whom they will. It is also their right to incur the wrath of disaffected observers.

    In the end, free-thinking African people must, must, must, must free their MINDS from these inescapable tiny assaults released from the captive minds of the white supremacist. The issue here is not that satire was used. The issue is that “whites” and persons of non-African ancestry have become quite comfortable positioning Blacks in positions we did not choose.

    Historically, this is a recent phenomenon — and if you KNOW your history, you cannot help but see this as an afternoon thunderstorm on Madison Avenue. The good news is that this too shall pass and there are rainbows on the horizon.

    Free your mind from these tiny assaults. See these “expressions” are part of a continuum which is predictable. Cease to see these “expressions” as discrete events. These are the voluntary and involuntary reflex ramblings of mental captives. They know not who they are, nor who they assert we must be.

    After all, I’m a New Yorker and I never, ever read that shit. LOL!!

42. Temple3 Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 1:09 am

    By the way:

    None of what I’ve written should be presumed to accept the images of our enemies or even our intermittent allies as authentic. We should define ourselves for ourselves.

    With that said, maybe all the editors of the New Yorker should be lynched.

    You bring the oil, I’ll bring the rope!!

43. Jdubb Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 1:16 am

    What uproar
    If this is suppose to be Satire, there will be no uproar
    The uproar will come from the African American communities and it will be seen as I have witnessed so far as “us making a mountain out of a mole hill” and it would get pushed under the rug. I still do not see how this Satire is supposely now open the eyes of the poeple who actually believe this crap of a cover and make them see the error of thier ways and see just how silly thier way of thinking is. Nahh this is gonna cement those fools who think this is how Obama is. All it takes is one knucklehead, one fool who believes this shyt so strongly that they are willingly to do whatever it takes not to let him in the White House.
    Sometimes when it looks like a duck, talks, walks, smells, swims like a duck.. it is a duck.. Satire or not,……….This is just wrong. I will wind this up (3am my time) I want to see how more effective this cover is about ridiculing the peeps who believe in the images on the cover. I am tired of being silently and being the global whipping race. Just because it suppose to be funny..does not make it so

44. Temple3 Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 2:33 am

    http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2008/07/hegemony-for-health.html

    Check out that link. Consider the idea of “relentless advertising” by overt and covert white supremacists on the notion of African inferiority. Now, if you’re going to turn off the TV and escape from ads from Proctor and Gamble, what will you need to do when it comes to matters of “race”?

    That’s all…

45. sankofa Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 2:41 am

    New Yorker .. New Yorker
    see New Yorker … intellectual suckers would say its mighty fine…
    But mighty fine only gets you somewhere half the time
    and the other half either got you
    cussed out or coming up short (all the time)
    and dig this now even though you need a thick
    skin from using this ass wipe rag
    it take common sense to look inside and
    realize African people are real down for real intelligent journalism

    (so) I know you like to think your shit don’t stink, but lean a little closer, see your satire really smells like poo, poo, poo
    Yeah I know you like to think your shit don’t stink but lean a lil bit close see your satire really smell like poo, poo, poo.

    ————————————————

    To all you all defending the satire in this Anti-African piece, I have this to share with you…

    “If you do not understand White Supremacy (Rascism) What it is, and how it works everything else that you understand, will only confuse you”

    Dr. Neely Fuller Jr. (1971)

46. Nicole 10/20 Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 2:58 am

    For all of the people who believe we are being WAY TOO SERIOUS about this, please tell me when I am allowed to be offended. Maybe you guys are more conditioned to look the other way, but it is against my DNA. This reminds me of this white co-worker of mine who “thought” she knew black people… you know the kind, she can spout off a few black slang words and a few hip hop artists and therefore she “knew” me. Well, one day she decided to call me ghetto, by the time this encounter ended she was in tears because I called her white trash..and I teased her about going to the trailer parks as a home health nurse and seeing the exact same things that I saw when I visited Cabrini Green housing project. I even saw a gang-banging dog, but now I refer to those rotwiellers and pit-bulls as gang-banging, trailer park dogs… I even saw a Cadillac on bricks…and everytime I went to these trailer parks you know what they were watching on t.v??. FOX NEWS. That girl was so offended and embarrassed at being compared to trailer park trash everybody ran to comfort her, but she still didn’t see my viewpoint. See white people can ridicule, but they can’t take it when it is thrown back in their faces.

    Have they ever had a cover about the homosexual Republicans who are against gay people, but are closet homosexuals or Republicans who are supposedly moral who visit hookers? Ok Cindy Mccain is a known drug addict (she even has stolen drugs) and her husband left his first wife while she was ailing from M.S. and Mccain is old as fuck… will we see a cover of Cindy Mccain popping pills in front of a trailer rubbing her husband’s belly swigging on moonshine? I think not.

    I really could care less what white people think because I don’t trust or respect them, but I do want black people to really see who they are and stop excusing their behavior. Theorectically I know that not all white people are bad or racists, but something is wrong with them. The minister said that the mask of civility will be removed from their faces oneday (or something like that).

    I reserve the right to react howeva I want to, afterall I”m not the one running to govern these assholes.

47. Temple3 Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 3:43 am

    afterall I”m not the one running to govern these assholes.

    Kinda makes you wonder. I’m still looking for a historical precedent that makes sense to me. So far, I think I’m drawing the same blank that you are.

48. BeinMiceElf Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 5:57 am

    Has anyone here taken the time to research the history of magazine covers published by The New Yorker over the years? It has a LONG history of using its cover to show famous people — businessmen, entertainers, and politicians — as thugs, fools, doops, cheats, liars, etc., and all in the name of satire amd humor, and always as a reflection of a public sentiment, whether that sentiment be held by a majority or not. And rarely does the magazine worry about offending the sensibilities of people who do not even read the magazine. As someone on here posted, most people in America are too lazy or too illiterate to read a 15,000-ord magazine piece. Lazy and illiterate people have no right to expect their sensibilities to be respected, and may in fact, deserve to be offended.

    Look, in the age of the Internet, when there is all access to all things all the time, you’re going to come across things that you find objectionable. That doesn’t make them wrong. The New Yorker barely fits the definition of mainstream because thanks to television, modern music, and public education, most of America is too goddamned stupid to read it. The New Yorker has ALWAYS pushed the limits of good taste by risking to personally offend certain people and their supporters. You guys are way off the mark if you’re suggesting that EVERY publication in the world start bowing to your sensibilities. DON’T READ THE MAGAZINE OF BUY IT IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE CONTENT OF ITS MESSAGE. Jesus, how much more fundamental a free speech case can there be?

    I’m not sure, but I’d bet most of the people posting in this thread thought the publication of the Mohammed-as-terrorist cartoons in Denmark was an offensive gesture. If you thought that, then how sad.

    Here’s a clue: The world doesn’t revolve around a single issue, and occasionally you’re going to run up against things that rub you the wrong way. And until the posters here have become completely free of their own racial offenses, they can hardly be taken seriously on this New Yorker satire topic. I doubt there is a single poster here who would instruct their children not to laugh when Eddie Murphy dances “like a white person” or talks with a cadence and a tone that “sounds white.” If you find any level of racial humor funny, then you have no leg to stand on when it comes to arguing about this cover of The New Yorker. It’s a magazine that deals in sensitive humor that’s meant to get under people’s skin. I guess it worked…….. again.

49. Mizzo Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 7:55 am

    When Black people make fun of White people its just to laugh.

    When White people make fun of Black people it usually evokes images that have the very real possibility of leading to….DEATH.

    Google Black or NIGGER jokes and see what you get satire loving only coming here when these issues arise guy.

    You can take your bullshit about literacy and laziness somewhere else because it gets no run here. Until some White people understand this shit is real and not to be swept under some guilt stained rug they can eat a dick straight up no chaser.

50. Eric Daniels Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

    Thank you Mizzo, the white troll who can’t even post his real profile needs to “SUCK A DICK” and go on stromfront or some Neo- Nazi or Conservative blog where he will be comfortable with his own people.

51. Okori Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    I look at this this way: I am against all stereotypes, in all forms. Serves you better to fight for judging individual people by what they individually do.

52. J Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    It’s what they do..

    http://www.igreens.org.uk/brokeback_mountain_new_yorker_co.htm

    http://seanmiller.blogs.com/whizdumb/2007/10/the-new-yorker-.html

    http://amrep.wordpress.com/2007/01/25/bush-as-nero-on-the-cover-of-the-new-yorker/

    http://tingilinde.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/ibroke.jpg

    http://www.magazine.org/events/conferences/american_magazine_conference/18999.aspx

53. J Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2008/07/15/new_yorker_cartoon/

54. Junebug Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    Of course they would….it’s just satire…but:
    satire: a literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness, often with the intent of correcting, or changing, the subject of the satiric attack.
    This cartoon speaks volume.

    Reminds me of when my 99.9% high school paper editorial staff decided to dedicate the “Black History” issue to black athletes and they could not understand why the few minority staff writers were basically appalled.

55. jdubb Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 8:17 pm

    I will be done with this. Just because something has a long history of doing things does not make it right does it? It seem leaps and bonds are made to make that certain type of logic stick. I use to read the New Yorker but sometimes the things they write are utter nonesense.
    The point I was trying to make and what you have made for me is that it only takes one person to believe this shyt and its a done deal. Did I think something was “rotten in Denmark” when it came to the cartoon? I knew there would be some beef because someone just put a Religious figure in a less than flattering cartoon an expected not to be some beef.
    The world does not revolve around a single issue but we are talking about this issue, just this issue our country has when it comes to depicted people of color. Every instance has been added upon, again and again. Has this image made any of the right and the left for that matter who really believe this image to be true to changed thier ways? Since this is what this Satire was reaching for? No I don’t think so
    1 out 10, according to the last USATODAY poll believe that Obama is a Muslim,

56. origin Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

    Great comments all of you well except that lil troll that stopped by from stormfront.

    Sista Nicole you are cold blooded. But I don’t blame you, you have to step to those fools and tell them what really up.

    All real black folks have had to do this on the job atleast what 3 times a year!!! LOL!!

    Have to laugh so you don’t cry when dealing with all this ignorance.

57. Nicole 10/20 Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 11:12 pm

    Origin,

    I have calmed down over the last 24 hours. My grandmother always told me that you have to punch a bully in the mouth and I truly believe that is what is needed here…. I vowed years ago that I was not marching and holding hands and singing “We Shall Overcome”.. I decided that I was going to address each instance, as it occurs , head on. I work in Orland Park, Il and trust me it is truly “Archie Bunkerland”. Some of my co-workers still openly support Bush. I am not paranoid, but I am vigilant, but these Negros at this place are truly house nigga’s, so there is rarely support on that front. I will say that the blacks at work have been complaining about the MSM and that is a big improvement because they were just eating up the news and not questioning the message.

    We will be alright though. Trust.

58. Miranda Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 12:34 am

    Nicole,
    I’ve had that moment…….its quite a revelation when you are at the receiving end of a “Miss Ann” moment. You really don’t know how you’ll respond until it actually happens…and then, let me guess…was it almost like an out of body experience? Mine was….I swear, I think the spirit of my grandmother came up in me or something because I had no control over my faculties and afterwards it was like I just…came too.

59. Mizzo Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 12:43 am

    Miranda are you talking about this moment?

60. Miranda Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 12:54 am

    LMAO!! Yep! That’s the one!

61. Temple3 Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 12:58 am

    Since we’re not marching and singing “We Shall Overcome” (and I’m truly with you on that), what could be better than a glorious, victorious depiction of two Africans having seized the apparatus of the empire in a way that Hannibal himself could have only dreamed.

    Toiling for a DECADE and a HALF in the countryside of Italy simply because politicians at home in Carthage were afraid to push the button, Hannibal Barca waited and waited and waited.

    For all of his conquering, Alexander the so-called Great never dared take his young, fair, fairy ass down to Ethiopia where the Candaces were riding atop elephants waiting to kick his ass and anyone else who might dare act a fool.

    For more than 700 years, jet black people from the Sudan and some lesser than jet black occupied the Iberian Peninsula and brought about the end of a Dark Age that Europe seemed to want to remain in.

    Algiers, Tunis and Constantinople were slave trading capitals for Barbary pirates who snatched up hundreds of thousands of Europeans over several centuries. All that blond hair and blue eyes that Minister Malcolm saw in his trip to the Holy Land of the Arab came from somewhere. Bound in the chains of another land, many, many Europeans became what the world would come to know as desperadoes who renounced Christianity, claimed Islam and began new lives.

    My people suffer from a woeful lack of knowledge. So says the Minister of this era. These images are not mere caricatures of an imagined future — they’re subconscious recollections of a lived past. You may be offended, but it’s only a reflection of that which has already transpired of which you’re likely unaware.

    That’s why I couldn’t get too upset. I was way too busy ROTFLMBAO.

62. Miranda Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 1:02 am

    Damn T3, I was gonna go to bed early….now I wanna read more on this and gotta google…when I’m sleepy tomorrow working for “the man”, it will be your fault.

63. Temple3 Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    It’s always love Miranda.

    I just want what’s best for our peace of mind. When I went to the MMM back in the day, the Minister read passages from the Sun Book (holy - derived from helios - ray-ra-sun, something like that) quoting G-o-d’s words to the nation of Is-ra-el…

    The essence of it was that the nation of Israel would be “angered by a foolish people.” Are we not angered by a foolish people? The media apparatus serving white supremacist misinformation is a maddening attack on our humanity. Now, we’ve all heard the saying that the longer one argues with a fool, the more difficult it becomes for an observer to know the difference. We have to break this cycle.

    Happy hunting.

64. Nicole 10/20 Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 10:47 pm

    Miranda,

    No, mine is never an out of body experience… I am extremely aware and used to these comments. When I first started working at this establishment every now and then a patient would say something like “You are a nice girl, but I really don’t like Muhammed Ali” and I would have to defend his refusal to fight in Vietnam, they would always bring up random stuff like that. Also, whenever I watch reality tv, there is always some blonde chick crying about something and that really irritates me.

    Maybe I am cold-blooded, I don’t know. I do have warm hands though.

65. Nicole 10/20 Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

    Temple,

    It took me a long time to learn the lesson of arguing with a fool, but thankfully as I mature I have come to realize the wisdom in that saying..

66. TC Says:
    July 17th, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    Hey, for what it’s worth folks, I’m a white dude and this cover appalls me. I honestly think that perhaps the cartoonist did think this was parody-to those who realize how slanderous all the images of Sen. and Mrs. Obama are. However, to think that this image wouldn’t be taken and manipulated and leveraged by right-wing nutjobs, and to think that the vast wastelands of ignorant white folks out there in Americaland who actually believe Rush Oxycontin and Sean Hack-ity when they promulgate some of these horrendous myths, suggests that the New Yorker is actually stealth wingnuts. Thing is…to me……how could you even THINK to depict such an explosive image on the cover? You KNOW what the media (if by media you mean self-satisfied millionaires circle jerking) will do with this image, and it will have no bearing on rational thought, or decency, or rationalism, or real life lived.

67. abejafuerte Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 8:53 pm

    i found it extremely offensive also and i appreciated this reader comment that appeared on slate.com:

    “It’s the New Yorker that’s stupid, for forgetting that one of the most important elements of satire is context. Put the same drawing on a TV screen with the Fox emblem in the corner and a pair of couch potatoes parked in front of it, put that on your cover, and you’ve got satire.”

    –expectator

68. rainbow lady Says:
    July 25th, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    When are you going to fucking evolve into modern day human beings and realize no one will ever get anywhere until they get over their dumb ass black and white shit!!
    Listen to Bob Marley or better yet, go read something worthy like one of Haile Selassie I’s speaches!

69. Mizzo Says:
    July 25th, 2008 at 11:18 pm

    What world do you live in? In my work, it’s all about race.

70. Mich Says:
    October 15th, 2008 at 7:38 am

    I hope Barack gets in, he’s a hottie in anybody’s language!

    But why the hell would he want the job?

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