Cartoon: They Walk Among Us

This cartoon was cartooned by Becky Hawkins.

One oddity about the internet age is that there are famous people with tremendous audiences who most of us haven’t even heard of.

Chaya Raichik, also know as Libs of Tik Tok, is like that. She has three and a half million followers on her Twitter account, and a bunch of followers on other social media accounts as well (I’m too lazy to look up how many followers those accounts have). And probably a bunch of folks reading this have no idea who she is (and if that’s you, I apologize for ruining it).

She really did take a photograph of a greeter at a chlidren’s museum and then tweet it to millions of followers for derision. That’s not notable at all, for her; she’s done dozens of similar posts.

Raichik’s job is to spread rage, and she’s good at it – so good that being targeted by her often leads to anonymous threats of violence. For example, at least 17 “Planet Fitness” gyms received bomb threats after Raichik criticized them for not banning trans women from locker rooms. HRC wrote:

This is not the first time Raichik has been associated with threats of violence. Raichik’s posts have repeatedly been linked to harassment and bomb threats against children’s hospitals, medical providers, schools, teachers, drag performances, and more.

Raichik is prominent, but she’s not alone – the right wing mediasphere is filled with people who have turned hatemongering into lucrative careers, who most sensible people have never heard of.

The humor of my cartoons is often based on showing people talking in real life the way people interact on the internet. So they often start like this cartoon, with a stranger shoving into someone else’s space to rant about politics.

But in a sense, Raichik (and other hatemongers with large followings) is the real-life embodiment of my cartoons. She doesn’t personally accost strangers at bus stops (to my knowledge), but she does target total strangers who have never interacted with her, and force them to deal with dozens or hundreds of her angry followers reaching out with hatred, with threats, with petitions to their employers demanding they be fired.

Becky writes:

I volunteered to draw this script when I saw it in Barry’s folder. I enjoy drawing likenesses and I hate disingenuous arguments (like Raichik insisting that she’s not directing hate-mobs at anyone, she’s merely reposting publicly-available selfies and personal information to her sizable following, and also claiming that people like them are brainwashing and endangering children). This cartoon was a way for me to vent.

There’s plenty of footage of Chaya Raichik available online. I sketched several stills from an interview and used that as the basis for my drawings in the cartoon. The character she’s speaking to isn’t based on any one person, but I did go to Facebook and look up peers who did the job/husband/kids thing for inspiration. I figured that character should look gender-normie enough that Raichik would assume she’s transphobic. I picked the mustard/berry color combo for her outfit because I like how it looks on other people. I would look like a pile of oatmeal in a mustard-colored top. I would wear those sandals, though.

I needed some positive energy this week, so the podcast of choice while I drew this was Strong Songs. In each episode, Kirk Hamilton, a Portland musician, dives deeply into one song that you’ve probably heard of even if you haven’t listened to it. He digs into the music, instrumentation, recording technology, performers… I highly recommend it!

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, all of the same scene: Two women are waiting at a bus stop, talking. One woman, who I’ll call, oh, I dunno, I’ll just randomly say CHAYA, is wearing a modest purple dress and has long brown hair. The other woman, who I’ll call HAIRCLIP, is wearing a yellow front-button shirt and blue tights. And she has a hair clip. :-)

PANEL 1

Both women are seated on the bus stop bench. Chaya is holding her smartphone in front of Hairclip’s face; Hairclip is leaning away, taken by surprise.

CHAYA: Look at this! It’s a picture of a greeter at a children’s museum!

HAIRCLIP: Um… so?

PANEL 2

Chaya has stood and is pushing the smartphone at Hairclip, who has raised a hand to push the smartphone away. Chaya is yelling a bit.

CHAYA: Well, I think this person looks trans! Isn’t that awful? Doesn’t it make you feel panic and rage?

PANEL 3

Hairclip has stood and is chewing out Chaya, who sits back down.

HAIRCLIP: No, of course not! It’s just someone doing their job! What’s wrong with you?

PANEL 4

Hairclip stomps off angrily. Behind her, Chaya looks happy, even serene, as she looks at her smartphone screen.

HAIRCLIP (thought): Jerk! Good thing no one would listen to a clown like that.

A large arrow-shaped caption points at Chaya. The caption says “3.5 million followers.”

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is an obsolete cartoonists’ term for amusing but unnecessary details the cartoonist puts into the cartoon.

In this cartoon, there’s an ad on the public bench they’re sitting on. No single panel shows the whole bench, but if you look at all of them you can determine that the ad says “#1 New York Times Bestseller I HAVE BEEN SILENCED!, with an image of the guy from this cartoon.

The bus stop sign has an image of a rocket ship instead of a bus.

In panel 4, a newspaper is lying on the ground. The newspaper is called “Background Post.” The headline says “TRAGIC!,” and the subhead says “Artist fails to leave enuf room for text, nation mourns.”

They Walk Among Us | Patreon