Those fighting social injustice are sometimes guilty of it
I know what it’s like to have your words, actions, inactions and breathing patterns taken out of context.
More than that, I know what it’s like to create something — send it straight from your mind to a judging public with a quick stop in between for typing and edits. In fact, I’m doing it right now.
I won’t argue that my job is harder than anyone else’s, but the most difficult and frustrating part of creating a message is that once it leaves your hands, it’s not yours to control. It’s up to everyone else, each person with their own background and ideas and prejudices, to decide just exactly what it is you’ve said.
I’ve had well-intended opinion pieces picked apart by large women’s studies classes. I’ve been called a racist after running photos of anti-Wal-Mart protestors (evidently taking pictures of a sign that says “China is Wal-Mart’s best friend” is enough to send me to sensitivity training). I’ve been called “dumber than a post” for honestly relating the bad experience I had at a reader’s favorite eatery.
Don’t take this as complaining. While I was surprised at this when I first got into the business, I’ve learned to accept it as a part of the life. In fact, it’s a pretty good indicator of a journalist’s worth — if you’re not making someone mad, you’re probably not doing your job right.
And while I don’t mind being the subject of abuse, I try to step in when I see it happening to others.
That was the case last week, when a friend (and I hope she’s still my friend after this) posted a link to a blog post by Jean Warner, co-founder of The Oklahoma Women’s Coalition, titled “Shame on The Oklahoman for Violence Against Women Cartoon.”
That’s right, another attack on a political cartoonist. It happens all the time for a reason — they usually have a political point, and can be fairly ambiguous.
This cartoon by syndicated cartoonist Chip Bok (no, The Oklahoman didn’t draw it) depicts President Obama with a sombrero and a group of elephants with sticks, while a piñata of Sonia Sotomayor, Obama’s supreme court pick, hangs behind him. With the media’s various cameras watching, Obama says to the nervous-looking pachyderms, “Now, who want’s to be first?”
Any clear thinker should understand the joke — Republicans will bash the Democratic president’s pick with everything they’ve got come confirmation time. You’d have a point that turning a Hispanic person into a piñata is at the very least culturally insensitive, but that’s as far as it goes.
But Warner, clearly a person with her own agenda that could see enemies at a daycare, chooses to call Bok’s work sexist. “So The Oklahoman today runs a cartoon showing Sonia Sotomayor — a brilliant Hispanic woman scholar, lawyer and judge — strung up by a rope while men with clubs prepare to have at her for believing she’s qualified to serve on the US. Supreme Court,” she posted.
Whiplash is the appropriate response to this.
Really? This has nothing to do with politics, and instead is the newspaper’s instruction for its readers to beat women with sticks?
“A picture speaks louder than words and that cartoon sends a message to women of all ages,” she said. “Back off. Know your place. Or we’ll take a stick to you and teach you a lesson.”
Warner says shame should be placed on The Oklahoman and its publisher, David Thompson. But if she’s looking for someone worthy of shame, she needs to look in a mirror.
In pushing her own agenda, Warner is reading into Bok’s cartoon more than is there. The cartoon has no more to do with the person’s sex than it does her preference in music or the name of her third-grade teacher.
Those who create will always run across people like Jean Warner, who will accuse you of terrible things just to further their own goals. And while this may be a fact of life, such behavior shouldn’t be tolerated by the rest of us.
Jason Roberts is the editor of Go! 24/7. He can be reached in the newsroom at (785)762-5000 or by e-mail at J.Roberts@Dailyu.com.
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