Reactions to Blitt's satirical cover-art have been disparate to say the least, ranging from urges for editor David Remnick's resignation to comparisons to the (well-received) ironic comedy of Stephen Colbert. & of course, there are those who wish to know what the drama is really about (really).
Being one who embarrassingly lacks in the political department, I don't claim to possess an enlightened perspective on "The Politics of Fear" & if I did, I'm sure someone else has already written about it by now. I do believe that every generation contains it's own cultural borders which may not appear so distinct during the time. Art (speaking liberally) is meant to generate discourse & satire is meant to generate...an ironic chuckle? I've read that Blitt's fault lies in his "gutless" caricature of the Obama's; that had Blitt only made more of an overstatement to show this. really. was. satire. - America would have been left less confused & offended.
If anyone cares, the (serious) articles within this weeks issue related to Obama are pretty good.
Read them here & here.
2 comments:
Here in the States, the cover has been THE topic of discussion all over the media (I've been listening to too many radio talk shows).
Here's a good breakdown of the cover's negative aspects: http://www.racialicious.com/2008/07/14/the-new-yorker-and-hipster-racism/
Read through some of the comments, if you have the time. The reason this satire failed is because not everyone "got" the joke and actually took this seriously (the idiocy of some Americans), thus The New Yorker had to explain its intentions on national news. If they have to resort to that, it's pretty clear that their intentions were not obvious.
Although I understand the satire, the cover's ridiculous and not funny, it just reinforces the racism and intolerance that still plagues America, despite its attempt to criticize the racist stereotypes themselves.
Yeah, I read that people were actually taking the cartoon to be truth which is possibly the greatest contribution to the failure of the satire. If it had been an exaggeration & not so ambiguously close to what some believe to be reality, the message may have been better received (in some senses).
The re-appropriation of racial stereotypes are really still unsuitable for those who don't belong in said race.
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