The Invisible Controversy

I know that I'm late commenting about this, but I had to talk about the NY Post cartoon (people are still talking about it).

I saw Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC and immediately changed the channel. I am one of those post racial kids who have no interest in Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. I am an African American woman, so I know that discrimination & racism are alive and well in America, and I've experienced them myself, but this isn't what my blog is about.

The only way I can describe it is to say that when you have spent the majority of your life seeking and bringing light injustices and unlawful act against minorities, you kinda start looking for them everywhere, even if you don't mean to. Al Sharpton saw the cartoon and immediately said, "that's Barack Obama!". I stared at that cartoon for at least 2-3 minutes and saw nothing racist about it. Maybe because I know that congress writes legislation and there was nothing else to suggest that the dead chimp was a depiction of our current president. Once word spread about Mr. Sharpton's displeasure, protests broke out and it seemed that everybody was pissed off, it was like mass hysteria or something. People were mad because someone told them they should be mad.

Needless to say it irritated me. I was disappointed with the reaction and the hype the situation received. Black people tend to be reactive as opposed to being proactive. No one stopped to ask the question, "Why did they think it was okay to print this? They should have known that it could be interpreted in a negative way." It was because there wasn't a person of color contributing to the decision to print the cartoon. An older African American or at least someone aware of our recent history would have said, "I'm not sure about this. I see your point, but this could be viewed negatively. Let's try something else." I get tired of people seeking to be the victim all the time. Instead of reacting to why something happened, think about what could have been done to bring about a different outcome.

Now, I'm not bashing anyone, because Al Sharpton and others from his generation, of all races, have done a lot to bring American to where it is now, but they have to learn to change and adjust in order to be more effective. Being angry and demanding apologies isn't going to change anything or help anyone. There was nothing wrong with the cartoon, I got the point.