Yes, it was the Plain Dealer, and I printed the comic out and showed it to my elderly mom, who had called its absence to my attention…she didn’t understand it at all. I thought it seemed sort of anti-racism too…sort of saying that fear is what makes us not see people who are different from us as individuals, and also poking a bit of fun at people who claim certain phrases for their own, making them off-limits to use in ANY context, even if it’s true. Like the “Some of my best friends are ______” phrase. Even if it’s true, it’s hard to use that sentence these days.
And TONS of people still read newspapers. Much faster than surfing the web, and you read all sorts of stuff you might never ever see if you had to search for it yourself. Useful things, newspapers.
It never occurred to me that it could be offensive to anyone except possibly someone who was actually lame enough to say “they all look alike to me” about some subset of people.
Roddy
I just recently noticed: the goddamn Oakland Tribune and it’s sister papers carry Mallard Fillmore. I don’t know if they’re trying to be inclusive, have a “laugh at the Conservative” column or what. But sometimes you can’t assume what a paper will or won’t print based upon its reader demographics.
I guess if you stretched it you could claim that the message was “racism is just a silly thing that liberals pretend exists so they have something to complain about.”
Wow. That’s a really bad comic. I didn’t get the idea that it was making fun of the rabbit at all, although now that it’s been pointed out to me, yeah, that’s probably what he was shooting for. Because the first thing I thought when I saw it was, “Holy shit. That’s really racist.”
I mean, you have this rabbit spouting a common racist catchphrase. So, the rabbit is meant to stand in for racists. But Racist Rabbit is looking at a line up of predators. It’s a room full of things that want to kill and eat the rabbit. Of course Racist Rabbit is going to hate and fear them. That’s an entirely rational way for a rabbit to feel about a fox. So, if the rabbit is a stand in for racists, and the predators are a stand in for other races, the clear message I got from it was, “Racists are right to be afraid of other races, because the other races are dangerous and predatory.”
Like I said, I’m sure that wasn’t the intent. But man, what a muddled misfire of a comic. I think the real lesson here is, if you want to address racism in a comic strip, be a more talented artist than Wiley Miller.