Is this cartoon racist (Tennis).

Knob is far too kind a descriptor, but again, we are getting away from the topic of this thread.

Sadly, I had a hard time deciding that Obama’s drawing was not very flattering but not racist either. Maybe the artist took greater care, unlike the very rudimentary style used for Serena. I wouldn’t say it’s easy, especially for Obama. The most “African” rendering of him I can find is this.

This rendering of Obama is full of flattery.

White cartoonists can freely lampoon black people to the same standards as white people just as soon as anti-black racism is over. Not before.

Really? So no cartoons of any person of colour until some arbitrary time that racism disappears from the face of the earth?

You might want to think that proposal over again. :dubious:

He speaks truth!

I don’t like doing this but I feel I need to–I take back my opinion that the cartoon is not
racist.

After I wrote my first response I read the rest of the thread. I had the Serena cartoon open in another window and I kept glancing at it as I re-read people’s posts. After a minute or five I didn’t want to look at it anymore. Her (cartoon) face was repugnant to me. It felt and looked weird–it was now hard to look at.

And ya know? I went and looked at more photographs of her… I now just can’t see how one could justify putting such huge lips on SW in the cartoon. Even if it’s supposed to be “comic exaggeration”, they’re just too big for that. They look like those big wax clown lips you would wear on Halloween. Ridiculous.

So, yeah. I did a 180. So sue me. Have to call it like I see it–even if I flip-flopped inside of 30 minutes.

Not Charlotte’s Web? I swear I remember reading that in grad school…

True. This on the other hand is not. Due to referencing a particular person and event.
Context matters.

Did you see the nose he put on Julia Gillard in the link posted to his other cartoons? That one’s ridiculous too, that exaggeration just doesn’t open him up to the same racist backlash.

I still don’t get how a tiny shift in a curving line, in a drawing that’s inherently crude and rudimentary, can be judged as racist. Is it more a case of having malicious intent than poor artistry? Serena has her good shots. But there are photos of her that are downright ugly, and it’s usually when she’s flying off the handle. So is it racist to aggravate pictures like these using free-hand?

http://coretvnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/serena-williams-angry-.jpg

I must say, though, that these are just three I found ugly out of dozens if pictures of her angry. In most cases, she looks composed and projects considerable power.

I know you’re actually literate enough to have read the qualifiers I put in there, which you’ve left out in constructing this particular strawman.

Exactly. And that’s why I maintain that the comic was not racist. Knight does it to everyone, white, black AND ranga.

:slight_smile:

and whatever Tony Abbott is. :smiley:

Tojo wasn’t a particular person?

“Oh, no, I exaggerated the same physical features, in the same way, as countless racist cartoonists historically have done. Nobody doubts those are racist. But mine’s not racist because it’s a named individual at a named event” is not a very convincing defence.

…we aren’t in GQ. We are in GD. There isn’t a GQ answer to that question.

I think it has everything to do with the issue. I don’t think you Australia’s history with racism, the obliviosness of the cartoonist and the response by the Herald Sun to the cartoon.

But was it lampooned to the same standards of white people though?

To measure that standard I think you would have to be able to point to some historical racist examples of cartoons or caricatures of white people, or of Asian people. What features did they dramatically accentuate in order to make it racist?

For Jewish people it might be the depiction of the nose. For Asian people it might be the depiction of the eyes.

I think a racist depiction of Jewish people or Asian people would be pretty crystal clear. And if Knight had drawn cartoons with exaggerated noses or eyes then he would be getting called out for that as well. Only if that were to happen I don’t think the Herald Sun would be putting up such a vigorous defense. Because they couldn’t hide behind the umbrella of ambiguity.

But IMHO there isn’t any ambiguity. That cartoon was racist as fuck.

I have seen very few calls for censorship. People have seen the cartoon and many people think its disgusting, distasteful and racist. And they are calling it out. Is that not a correct response? Should people just keep their mouths shut?

You are comparing Serena Williams to a convicted War criminal and leader of a great power?
Fuck sake dude.

Do you have some examples of caricatures of black people being depicted as doing something negative that aren’t racist? Then you explain specifically how the exaggerations in those caricatures are not racist, but the exaggerations in the Williams cartoon are. TIA.

Regards,
Shodan

No. I’m comparing caricatures of one with caricatures of the other.

Wait, are you saying it’s OK to be racist if the target’s evil? Fuck’s sake, dude.

Could you tell me why, exactly, I’m supposed to keep running alongside as you move these posts? TIA.

Yes, it’s racist, and this is a good explanation of why it is racist:

That it’s negative isn’t the point; it goes way past generalized caricature and incorporates several common racist stereotypical representations of black women.

That said, IMO the “Tyron Woodley Test” is fucking stupid.

Does it? Educated us.