True, but I do think that a (presumably) white cartoonist in an important newspaper has a responsibility even more than most white people to make themselves familiar with some of the cultural tropes that are used to denigrate people of colour. Especially after the shot ape cartoon fiasco. Coconuts *do* look quite like bowling balls, and while the specific "brown on the outside white on the inside" implication is slightly obscure, the objectification of people of colour as tropical fruits really is not. I'm sure the cartoonist meant no harm, but they should have been more careful.

At any rate, if I were the cartoonist and received an e-mail such as Sam's, my response would be "erk, actually it was a bowling ball but that's a very good point, will try to avoid this in future". And possibly apologising for offense inadvertently caused. That, as far as I'm concerned, is the right thing to do.

Also, I'd be amazed if there aren't a lot of people who saw it as a coconut, and pretty surprised if Sam's is the only complaint on the matter the cartoon gets. One highly intelligent, observant artist/designer seeing something the cartoonist didn't intend is a small data point, but it's still a data point.

I am of course highly biassed, but despite his apparently being mistaken as to the intention of the cartoonist, I'm proud of Sam for speaking out and believe he did the right thing. And also proud of him for daring to talk about it on a public post. I wouldn't have been brave enough to do that.

It's a crap cartoon anyway. I take it we can all agree on that! ;-) Obama's being shitty to disabled people deserved something much less personally-attacking and much more sharply satirical. I'm still more pro-Obama than otherwise but speaking as a semi-disabled person myself... Grr.