Like pornography, we knew it when we saw it — the point at which a political cartoon crossed the line from clever satire to bad judgment. The New Yorker’s cover depicting Michelle and Barack Obama as flag-burning, bin Laden-loving militants was monumentally tasteless and insensitive on so many levels it’s hard to know where to begin. What rankles me the most is that those responsible for the cover say it was designed to spark much needed conversation about the racial divisiveness that is just beneath the surface of this campaign.
Unfortunately, the cover’s imagery is more potent than its message. These negative and distasteful images of the Obamas will blend in with all the factual information that is stored in our minds, and their negative impact will be there long after the sophisticated have savored the satire that was intended.
For example, if you are old enough, you can’t look at the image of Michelle Obama without seeing Angela Davis and feeling the fear and uncertainty of the period during which her image became synonymous with radicalism. And who can look at bin Laden without seeing the crumbling towers reflected in his zombie eyes and feeling the queasiness that will forever be linked to his image?
Publishing this cartoon was not only damaging to the Obamas, but it is damaging to all of us. It will be forever etched in our individual and collective psyches. It makes me want to grab the shirt collars of the editor, the illustrator — and everyone else who gave this cover a thumbs up and say, “You idiots! Can’t you see when you are doing more harm than good?”
So, do we ban these images? Ridiculous. Instead, let’s not defend them. It would have been a lot more rational for the magazine cover editor to say, “I don’t know what the hell we were thinking. Sometimes an idea sounds better than it actually is. We screwed up and we our sincerest apologies to the Obamas and everyone else who was offended by that cover.”
Tags: New Yorker Cover
