Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

Press Conference and Protest at NewsCorp (corporate owner of NY Post)

Already there were demonstrations on Thursday and Friday in New York, at the NY Post headquarters protesting a cartoon that characterized President Obama as a chimpanzee. The cartoon uses the recent shooting of a violent chimpanzee to editorialize on the Economic Stimulus Bill President Obama signed into law last Tuesday. Whether intentional or not, given Obama's role in the making of this bill, the cartoon clearly showing a chimpanzee as the author of the bill not only characterizes President Obama as a chimpanzee, but could be interpreted as calling for violence against him. Already the Urban League and the NAACP have denounced the New York Post for running the cartoon.

The fact that the stimulus bill falls short in regards to the crisis facing working and poor people has nothing to do with the characterization of African people as monkeys. This inhuman insult was used to justify slavery, murder, rape and genocide by European colonialists, white supremacists and high ranking officials in this government's history. And, this does nothing to help build a united fightback against the bailouts for the rich instead of the people. It in fact does the opposite - it attempts to divide and weaken our struggle.