Reader feels cartoon ignored effectiveness of Obama's speech

Editor:

I’m writing to comment on the political cartoon in the Sunday, March 23, issue of the Courier with the message “Kill Whitey.”

The Courier missed the significance of Senator Obama’s speech, distancing himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in publishing a cartoon distilling his talk into two words.

Certainly, Wright’s comments were offensive, but more importantly, the speech emphasized that exhortations like “Kill Whitey” and “Kill n. . . rs” are now repugnant to Americans. The speech went on to declare that the civil rights movement has moved from a struggle against injustices to the point where most people can eat in the same restaurants, vote at the same polling places and send their kids to the same schools.

Nevertheless, some people still fight old battles. Among them is Wright, who entered adulthood when Gov. Orval Faubus barred the door to Little Rock Central High School, when Sheriff Bull Connor used a cattle prod on demonstrators and when civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were murdered in Mississippi. In a large part because of Rev. Martin Luther King and his efforts, and to a lesser degree people like Wright, women and blacks are on the Supreme Court and in serious contention for the U.S. presidency.

Thus, Senator Obama’s speech has two messages for the Gila Valley. First, in supporting civil rights, Wright contributed to America, although his ideas do not; and second, we can acknowledge the accomplishments of men like him at the same time that we hold more appropriate views of people who are different from us.

Returning to Obama’s speech, NPR pointed out that its candid appraisal of race relations in America, the size of its audience and the attention paid to it in the media over the past two weeks acknowledge a shift in the quest for civil rights. This shift acknowledges things past like “whites only” water fountains and lunch counters, and in doing so, it puts the stamp of repugnancy on things like cartoons with a caricature shouting outdated, offensive exhortations like “Kill Whitey.”

Hank Slotnick

Pima