Letters to the Times

[mirrorshard]

If you haven't seen this appallingly racist cartoon in the Times, I recommend it for sheer did-they-actually-publish-that value.

Edit: please read the comments before leaving "helpful" corrections. If someone else has already said it, I don't need a "me too". Thank you.

I can't find an address specifically for complaints; comment@thetimes.co.uk gets autorejected. I've sent the following to online.editor@timesonline.co.uk as the apparent next most appropriate thing.



Sir,

I should like to register a complaint about Peter Brookes' cartoon dated 21st March 2009. It clearly depicts Barack Obama as a coconut, which is of course a strong racial slur - a derogatory term meaning "black on the outside, white on the inside".

I am disappointed that a respectable newspaper would publish such slurs, and further disappointed that a respectable newspaper can find nothing better to say about a prominent world leader so soon after his election than to comment on his race.

Yours sincerely,
mirrorshard

Comments

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

And because it is morally good that you make the effort, even if there will always be a margin for error. (And in my experience, you yourself do seem to succeed in being clear really rather well. :-)) Part of the problem with that cartoon is that the cartoonist and editor clearly haven't thought very hard about it, or they'd have gone "hang on, erk, that looks like it could be a coconut, yikes, let's do something different...".

The author is dead, as Barthes said. It is sad, but don't let it de-spirit you. *hugs*

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem with that cartoon is that the cartoonist and editor clearly haven't thought very hard about it, or they'd have gone "hang on, erk, that looks like it could be a coconut, yikes, let's do something different..."

I very much disagree. I think of myself as a relatively well-educated person, and I *think* I've heard the term 'coconut' as a synonym for 'Oreo' or 'Bounty Bar', but I stared at it for ages trying very hard to work out why it was racist before clicking on the lj-cut and couldn't figure it out. And *I* already knew that one person considered it "appallingly" racist.

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

As I say above, I hadn't heard it as a synonym for "Oreo" or "Bounty Bar" at all. I just tend to assume that using tropical fruit as an image when portraying someone of colour is a Really Bad Idea (cf. Boris Johnson and "watermelon smiles"). And also tend to assume that most other sensible people see it as such as well.

Of course, I'm fairly sure that all of us here discussing the matter on Sam's LJ are white (as I assume are at least most of the people on emperor's IRC channel). I'd be very interested to see what people thought of the matter on debunkingwhite or racism_101.

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

I just tend to assume that using tropical fruit as an image when portraying someone of colour is a Really Bad Idea

Definitely. But knowing that 'coconut' had a specific meaning might make people more likely to see a coconut in the cartoon rather than a bowling ball.

[blue-mai.livejournal.com]

ok so i'm not actively discussing, but i'm paying attention to the discussion and i'm not white.
.. and the coloured-on-the-outside-white-on-the-inside thing is something i've been subjected to. No, it's not nice, but i do feel there's a big difference between that sort of racism - a nuanced sort, if you like, and the absolute sort - absolute supremacy, the categorical devaluation of other races etc.
Most fish in different seas will at some point wonder about how much their identity has shifted or how they are perceived relative to their ancestral and contextual culture, but most don't think they're inferior to some other race, unless something has gone badly wrong. Coconut, banana, oreo... it's about identity and belonging and which 'culture' is considered better. It's actually pretty interesting, although of course when used as a racial slur it's unpleasant and damaging. Oh. i just realised something. I think the distinction (to me) is between a racial thing and a cultural thing with racial aspects. possibly.

ETA: Also, for what it's worth, i don't see a coconut, i see a bowling ball (without knowing the relevant story). It's stretching it to see a coconut, even with familiarity of old cartoons which do show coconut-heads.
Anyway, i'm not actually discussing anything here, right, you haven't seen me...

[blue-mai.livejournal.com]

sorry me again. i don't normally comment in here cos it's not my space nor my people and you don't know me from adam and i'm wary of barging in. might've done just that... i didn't mean it to come across that way.
Carry on.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

No, comment was very much appreciated. Please feel entirely free to do that again.

[(Anonymous)]

Reports of the author's death, though common in the last century, were greatly exaggerated.

S.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

OK, that was funny, so I'm not going to complain about anonymity.

Everyone else - be careful, though.