The Cover

So yesterday's big buzz was all about the New Yorker's cover featuring Barack and Michelle Obama as terrorists in the White House. The buzz on this thing was so strong that it seemed to permeate every online community I'm a part of (not to mention all the papers and CNN). But while others waxed poetic, humming the usual melodies of how outraged they were by it, it was my Dad, as usual, who helped me to look at it through an objective lens.

If it had been a case of blatant racism on the New Yorker's part, that wouldn't have necessarily been a big surprise to me. Though liberal, it's a very white publication that serves a tiny community of liberal arts sort of folks. Were I not a writer or a New York resident, it's a book that could very easily slip my mind in the way that Jet might for some white guy in Indiana, not really on the radar. But in case you don't know, The New York specializes in these sorts of covers. They take the hot person of the week and make fun of them in a certain kind of way. It's all in fun and in it's own kind of protest.

But when it comes to Black folks, satire isn't something we've ever been big on outside of In Living Color or hip-hop diss records. And even when it came to those, people have gotten hurt and killed on several occasions (I won't even bother to list them) merely due to the power of their own voice. We're not used to seeing our people in such positions of influence that they get publicly lampooned outside of the occasional pop star or crossover act. Even the largest scandals that involved Black politicians (Marion Barry, Jesse Jackson as baby daddy, or even Jocelyn Elders for that matter) were never big enough to make the cover of a white magazine. In it's own way this is progress, as it reflects the fact that certain circle that usually doesn't give us the time of day feels the need to open up their pages when it comes to this election. And even if the New Yorker had published the drawing with malicious intent, it would only serve to shine a spotlight on a population that I think we all knew was already there.

The other interesting factor is what came out of the polls done by CNN as a result of this whole controversy. Out the folks they polled nearly 30% thought that Obama actually was a practicing Muslim or that they didn't know for sure. Apparently these folks haven't been following any of the campaign coverage, the Jeremiah Wright scandal, or any of the other public domain pieces of journalism that have been as prolific as air molecules in the last few months. This means that all of the point-by-points and play by plays that we take in as part of the countless avenues we use to get out news don't seem to travel past a certain point. We fill up all of this airtime and a good number of folks (maybe even the majority) still don't get it.

My analysis of the whole deal comes out to two things. First and foremost, Obama supporters need to be most concerned with gaining the votes of all the folks who could vote for him and not concern themselves with his enemies. Second, if we as part of an educated public, want to make sure that the right guy wins in November, we have to do our part to see that the right information get to the right sets of ears. With that being said I'm going to continue rebuilding my website. The new version should be up in a matter of weeks. Out.