Michael is all "Black Lives Matters" Trump bad, Kamala good. Conservatism bad, LGBTQ and killing babies good. So it does give him cover when he illustrates things like this. Keep up your white liberal work Mike
There goes the ‘comments so far are awesome’ thanks to The Average Bear. The bear must be one of those ‘common sense’ conservatives who missed out on the common sense part.
Recently retired middle school counselor here. We had a wonderful woman as our head custodian, she loved the kids but would get on them when needed. She would frequently refer to them as “monkeys” or “little monkeys.” This woman is from Romania and I felt the need to invite her into my office and explain why we don’t the word monkey to refer to our kids. She was absolutely aghast. I also explained I knew she was not aware of our special American brand of racism, that’s why I explained it to her. She thanked me and never used it again. To be fair, sometimes kids are referred to as “monkeys” meaning they’re chattering a lot or bouncing around a lot or whatever. But to be safe, we educators NEVER use the word to describe people.
I really appreciate your acknowledgement here. As Maya Angelou says “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
Thanks--a really useful post. That "didn't see"/"can't unsee" dichotomy is just going to come up from time to time. And you outlined the issues clearly.
At the stratospheric level of absolute brilliance that you consistently zoom at, once in a while a gnat will get into your jets… keep going! I will be upgrading to paid soon. Your work is much appreciated and treasured
I have found almost all jokes and satire have an opportunity to be misinterpreted. It goes with the territory. Ideally, the message takes into consideration obvious offense, but also courageous enough to walk the line.
I also think all parties can learn from misinterpreted messages, asking ourselves how our biases often blind us to factual views.
As soon as I read "monkey" in your description of the cartoon, I realized "uh, oh". You are a class act, Michael, and draw perfectly skewered, darkly humorous, depictions of politics. I know you'd never offend vulnerable persons. I am looking at the plates picture, and frankly, I cannot tell which are upside down (?). But I know what you mean by unseeing the second look. Life in perspective. Thank you so much for your humanity. And skewering.
Oh jeez! What a minefield! (BTW, I still can’t seem to make the plates appear right way!) That last cartoon and your explanation of the candidates running made me cringe. So sorry for you.
I've been a fan for years and now have a subscription so I can appreciate all your work asap. You're only human. You made a mistake. The important thing is that you apologized. It takes an honest person to stand up in front of everyone and be humble enough to admit it and vow to do better.
White people make racist mistakes no matter how innocent. You just don't always see the racism. People have made racist comments to me and when I was younger I didn't always know it right away.
Mr. de Adder before you apologized to Mr. Johnson you initially wrote a different post on his FB page accusing Darrly of making this all about him and you stated " that was not only wrong but insanly wrong" you later removed that post and quickly replaced it with a politically correct apology. You referred to your first reaction as " getting you back up" . I say when people show you who they are believe them. I believe your initial reaction that you removed is who you are. If you are that familiar with the anti-Black history of Africian Nova Scotian and an award winning cartoon artist I'm sure your well aware that the image of a monkey to depict Obama and most resently Prince Archie. Thank you for showing Africian Nova Scotians who YOU really. Mr. Johnsons instincts about you are not false !
I was labelled a racist for something about a black candidate, when I didn't even know there was a black candidate running. It was like I was in a Kurt Vonnegut novel. It did take me a minute to compose myself. Maybe I did like Maya Angelou said, show people who I am. I fight for injustice. I felt this was unjust. I fought.
But....
If there is a Maya Angelou quote that inspired me here it's this one:
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
I realised that nobody will remember the content of the cartoon. Everybody will remember how the cartoon made them feel. Maybe that's what I should focus on instead of how this is affecting "me."
I think people can do the right thing, even if it comes a bit late.
Michael is all "Black Lives Matters" Trump bad, Kamala good. Conservatism bad, LGBTQ and killing babies good. So it does give him cover when he illustrates things like this. Keep up your white liberal work Mike
And you thought your drawing of Chrétien's left hand was doing double duty as a fig leaf, whereas your critics saw the title, "soft power" as performing another sort of double duty. PS Many thanks for recommending my substack blog.
The word "dog" is a minefield logistically on an international level. In many cultures dogs are despised street scavengers, and the minute you bring the word dog into a conversation they suspect you are trying to insult someone. I learned this from personal experience.
How are his concerns false? Intent versus impact; your intent was to highlight the number or candidates while the impact in using a monkey when one of the candidates is black is real and painful. His concerns, my concerns, and the concerns of many people who not only found the cartoon offensive but now question the editorial process of the newspaper. You mean to tell me no one saw a problem with the cartoon? You claim you didn’t know but I am quite sure others at the paper did.
Who on this earth is infallible? We all have our own perspectives based on our own individual and cultural experiences. How we interact with each other when there is a perceived misunderstanding or what we think is more than that , says a lot about how willing we are to educate or at least give the benefit of the doubt to others so that we can help break down cultural barriers. Sometimes people can believe that someone was targeting someone or negligent or ignorant when truly that (so called offensive person ) may just not have known any better or they maybe were just not dialed into what everyone thinks is common knowledge. This is tricky territory and also ..isn’t this just what we need to analyze and investigate? It’s dangerous to just draw conclusions ( pardon the pun) .. seriously… this artist deserves to at least be given the courtesy of putting forth an explanation before the torches get lit. 🔥
The comments so far as awesome. Thank you.
Michael is all "Black Lives Matters" Trump bad, Kamala good. Conservatism bad, LGBTQ and killing babies good. So it does give him cover when he illustrates things like this. Keep up your white liberal work Mike
There goes the ‘comments so far are awesome’ thanks to The Average Bear. The bear must be one of those ‘common sense’ conservatives who missed out on the common sense part.
Recently retired middle school counselor here. We had a wonderful woman as our head custodian, she loved the kids but would get on them when needed. She would frequently refer to them as “monkeys” or “little monkeys.” This woman is from Romania and I felt the need to invite her into my office and explain why we don’t the word monkey to refer to our kids. She was absolutely aghast. I also explained I knew she was not aware of our special American brand of racism, that’s why I explained it to her. She thanked me and never used it again. To be fair, sometimes kids are referred to as “monkeys” meaning they’re chattering a lot or bouncing around a lot or whatever. But to be safe, we educators NEVER use the word to describe people.
I really appreciate your acknowledgement here. As Maya Angelou says “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
As always, we love your work!
Thanks--a really useful post. That "didn't see"/"can't unsee" dichotomy is just going to come up from time to time. And you outlined the issues clearly.
At the stratospheric level of absolute brilliance that you consistently zoom at, once in a while a gnat will get into your jets… keep going! I will be upgrading to paid soon. Your work is much appreciated and treasured
I have found almost all jokes and satire have an opportunity to be misinterpreted. It goes with the territory. Ideally, the message takes into consideration obvious offense, but also courageous enough to walk the line.
I also think all parties can learn from misinterpreted messages, asking ourselves how our biases often blind us to factual views.
A wonderful admission of being human!
Hey, writing on behalf of the monkey community, that animal is clearly an ape, specifically a chimpanzee, and no monkey!
Contrary to backward thinking, we don't all look alike! /s
BTW, thank you for your efforts to clean up your inadvertent mistake.
As soon as I read "monkey" in your description of the cartoon, I realized "uh, oh". You are a class act, Michael, and draw perfectly skewered, darkly humorous, depictions of politics. I know you'd never offend vulnerable persons. I am looking at the plates picture, and frankly, I cannot tell which are upside down (?). But I know what you mean by unseeing the second look. Life in perspective. Thank you so much for your humanity. And skewering.
Oh jeez! What a minefield! (BTW, I still can’t seem to make the plates appear right way!) That last cartoon and your explanation of the candidates running made me cringe. So sorry for you.
I've been a fan for years and now have a subscription so I can appreciate all your work asap. You're only human. You made a mistake. The important thing is that you apologized. It takes an honest person to stand up in front of everyone and be humble enough to admit it and vow to do better.
I can't see the plates right side up.
White people make racist mistakes no matter how innocent. You just don't always see the racism. People have made racist comments to me and when I was younger I didn't always know it right away.
Mr. de Adder before you apologized to Mr. Johnson you initially wrote a different post on his FB page accusing Darrly of making this all about him and you stated " that was not only wrong but insanly wrong" you later removed that post and quickly replaced it with a politically correct apology. You referred to your first reaction as " getting you back up" . I say when people show you who they are believe them. I believe your initial reaction that you removed is who you are. If you are that familiar with the anti-Black history of Africian Nova Scotian and an award winning cartoon artist I'm sure your well aware that the image of a monkey to depict Obama and most resently Prince Archie. Thank you for showing Africian Nova Scotians who YOU really. Mr. Johnsons instincts about you are not false !
I was labelled a racist for something about a black candidate, when I didn't even know there was a black candidate running. It was like I was in a Kurt Vonnegut novel. It did take me a minute to compose myself. Maybe I did like Maya Angelou said, show people who I am. I fight for injustice. I felt this was unjust. I fought.
But....
If there is a Maya Angelou quote that inspired me here it's this one:
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
I realised that nobody will remember the content of the cartoon. Everybody will remember how the cartoon made them feel. Maybe that's what I should focus on instead of how this is affecting "me."
I think people can do the right thing, even if it comes a bit late.
And so what are we to think of you, Mr. Douglas Hill?
Mr. Hill has a point.
Michael is all "Black Lives Matters" Trump bad, Kamala good. Conservatism bad, LGBTQ and killing babies good. So it does give him cover when he illustrates things like this. Keep up your white liberal work Mike
And you thought your drawing of Chrétien's left hand was doing double duty as a fig leaf, whereas your critics saw the title, "soft power" as performing another sort of double duty. PS Many thanks for recommending my substack blog.
Thank you, now I have added another subscription, culled from a comment, your blog. Cheers.
Oh, boy. You really can't unsee things, can you? It should have been "everyone and his dog". Anyway, you are very talented.
But, if a lone woman was running....
The word "dog" is a minefield logistically on an international level. In many cultures dogs are despised street scavengers, and the minute you bring the word dog into a conversation they suspect you are trying to insult someone. I learned this from personal experience.
How are his concerns false? Intent versus impact; your intent was to highlight the number or candidates while the impact in using a monkey when one of the candidates is black is real and painful. His concerns, my concerns, and the concerns of many people who not only found the cartoon offensive but now question the editorial process of the newspaper. You mean to tell me no one saw a problem with the cartoon? You claim you didn’t know but I am quite sure others at the paper did.
Who on this earth is infallible? We all have our own perspectives based on our own individual and cultural experiences. How we interact with each other when there is a perceived misunderstanding or what we think is more than that , says a lot about how willing we are to educate or at least give the benefit of the doubt to others so that we can help break down cultural barriers. Sometimes people can believe that someone was targeting someone or negligent or ignorant when truly that (so called offensive person ) may just not have known any better or they maybe were just not dialed into what everyone thinks is common knowledge. This is tricky territory and also ..isn’t this just what we need to analyze and investigate? It’s dangerous to just draw conclusions ( pardon the pun) .. seriously… this artist deserves to at least be given the courtesy of putting forth an explanation before the torches get lit. 🔥