Editorial cartoon of Sonia Sotomayor as a pinata is called racist
The pinata cartoon
Once again an editorial cartoon involving President Barack Obama is being criticized as racist. But this time, Obama’s not the focus of those offended.
The Oklahoma Women’s Coalition — among others — is upset over a drawing of Sonia Sotomayor and Barack Obama that ran last week in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper, reports Bruce Tomaso on the Dallas Morning News’ Trail Blazers blog. Tomaso describes the cartoon:
The cartoon shows U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor hanging from a tree like a piñata. Nearby, President Barack Obama, in a sombrero, is handing out bats to elephants (Republican senators?), saying, “Now, who wants to be first?”
Tomaso reports that Jean Warner, who chairs the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition, wrote that the cartoon is “stupid and damaging.” Tomaso also thinks the drawing is stupid:
The cultural imagery, moreover, doesn’t make any sense. Both the sombrero and the piñata are Mexican in origin. Mexicans are no more Puerto Rican than, well, Oklahomans are Texans.
The cartoon was drawn by Chip Bok of the Creators Syndicate. It appears the Oklahoman was the only paper to publish this particular cartoon.
From an article in Editor & Publisher:
“Did the journalistic community not learn anything from the New York Post monkey cartoon?” asks Joni L. Reynolds of news site The Daily Voice. “Are there any minorities in these newsrooms when they are reviewing these cartoons?”
Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
………lessons from the Sotomeyer cartoon, and the chimp cartoon?
Yes indeed, cartoonists beware, we live in an ad nauseam age of political correctness. Steve, are you seriously suggesting that no Supreme Court nominee that has not (rightly) felt like a pinata? (sorry I don’t know how to put the squiggly thing over the “n”).
Regarding the chimp cartoon, you know that it was published on the heels of the face-eating attack chimp that the police had to shoot. It was NOT a racist suggestion of President Obama, but was (and you know it) intended to suggest that the stimulus bill seemed so silly by its critics, as to have been written by chimps.
It is a sad day for journalists, political cartoonists and America, when everyone is sooo damned afraid of ANYONE who gets offended by (it seems) every possible angle on everything.
I don’t think that Obama’s skin is as dark as it appears in this cartoon. Seems like the cartoonist is trying to make him more black that he really is, which is a bit racist. Also, why on earth would elephants be wielding sticks? That seems to be a bit species-ist.
It’s a political cartoon. The same people who whine would be silent if it were a conservative portrayed the same way.
Yeah, just ask Letterman.
who cares, its just a cartoon
One thing about left wing nutjobs: they sure have thin skin.
Left wing nutjob here.
No, the Sotomayor cartoon is not racist. Calling a latina a pinata is not considered an insult. Kinda silly, since pinatas are not Puerto Rican, but the point is made.
Yes, the Obama cartoon was racist. You are an idiot, or pretending to be one if you don’t think so. Calling a black person a chimp or a monkey is considered offensive, and we all know it.
For anyone who cares to disagree with me, I have a challenge for you:
Let’s meet up. First we’ll go to Cherokee street, and I’ll find the biggest, meanest looking latino I can find, and I’ll call him a pinata. Then we’ll go to north St. Louis, where we’ll find the biggest, meanest black guy we can find, and you can call him a monkey.
Any takers?