Racism From The NYPost?!? Really…
There isn’t too much for me to add to this story that Jay Smooth didn’t already nail in his razor sharp video weblog.
Watch it again…
At the screening for ‘Do The Right Thing’ I was happy to see that Spike Lee remembered the media exaggeration and fearmongering that was put into play for the premiere of the movie. Spike also raised the most thought provoking point that he learned from that experience. The mainstream media inundated him with the same question, “Why does the lead character throw the garbage can through the window?” Spike was NEVER asked why the supporting character is killed and carted off by the police.
Americans love their shit. Human life? Not so much. We love our sneakers, our Polo sweaters, our plasma screen televisions and our way of life that puts value in shit over people. I have encountered several so-called progressive citizens who have their arms folded and are tapping their feet waiting for the magic mulatto president to wave his wand. These people still want to be rescued by anyone but themselves. We are not just a nation of cowards, but a collective of lazy cowards as well.
Trafficking in fear is cheap and easy. This is nothing new from the editors at the NYPost. Quiet as it is kept, this is the engine behind the NYTimes as well. I would advise those of you who have invested your emotions in the success of this presidential administration(and this nation, for that matter) to remain focused on the goals of restoring our educational systems and our civilian manufacturing industries. The racists cartoonists will bring their bile to the web as soon as the supremacist media conglomerates are out of print. The racists aren’t moving forward, but the rest of us should be.
February 27th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Dope drop. I saw a few of my friends talk about boycotting the Post. None of them are from NYC so they aren’t familiar with the Post. I know enough from seeing it in NYC, that they bait people with bullshit headlines and gossip.
That said, boycotting them just creates attention and lets them win. So FUCK that shit!
February 27th, 2009 at 9:16 am
True. The Post is always doing something over the top…it’s funny that right before this ESPN was on them about the A-ROD/A-HOLE cover.
February 27th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Well said DP…
What I found more offensive in that cartoon was the comedic “aw shucks” attitude of trigger happy policemen. I could give a damn about the monkey allusions (RIP Travis D. Chimp). Its like people were more concerned about the image of the monkey rather than the Keystone Cop army that “maintains order” of the system…
And eff The Post in the A… Any paper that sullies their sports pages as Marbury’s bitch journal wasn’t getting my play anyway.
February 27th, 2009 at 10:08 am
word
February 27th, 2009 at 10:16 am
i stop buying the post many years ago,,straight posion son!!,, its the nyc political version of media take out,,ur better of reading tabloids then the nypost
February 27th, 2009 at 11:36 am
“Its like people were more concerned about the image of the monkey rather than the Keystone Cop army that “maintains order” of the system… ”
40– Good point. I hadn’t even considered that before. I took the police-predator aspect in stride and focused on the chimp-as-negro instead. I guess they got me a little brainwashed, too…
As always, dope drop, DP.
February 27th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Man I haven’t bought the NYP since the…. 80s? My moms always said it was more of a gossip rag than anything else. That is a damn good point about po’s trigger happy nature. No remorse for animal or human suffereing.
But I don’t think anything is wrong with a boycott or talk about a boycott.. I know people who read the post cuz it’s cheap and easy reading and don’t realize that they’re digesting bile. That incident and the subsequent attention served as a wake-up call to the sleeping.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I don’t know shit about the Post, being that I’m out in BFE, but ya’ll do know Obama signed the bill not wrote it, right? It was written by the house and the senate. To me, using the context of lady love and her chimp, they were saying the stimulus bill could have been written by monkeys, seeing as only $.12 of every dollar in the stimulus package will actually go towards stimulating the economy.
I may be wrong, but to me, this is looking for racism in the wrong places, just one dude’s opinion. Like I said, I don’t know shit about the Post, so their past actions may prove me wrong.
February 28th, 2009 at 9:37 am
true indeed.
February 28th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I always figured people tended to focus on the trash can because people “got” the Radio Raheem killing. It was presumed that that one reaaaaaal racist looking cop (good casting) was a racist, reckless-ass NYPD. So it would be pointless to ask about that. But the destruction of Sal’s pizzeria, which made sense both in terms of how actual riots go down and the movie, aroused lots of pity because Mookie had some unlikeable traits and Sal, until he unleashed his inner conflicted white man and said “nigger” to Raheem, seemed a lot more likable. It always seemed a lot less about the pizzeria and more about how the audience felt about the two characters.
Although Spike’s long-standing criticism that people held the value of property over human life in their reactions is apt.
February 28th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
^ In the book about the making of ‘Do The Right Thing’, Spike revealed that Danny insisted that Sal be portrayed as a more likable character than he was in the original script. Imagine if De Niro had taken the role when it was offered to him instead of that shitty ‘Cape Fear’ remake…
February 28th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
The post nearly went out of business a few years back…They dropped the price of the paper and my brothers and sisters purchased the racists rag to save a coin. I know, I know… You only buy it for the sports.whatever man.
February 28th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Dallas. usually i agree w/ what you post, but this is somebody looking for attention. J-smooth wasn’t not in an uproar when they compared the former president to a chimp. If he was upset @ that, i would be able to believe him sincerely @ being upset here. He instead chooses to ignore the joke (or maybe laugh along) when the pres. in question isn’t one he agree’s with. But now that the joke is about HIS president, there is a problem. Politically charged cartoons are an American institution. Are we going to be upset EVERY TIME somebody pokes fun @ Barak?
March 1st, 2009 at 8:57 am
I don’t think that J-Smooths video adequate reflects the level of disdain that we should be showing . The Post is notorious for base level shit and we support the fuckery by buying it. Yes, you need to pick and choose your battles, but if Barack’s supporters are willing to push back on the media, that will eventually raise the baselevel of crap we accept from them. I say more power to Smooth and those that have fought to let the guy have more than 40 days in office
March 1st, 2009 at 9:03 am
babyfacedkaos,
I agree with you that people who support Obaama need to be less sensitive to political humor but look at that cartoon and tell me what’s political about it.
The viewer has to be informed about the story of the police shooting an out of control wild animal to understand whats being referenced. It isn’t even even funny. It’s really not.
The election of Barack Obaama wasn’t the signal that racism was ended in America, it was the sign that our shit was so effed the eff up that we needed someone to clean up the shit. Who typically cleans up the shit in America?
Gee,
Exactly what YOU said.
March 1st, 2009 at 7:09 pm
@ Robbie
Word? See, this makes everything make a lot more sense. Its a shame that he had to change the character like that, but maybe the ambiguity of Sal’s bigotry made the riot better and less direct, since what’s a Spike Lee film without a cloying, confusing ending with no resolution?