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Offensive cartoon made its point
(by Dave Lange - December 09, 2009)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Offensive cartoon made its point
It's somewhat unusual for one newspaper to assail another one for exercising freedom of the press. But that's what the metropolitan daily did last week in piling condemnation on the weekly Call & Post, which primarily serves the city's black community.
The focus of criticism leveled by segments of the community and amplified by Cleveland's daily newspaper was a Call & Post cartoon that depicted state Sen. Nina Turner as Aunt Jemima.
Let's make no mistake -- the cartoon was patently offensive. It was intended to be.
But there was no necessity to include freedom of the press -- or freedom of speech, for that matter -- in the First Amendment to the Constitution to protect inoffensive expressions that toe the party line. Newspapers don't just have the constitutional right to be offensive and to challenge the party line; they have a responsibility to do so.
The Aunt Jemima caricature has been interpreted as a demeaning stereotype of black women who are subservient to white authority. Of course, that is offensive, and there are those within the community, including a group of black ministers, who sincerely believe that no one deserves such characterization and called on the weekly newspaper to apologize.
There also are those who take offense to the Call & Post's ongoing refusal to toe the party line on Issue 6, the Cuyahoga County government-reform plan that was approved by county voters in a landslide on Nov. 3. And that's where the Aunt Jemima brouhaha gets more adulterated than the simplistic symbolism that the daily newspaper would have it be.
Sen. Turner's endorsement of Issue 6 has been denunciated by Cleveland's black political leadership, including former City Council President George Forbes, who now is legal counsel to the Call & Post.
Although Issue 6 was dubbed a bipartisan movement by the daily paper because of the high-profile involvement in its creation and promotion by a few Democrats, one of its clearest intents is to ensure the election of more Republicans to county offices. Not only is that likely to dilute the power of black political leaders within the Democratic Party, but there are indications that the districting drawn up by the Republican-oriented reform movement will dilute black representation on the new 11-member county council.
It is little wonder that black leaders, by and large, along with the newspaper that reflects their interests, opposed Issue 6. It would be more wondrous why the daily newspaper blurred the lines between reportage and editorialization in its bold campaign for county-government reform over the past year -- if it had not gone hand in hand with its supra-judicial criminal conviction of Cuyahoga County Democratic leadership in print.
It is no wonder whatsoever why Sen. Turner, who is completing her first year on the Ohio Senate and served just three years on Cleveland City Council prior to that, has become the darling of Cleveland's daily newspaper while becoming Aunt Jemima to its African-American newspaper.
For the Call & Post, which pointedly argued that Sen. Turner's support of Issue 6 was a sell-out to white political leaders, the offensive cartoon was a rational extension of that argument. Those who disagree could challenge the accuracy of that interpretation with facts on how government reform will enhance black political representation -- or they simply can be offended by a cartoon.
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