Ted Rall's Latest Outrage
Project 21, which describes itself as a "non-profit and non-partisan organization [that] has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992," is decrying a July 5 cartoon by Ted Rall.
The cartoon, which details "appropriate punishments for deposed Bushists," includes a hoo-larious panel featuring Condeleezza Rice. The National Security adviser protests "I was Bush's beard! I was his house nigga!" before being "sent to an inner-city racial re-education camp."
In a press release, Project 21 asks the civil rights community to hold Rall to the same standard to which they held Rush Limbaugh last year after his comments about black quarterbacks in the NFL.
If there's any justice in the world, of course, Rall will first be convicted in the International Court of Unfunny Cartooning and sentenced to drawing backgrounds for the Love Is… strip.
(By the same token, I highly recommend Rall's contribution to the excellent new collection Killed: Great Journalism Too Hot to Print.)
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Ted Rall... what a lousy champion for liberalism. It's all "preachin' to the choir" with him. Reuben Bolling however... a concentrated application of Tom The Dancing Bug could convert me leftward.
why don't people ignore Ted Rall ...
he is not representative of the Democrats (at least not right now - he might develop into one, a la Moore) or much of anything for that matter.
Get Your War On is much funnier than Rall, as left wing tripe goes. It isn't always complete tripe, either.
Rall infurates me becuase he can be such a great writer. My War With Brian is one of the few books that had me in tears. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561632155/reasonmagazinea-20/
Oh no! A white person said nigger! Run for the hills!
Ok, so Rall isn't that funny, but I liked the "hair straightener" bit.
And Limbaugh had a point. For a league that has an express policy on interviewing available minority (read: black) candidates for coaching positions, to comment on the racial overtones in the media's fixation on McNabb (with his Tommy Maddox-like numbers) was fair game.
McNabb is a great QB. Don't get lost in silly numbers like QB rating, and don't overinvest in things like completion percentage. Look at the bigger picture -- McNabb had virtually no targets, a patchwork running game, and a porous offensive line. The only reason that team won as many games as they did was because of him. (BTW, have you ever noticed his almost 2:1 TD:INT ratio?)
Rush may have had a point, as it is clear that the league is overly sensitive to race, but he picked a really bad example.
Should Rall's First Amendment rights be violated? Of course not. But I don't see Project 21 suggesting such a thing. What's wrong with suggesting that the people who publish Rall's crap stop printing it?
Does anyone really think this cartoon was offensive? (And no, "offensively stupid" and "offensively unfunny" don't count.)
Jesse,
I do. Well, sort of, given that I don't generally get offended on behalf of others. I'm not Condoleezza Rice, but if I were black, and someone called me "house nigger," I'd certainly be offended. Wouldn't you?
Does anyone really think this cartoon was offensive?
Well, no... aside from being racist, moronic, and unfunny, I guess it wasn't exactly "offensive" per se.
When I was a kid in the south I used to go to this local barbershop. One day, as I was getting my hair cut, there was some news story about Jesse Jackson on the TV. One of the barbers turned to the other and said "I swear, God invented women and niggers to annoy white men". Was that comment offensive? I'd say it was neither more nor less offensive than Rall's cartoon. It was a desperately unfunny joke that displayed the racist nature and pathetic ignorance of the speaker -- but I'm white and male, and it wasn't aimed at me, so I guess it wasn't really my place to be offended.
However, I do have friends who would be deeply offended by this cartoon, because they are successful, non-white, non-leftist professionals, and part of being a person like that means having snotty white liberals and less-successful members of your race accuse you of being a "sellout", a "race traitor", a "house nigger", etc.
The regrettable Mr. Rall wishes he were Eminem but, sadly, lacks Marshall Mathers' youth, talent, wit, looks, success, and artistic integrity.
Really, what has 'Our Ted' come up with that rises to the level of Slim Shady's 'Criminal?'
(from the second CD:)
"If I ever gave a fuck, I'd shave my nuts
tuck my dick in between my legs and cluck -
you motherfuckin chickens ain't brave enough
to say the stuff I say, so just tape it shut!
Shit, half the shit I say, I just make it up
to make you mad: so kiss my white, naked ass!
And if it's not a rapper that I make it as
I'ma be a fuckin rapist in a Jason mask!"?
It's slightly depressing to see a middle-aged cartoonist aim for this mark and fall so short, so consistently.
Does anyone else notice that Rall's drawing style looks just like Matt Groening's? Some of the drawings have a very "Akbar & Jeff" look to them...
Don't bother with the ideas or anything
Yeah, joe, whatever. By all means, let's focus on the "ideas" behind a white man calling a black woman a nigger.
Rall puts the words in Rice's mouth. But they're his words; he's the one who thinks "house nigga" is a good way of describing Rice.
Thank you for the demonstration, Dan, but I think most people understod the idiotic behavior I was referring to without your assistance.
I find it offensive that someone would criticize anyone's actions or beliefs as being inauthentic to one's race. Some lefty critics apparently believe that public figures like Rice and Powell should conform to some kind of imagined race-appropriate behavioral norms; e.g., a black woman shouldn't be a conservative Stanford scholar who plays classical (i.e., "white") piano music. It's racism, pure and simple, and lefties like Rall and David E. don't possess the self-insight to recognize it for what it is.
Does anyone else notice that Rall's drawing style looks just like Matt Groening's? Some of the drawings have a very "Akbar & Jeff" look to them...
I found the cartoon sort of stupid, and I'm sure it was offensive to its targets (though that is sort of the point, no?)
But Project 21 seems to be taking a Groucho Marx attitude towards the cartoon - someone said the majic word, so a duck drops down from the ceiling and issues a press report. Don't bother with the ideas or anything...
OK, a lot of what I've seen from Rall is really pretty pitiful. But I gotta tell you, I thought this was pretty funny. And last time I checked my momma was "black", although my daddy ain't.
Yea I just looked at it again, and sorry, sick and pitiful it may be, NRO reader that I am (really), card carrying for the NRA and the ACLU as well.
All I've got to say is...get a sense of humor...that was funny.