On January 23rd, Audrey Edwards forwarded The Independent newspaper article to me, a racist satire full of nearly every stereotype imaginable, and I wrote about it on my blog that same day. Sheryl Huggins of NiaOnline contacted The Independent after she read my 1/23/2008 post, “Racist Article About Obama.”
Please read Sheryl Huggins’ powerful letter of protest, which compelled Independent editor-in-chief Rick Murphy to remove the offensive article and issue an apology. I personally think Rick Murphy’s apology is problematic, in that it includes these very weak lines:
“I can’t explain why I chose to write the column [but I want] to assure you that we are a multicultural employer with a long history of diversity. In fact, our highest paid employer [sic] happens to be a man of color.”
Murphy would benefit from diversity sensitivity training so he can identify the reason(s) why he “chose to write the column.” That his “highest paid” employee happens to be a person of color is as tired as the old but-one-of-my-friends-is-Black (or Latina/o/Asian/Native American/gay/a woman) line that those who benefit from white male privilege always seem to use whenever they make an oops. Again, diversity sensitivity training would encourage deeper self-reflection to help Murphy – and hopefully improve the level of journalistic integrity at The Independent.
Please see the email NiaOnline blasted to readers and click the links to read the Nia letter of outrage and The Independent letter of apology. And contact Sheryl Huggins to thank her for her activism.
What follows comes from NiaOnline:
You are receiving this special edition of the NiaOnline newsletter because we enountered something so outrageous and offensive we knew it couldn’t wait until our usual Wednesday posting. We know you’ll agree.
Boy, when the pundits said this presidential campaign is getting nasty with regard to the topics of race and gender, they weren’t kidding. Yesterday blogger Eisa Nefertari Ulen sent this little tidbit our way. It’s a horribly racist caricature of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama that was published in The Independent, a newspaper that claims to have the highest distribution of any local newspaper in Long Island, NY’s East End (which includes The Hamptons).
The mock column, “Why I Should Be Our Next President,” is written under the byline of a candidate named “Yo Mama Bin Barack” with Sen. Obama’s smiling face next to it. Portrayed as a racially-confused buffoon who is trying to be Black, Yo Mama Bin Barack says things such as, “Ultimately, if [Hillary Clinton] gets too close, one of my New York advisors has advised me to, ‘Bitch slap that ho.’ White women, I am told, like that,” and “We be, you know, sick of whitey supressin’ and congestin’ so, you know, we won’t denigrate or sophisticate but emulate and populate, you know, the system is, like, broken, y’all!” This, for the edification of the East End’s elite populace (as well as the online masses, since a version of the parody was posted in the paper’s online edition).
NiaOnline contacted the The Independent on Jan. 23 to express our outrage and ask for an explanation. The editor-in-chief and co-publisher of the newspaper, Rick Murphy, sent us a letter of apology this morning and said that no one had put him up to it. The Independent also took down the online version and posted an apology.
Click here to see a copy of the column that we made before it was taken down. You’ll also see NiaOnline’s letter to The Independent, as well as the newspaper’s apology to NiaOnline.
Many people believe that overt racism is all but dead in our country, and that the real enemies now are institutional racism and “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” There is also a popular view that if the media would just stop talking about the role of race in this campaign, we could just focus on “the issues.” Call this a cold splash of water in the face of those notions. Good, old-fashioned, overt racism is alive and well, and hard at work in this campaign and in our 21st century lives. Share that cold splash with as many people as you can, by bookmarking this page and passing the web link (www.niaonline.com/news/) on to as many people as you can. Contact The Independent too, and let them know what you think of their little joke. It’s time to wake up.
Low Tidings: “Why I Should Be Our Next President”
NiaOnline’s letter to The Independent
The Independent’s letter of apology to NiaOnline
After you’ve contacted The Independent and/or passed this along for others to read, we want to know what your take is on this: Is this attempt at political satire acceptable under any circumstances? What do you think of Rick Murphy’s apology and his paper’s decision to take down the online posting? Let us know at editorial@niaenterprises.com (please include your name and city), and we may print your comments in the next NiaOnline newsletter.
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Comment(s)
Much respect to NiaOnline!
And thanks, Eisa, for putting this out there.
Comment(s)
Reading the column as it appeared in The Independent… (Quick thinking Eisa) before the walk of shame…It is truly terrifying. It reminds me of posters caricaturing Jews that were put up on businesses and in newspapers in Nazi Germany. And the many caricatures we have seen of African Americans in our storied past. Murphy’s response is laughable, cryable and scream worthy. Evidently he hasn’t bothered to get to know his “highest paid” employee very well. (or any other Person of Color for that matter.) If he had, he would never have entertained the sick fantasies that he evidently thought clever in his column. Thank you Eisa for acting so quickly.
Comment(s)
I was appalled by the Independent piece, which was forwarded to me. The apology is…lacking, to be sure. There’s something erelse on that page, though, that’s ALSO bugging me: http://rogerowengreen.blogspot.com/2008/01/low-tidings-indeed.html (1/25/08)
Comment(s)
Roger Green has more info on The Independent. Apparently, they have established a pattern of racist so-called satire with two offensive pieces. This Obama piece was the second. Check out Roger’s site. (See the comment above this one for the link).
Comment(s)
The Independent article is parody. There are tens of thousands of parodies published with no one taking offense. In politics everyone is a target because they make themselves targets. They are game! It is the nature of things in the real world. Being black, or Jewish, or Catholic does not make one immune from being parodied. Chill out! Obama is not harmed and will only be harmed by his own actions and skills in dealing with the Clinton Machine that is out to decapitate him.
I wonder if the very same people who are SO offended by Rick Murphy’s parody are equally offended by the millions of web references to your ELECTED president and vice president as: “Chimp”, “Moron”, “The Idiot in the White House,” etc….DURING TIME OF WAR?
Do YOU think it is appropriate to depict leaders during war as idiots? Even if you don’t agree with their policies?
Obama is NOT our president. He has a chance of becoming resident provided he doesn’t self-destruct. And if and when that happens watch out. Murphy’s jokes will be nothing next to what will come down the pike.
Obama is just one of many empty suits or dress running for president in both parties. He is no more immune from being parodied because of race or Hillary because of sex than any other candidate who happens to use race or sex TO GET ELECTED.
They both have.
Andrew G. Benjamin