Chimps and black people -- I count myself among the second group -- are the talk of the urban jungle this week, as a controversial cartoon in the Post got everyone buzzing about whether a cartoon was a defensible satirical comment or a moment of ugly racism.
There is no clear answer: The racial implications are impossible to deny; yet the stance of the editor in chief of the Post is equally legitimate: "The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event."
This monkey business about black people being thought of as chimps is the perhaps the oldest trick in the racist playbook. And one wonders, especially in a city as culturally progressive as New York, if the problem will ever go away.
People's sensitivity to these ridiculous racist associations may do more harm than the associations themselves. After all, you can call an Asian lady a monkey, and it might be offensive, but no one will stage a two hundred-man protest over it.
Last spring around this time a similar hubbub ensued when LeBron James was pictured in a "King Kong" pose with model Gisele Bundchen. It was a position any American male would die to be in, but LeBron, because of his race, had to deal with the "blacklash" coming from those who interpreted the resulting cover shot as racist.
Even if you think cartoonist Sean Delonas' work is racist, the more important question may be, what harm is he causing? Much like LeBron, Barack holds a position far and above the sphere of influence of any allegedly racist cartoonist/photographer.
The best story today for New York's minority population is that Adolfo Carrion is leaving the Bronx to go do big things in DC, instead of standing outside a midtown office tower in February with the rest of the usual suspects.
Patrice Evans writes about postracial America on his blog The Assimilated Negro.
