So apparently this cartoon has caused quite the stir in the world of racism. Admittedly it is pretty sour and in bad taste but lets look at the facts : Chimps have been used to depict presidents, world leaders, newsworthy people and celebrities for a long time. I really want to say thousands and thousands of years. Ever since the chimp was first discovered it has been used as a point of ridicule against anyone. It should be pointed out that the chimp has only 8 genome groups of separation between their DNA and that of the more common Human. It should also be pointed out that George W. Bush has been criticized as a chimp in so many ways that a Google images search returns over 300,000 unique images. This cartoon could easily have been directed towards ol’ W as well.

President Obama is an African American so all of a sudden this traditional comparative becomes “racist” and “vulgar” with the NAACP (who, apparently, the president of is named Jealous, seems a bit fitting) up in arms calling for the firings of the cartoonist and his editor. I believe that this is just one more step in an oppurtinists climb to become noticed and make money from something that deserves no more attention than a quick glance and a chuckle in a newspaper. Racism today is propagated by those who claim to be “fighting” it. When I look at someone, and I’m pretty sure when most anyone sits down and talks to anyone anymore, they see a person. They don’t see race, creed, religion, sexuality, etc. except when things like this happen and people start screaming racism again. Even the whole situation around President Obama’s election was terribly race oriented, but again, a whole different story.

Personally, I think that the whole issue of racism needs to be forgotten. The plans for an African American Museum in the National Mall should be amended to become a Civil Rights Museum. We should get rid of all Americans and just become Americans. Yeah, there are still racists such as the KKK and the Nazi party, but they are losing steam and everyone is becoming blended. Martin Luther King never dreamed of an African American and a white American being friends, his dream was that we wouldn’t even consider them anything other than Americans and “we would all get along".