{"id":6730,"date":"2009-02-19T01:23:21","date_gmt":"2009-02-19T08:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=6730"},"modified":"2009-02-19T01:23:21","modified_gmt":"2009-02-19T08:43:09","slug":"if-racism-is-the-worst-accusation-that-can-be-made-how-do-we-discuss-minor-racist-slights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=6730","title":{"rendered":"If racism is the worst accusation that can ever be made, how do we discuss minor racist slights?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In comments at the Daily Cartoonist<\/a>, regarding the Sean Delonas cartoon, I wrote “I don\u2019t think it matters what was in his heart. What matters is what\u2019s in the cartoon. And it\u2019s a racist cartoon.”<\/p>\n

RS Davis responded in comments (click through to read his entire comment):<\/p>\n

Apparently, the all knowing, all seeing judges of humanity on this topic can see straight through the hearts of man and judge them as blatant racists, no matter WHAT they actually did. […]<\/p>\n

How Orwellian. We can twist what you did, no matter what your intent or who you are, we can judge you as a racist and you\u2019re too stupid to know it, or you\u2019re a racist because we say so, even if you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

…Where was the howling when cartoonists drew Condi Rice as Aunt Jemima?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My response to RS:<\/p>\n

Please reread what I wrote, because you seem to have read exactly the opposite of what I said. I\u2019m not judging whether or not the cartoonist is a racist. I\u2019m not condemning him or saying he should never work again.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know or care if he\u2019s a racist. I\u2019m critiquing the cartoon, not the cartoonist.<\/p>\n

And since you asked, I have criticized racist images of Condi Rice<\/a> in cartoons. I\u2019ve also criticized anti-semitic images<\/a> in left-wing cartoons. And I said the same thing then that I\u2019m saying now: it\u2019s about what\u2019s in the cartoon, not about what\u2019s in the cartoonist\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

Delonas maybe be guilty of a lame cartoon, but those screaming one of the worst accusations that can be made, racism, over it, REGARDLESS of who the man really is, his intentions or his past work, is far more frightening and a bigger crime that anything he did.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No one has said Delonas committed a crime.<\/p>\n

I also don\u2019t agree that racism \u2014 especially racism that\u2019s quite likely inadvertent \u2014 is “one of the worst accusations that can be made.” Thinking of it that way is a mistake, because it makes it impossible to talk about minor racist slights. If someone tells me \u201cI think that this cartoon is kind of racist,\u201d that\u2019s not at all the same as them saying \u201cyou\u2019re a KKK member!\u201d And if I take it as if they\u2019ve accused me of being a monster, then all I do is guarantee that no productive discussion can take place.<\/p>\n

Two links I\u2019d recommend you read:<\/p>\n

First, directly related to this controversy, Kevin\u2019s newest cartoon, \u201cRacism 101 for White Cartoonists<\/a>,\u201d which is brilliant.<\/p>\n

And second, RS, I\u2019d recommend you read this post I wrote a couple of years ago: How Not To Be Insane When Accused Of Racism<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In comments at the Daily Cartoonist, regarding the Sean Delonas cartoon, I wrote “I don\u2019t think it matters what was in his heart. What matters is what\u2019s in the cartoon. And it\u2019s a racist cartoon.” RS Davis responded in comments … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}