Racist Images - The best is yet to come

Over the last couple of weeks, images have catapulted to America's consciousness because they are offensive to black people. We saw the political cartoon depicting police officers shooting a chimpanzee saying"they'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." The chimpanzee was perceived to be a characterization of President Barack Obama. The community was outraged and Rupert Murdoch, Owner of the NY Post came forth with an apology. The cartoonist and editor of the paper completely and utterly did not view the cartoon as offensive. They apologized but did not, could not, would not see the offensive nature of the images they created and published....

Here, in Southern California, a story broke involving the Mayor of Los Alamitos, a small town in Orange County. It seems that he found it amusing to send an email out to his friends depicting the White House with a passel of watermelons sprouting from it's storied garden... He joked in the email, "I guess there'll be no Easter Egg Hunt this year"... One of the recipients of the email was an African American business woman... She was offended, shocked and appalled that the Mayor would send out such a racist image and make a joke of it... The Mayor could not, did not, would not understand why she was offended and offered no apology at first... She called him on it, went public and now the Mayor has apologized to the entire City, the City Council and will be resigning from office.

Now, I suppose we will see even more offensive images coming to the forefront. And the refrain from the perpetrators will be that they did not know that the image is offensive to black people. On one hand, we will be perceived as over-sensitive, looking for racism under every image and thereby will become paranoid in a society that needs our contribution. On the other, we remember all too well that our history in America is rife with stereotypes and innuendos... cruel jokes about our God-given features and the nuances of our distinctly black American culture. You and I know that this is to be expected...

The increase of offensive images and the subsequent "I didn't know I offended" defense is an offshoot of what has been happening in America since integration. IN my lifetime, I have been the only black at a job or endeavor. I have been part of a small group of blacks in a large group of whites. I have befriended white people in this setting. And in my experience, most of the time, white people will inevitably tell you a "nigga" joke or show you some cartoon, joke or satire created at the expense of black people. When you protest, they are dumbfounded that the joke offended you. They are your friend after all and the jokes should not offend you... After all, you "aren't like them"... This tragic scenario is what I think is behind the seemingly ignorance of the perpetrators of the aforementioned mis steps...

I hope that the attention given to this ill-placed humor will evolve America to a consciousness that says color truly does not matter... In the meantime, even with "the man" in the White House, the struggle continues...