By: Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
Recently, we got a fresh reminder of America's conflicting attitudes about race. On February 18th, the same day that our nation's first African American Attorney General, spoke eloquently about the unfinished business of racial reconciliation before an audience at the Justice Department, the New York Post ran a cartoon which harkened back to the bad old days when Blacks were routinely dehumanized by being portrayed as watermelon-eating "porch monkeys" and worse. The cartoon shows two White police officers pumping bullets into a monkey with the caption, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." This insensitive, if not racist, attempt to link the recent shooting of a deranged monkey who had attacked a Connecticut woman with the signing of the $787 billion stimulus bill by President Obama, backfired big-time — and rightly so. Individuals and organizations across the country, including the National Urban League, immediately expressed outrage. As I said in a statement issued the day the cartoon appeared, "Comparing President Obama and his efforts to revive the economy in a manner that depicts violence and racist inferences is unacceptable."
I believe the cartoon was in poor taste on many levels including a failure of its creator and publisher to comprehend its potential interpretation as a racial insult against our nation's first African American president. And while we welcome the belated apology by Rupert Murdoch who owns the New York Post, Wall Street Journal and Fox, just saying "sorry" and sweeping the issue under the rug is not sufficient to resolve the issues the cartoon has exposed. The National Urban League is urging Murdoch to open a real dialogue about race and diversity and thus provide the leadership that he owes the public as one of the world's top media magnates. He must take steps to increase the decision making diversity at all of his broadcast properties and newspapers.
Persistent and offensive stereotypes associating African Americans and Black men in particular, with apes and monkeys can not merely be labeled juvenile name-calling. It can contribute to the kind of police brutality that has occurred too often in New York City. I'm talking about the senseless killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Black man in 1999; and the shooting death of an unarmed African American named Sean Bell on the eve of his wedding in 2006.
For years, Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at UCLA has focused his research on the link between dehumanizing stereotypes of African Americans and police discrimination and brutality. His studies show that the association can actually increase the likelihood of anti-black violence.
Throughout our history, the National Urban League has brought together people of all races and political persuasions to find solutions to our nation's problems, especially in the areas of economics and civil rights. The New York Post cartoon reminds us that it is time for America to join with us in a serious dialogue about America's most persistent social problem, including the need for more diversity and sensitivity in the media. As Eric Holder said, "One cannot truly understand America without understanding the historical experience of black people in this nation. Simply put, to get to the heart of this country one must examine its racial soul."
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