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

[naath.livejournal.com]

Coconut - yes, clearly that would be racist. But, er, with the added "doh" (a Homer Simpson remark if ever I saw one) I think it's pretty obvious that it's a Balling Ball reference.

I think it's right to point out that it could be read as racist and thus that it is possibly ill-advised. But I don't think it's right to claim that it is hideously offensive.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

I didn't get the Simpson reference (though I don't see a connection with bowling there) but, well, I suppose you can't expect the Times to spell "D'oh!" correctly.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Homer bowls! Like, lots. Also It's "doh, I screwed up" since the Bowling Story is about Obama making a nasty abelist remark.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Ah, that'd explain it. I suppose it's a standard sport given his socioeconomic status.

(I mostly just watch the Simpsons for Lisa.)