Chimp to Guerrilla

First off, I had to go look up how to spell guerrilla. Akeelah would kick my ass.

Of course everyone is now aware of the chimpanzee incident and the NY Post cartoon which followed. As for the incident, what the hell would make a person think having a 200lb chimp as a pet makes sense? They are like 2x the strength of humans. You should never have a pet which if things go bad you can't handle. If any of my friends or anyone I know has a pet like this, I'm not going in your damn house. I know this is ignorant to say, but these people could not have been black. Although we are starting to do more and more of the things one would tend to think blacks don't do.

Now for the Post. WTF. This magazine first of all is all about shock journalism and things like that so to give them too much credit is a mistake. This is the same paper that had "A-Hole" on the front. The person who drew the cartoon could be racist, but I don't know and don't think so. I really think they were just trying to get attention and sell papers at a time when papers aren't doing so well. But, to try and justify it as if people wouldn't associate the chimp with the president is trying our intelligence. Someone at the paper thought about what someone might infer from the picture. True, Obama did not write the bill but the bill is associated with him and everyone knows that. That stimulus bill will define his presidency. So I don't believe for a second they didn't figure someone would take that cartoon that way. If they wanted to poke fun at congress they could have had more chimps, or put a sign on the chimp with congress written on it. The whole thing just lacked taste. Because of the history with blacks and monkeys they could have picked a different animal even though the chimp story was out there.

Honestly I'm not upset though. Not offended either. For those who are, I understand. I'm just tired of every time something happens black people making it into something big. Or how the world is against us and blah blah blah... Sometimes it is very necessary for us to take note of these things. Obama is the president people. He is going to get jabs from people. Everyone doesn't love the man or think he is the greatest thing ever. Bush was hated. Bush got drawn as a monkey. Bush got called many things. Same for Clinton and any other president. It comes with the job. So before you get all riled up about this cartoon I just challenge you to look at some of the things that have been drawn about other presidents? Other things said about other presidents? If this is so far out of the ordinary and not close to things that have been done before, then outrage is warranted. I just think at some point we have to move past these things even upsetting us. Hell, instead of boycotting these advertisers, take your ass to a school and volunteer. Use that effort to do things to better black communities. Just like with the Imus thing. Big to do about some comments (which honestly I was thinking those girls looked rough the night before) from a show but what perspective did you have of the man's show? I listened to him later and he says crap like that about all kinds of things. Pretty intelligent and kind of funny at times actually. The same thing can go for the sermons of Pastor Wright. Can't just take clips of a sermon and judge the whole man from that. You have to get some context.

I wonder at times what it is like to be a white person in this country. Are the comments, statements, and actions of whites held to the same standards as others? I challenge you to listen to comments your friends make. Listen to what radio personalities say that are minorities. Think about the callers to talk shows and what they say. Then think about would that be accepted coming from a white person about another race. I'm not saying it should be okay for them to say all things, but at the same time it shouldn't be okay for minorities to get a pass either.

The Post should be ashamed, but that is what they do. People should feel however they do, but keep it moving. Don't buy the paper anymore. This isn't worth some kind of movement. It isn't something to look at and say this is how they do blacks. Everything isn't because someone is black. But people will take it that way and continue to carry the baggage with them into their day to day lives. This only fuels their beliefs. Whites will continue to think blacks just make everything racist. And that is why we will never in my lifetime move past racism.