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Serena Williams cartoon 'nothing to do with race,' Australian Herald Sun paper says

LT56

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Serena Williams cartoon 'nothing to do with race,' Australian Herald Sun paper says



An Australian newspaper has doubled down on a cartoon of multiple Grand Slam tennis champion Serena Williams widely denounced as racist both at home and in the US.

In a statement Tuesday, Herald Sun editor Damon Johnston said the cartoon "had nothing to do with gender or race."

"A champion tennis player had a mega tantrum on the world stage, and (the) cartoon depicted that," he said, referring to a piece published by cartoonist Mark Knight Monday after the US Open final in which Williams had a dispute with the umpire over his allegedly sexist treatment of her.


The cartoon showed Williams jumping up and down next to a broken racket and pacifier, with large, exaggerated lips and nose reminiscent of racist depictions of black people in the US during the Jim Crow era.

Williams' opponent, Japan's Naomi Osaka, is depicted as a skinny blonde woman, to whom the umpire is saying: "Can't you just let her win?"


The US-based National Association of Black Journalists said the cartoon was "repugnant on many levels."

"(It) not only exudes racist, sexist caricatures of both women, but Williams' depiction is unnecessarily sambo-like," the group said in a statement. "The art of editorial cartooning is a visual dialogue on the issues of the day, yet this cartoon grossly inaccurately depicts two women of color at the US Open, one of the grandest stages of professional sports."

But the Melbourne-based tabloid newspaper stood firm against the backlash, with editor Johnston on Tuesday evening tweeting an image of Wednesday's upcoming provocative front page.

Its headline, "Welcome to PC World," was accompanied by a "Satire Free Zone" stamp and surrounded on all sides by previous Knight cartoons of politicians and reasons why they were offensive.


It featured an image of former prime minister Tony Abbott depicted as Hannibal Lecter with the caption "Banned: Big ears, cannibal mask," and a topless Kim Jong Un with the words "Blocked: Belly fat, Asian stereotype."

It also repeated the image of Williams with the caption "Vetoed: Large hair and lips, too angry."

"If the self-appointed censors of Mark Knight get their way on his Serena Williams cartoon, our new politically correct life will be very dull indeed," said the front page.

Angry reaction

Knight -- an award-winning cartoonist who has worked for the Herald Sun for decades -- told his employer he was "amazed" by the reaction to the cartoon, which he said did not attract significant criticism until it was picked up on Twitter by users in the US.

"It's been picked up by social media in the US and my phone has just melted down," he said. "The world has just gone crazy." Later Tuesday, Knight appeared to have deleted his Twitter account.

Criticism was voiced from within Australia, however, where the furore comes after months of hand-wringing and criticism over the country's attitudes toward race after a neo-Nazi was invited on the air by a national broadcaster.

Is Australia becoming a more racist country?
Is Australia becoming a more racist country?
"I take no pleasure in saying this, but, right now, it feels like there has never been a more exciting time to be a dog-whistling politician or race-baiting commentator in Australia," outgoing Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane said last month.

On Twitter, Australian author Benjamin Law compared headlines from American newspapers that "matter-of-factly" described Knight's cartoon as racist to coverage within his country.

"It isn't a subjective call," he said. "Embarrassing to see the Herald Sun doesn't realise defending Knight's cartoon supports the case swathes of Australian media is blind to its own racism."

This isn't the first time Knight's work has been criticized in this manner. A cartoon from August 10 was widely denounced after it depicted faceless black figures destroying a Melbourne subway station, echoing a caricature of African gang crime in the city that is not supported by statistics.

"The racist vilification of Melburnians from the Herald Sun continues apace," local lawmaker Rohan Leppert wrote in response to that cartoon. "Utterly shameful."

Lack of representation

Despite Australia's proud multiculturalism and the fact that today one in four Australians was born abroad, the upper strata of society remain predominantly white.

According to a report by the Australian Human Rights Commission earlier this year, 95% "of senior leaders in Australia have an Anglo-Celtic or European background."

In business, the report found there was "a combined total of 11 chief executives who have a non-European or Indigenous background," or 3% of the total.

Indigenous people are especially under-represented, and have themselves been the subject of racist cartoons in the Australian press.

Knight was denounced for a 2012 cartoon published on Australia Day, which marks the start of European colonization of the continent, while the late Bill Leak was frequently criticized for his portrayals of indigenous people.

While the US has deep racial divides and ongoing issues related to the legacy of slavery and post-Reconstruction discrimination, it is more diverse than Australia. Non-white people make up over 23% of the population, and 11% of members of Congress are people of color. The voices of non-white people are also more prominent in the US media than Australia's.

On Twitter, Australian musician Eddie Perfect, who is based in the US, reflected on this difference after he received some criticism for calling out Knight's cartoon.

"Got about 200 tweets from Aussies angry I 'spoke for them,'" he said. "This cartoon hit hard in the US. Things are VERY different here, where image, race, history and struggle are REAL."

In a follow-up tweet, Perfect said he frequently hears comments from Americans about Australians being racist "and it stings."

"(It) stings because it's a generalisation, but also because it's often true," he added. "You don't have to look hard to see and hear it. And today's cartoon SHOCKED Americans."

Australian broadcaster Neil Mitchell took the opposite tack on his morning radio show on Melbourne-based 3AW.

Following an interview with the cartoonist, he said the reaction "shows an awful misunderstanding of Mark Knight and this country."

"I looked at that cartoon and it didn't even cross my mind it was about race," he said.

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Hmmmmmmm...

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.cnn...stralia-racist-cartoon-serena-intl/index.html
 

oldjones

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Australian broadcaster Neil Mitchell took the opposite tack on his morning radio show on Melbourne-based 3AW.

Following an interview with the cartoonist, he said the reaction "shows an awful misunderstanding of Mark Knight and this country."

"I looked at that cartoon and it didn't even cross my mind it was about race," he said.
One mind heard from. Clearly, many others had different thoughts. Perhaps if Neil Mitchell had spent his life feeling he and people like him were the butt of "sambo-like" cartoons, his mind might have been crossed in a different direction.

It's why intelligent media professionals test things and have their artists do alternative versions.

Oh, well. Too soon old; too late smart. I'm sure Serena can cope.
 

essguy_

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The cartoon is pretty bad. Not only is Williams a total racial caricature, he makes Osaka (Japanese/Haitian) look like some blonde Barbie maybe that was to balance his portrayal of Williams?.

Ironically, Osaka likely had a hard time growing up in homogeneous Japan. I worked there for almost 2 years, earlier in my career. "Mixed race" Japanese have to adopt Japanese surnames. I had a colleague whose father was Chinese and Mother Japanese. Even though his given name was Chinese, he had business cards with an adopted Japanese name. I have memories of riding the subway and seeing uniformed school kids playing loudly together and one mixed race (Black/Japanese) kid sitting all by himself further away. It's a very, very xenophobic culture that is finally changing but slowly. Apparently with Osaka's win she is being embraced in Japan as a hero which is a good sign.
 

LT56

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The cartoon is right on, not the first time she has temper tantrum.

Martina Navratilova criticizes Serena Williams' behavior at US Open final

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2018/...erena-williams-behavior-at-us-open-final.html
It’s not the fact that the artist criticized Serena for having a tantrum; it’s the way he drew her image that many are objecting to.

At first I wondered whether perhaps the cartoonist was unaware of the history of how cartoon caricatures were used to insult and marginalized blacks in the US given that the artist is Australian. But then I read the Atlantic article above where they note that he had submitted a similarly demeaning, racialized caricature of Barack Obama to the Daily KOS the week before and received some rather stern feedback from them as a result. All he did was argue with the Daily KOS editor, though, and then he submitted a similarly racialized caricature of Serena the next week...so it kinda looks like he knows what he’s doing and he’s doing it on purpose.

FWIW...I think Serena’s behaviour at the open was appalling but that’s not the point. The issue is how her race is being depicted in the cartoon.
 

shack

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It’s not the fact that the artist criticized Serena for having a tantrum; it’s the way he drew her image that many are objecting to.
Aren't cartoons supposed to be "cartoonish"? There are always some exaggeration of features which, IMO, should be accepted as part of the context of a cartoon.
 

LT56

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Aren't cartoons supposed to be "cartoonish"? There are always some exaggeration of features which, IMO, should be accepted as part of the context of a cartoon.
That’s what the cartoonist would argue.

Have a look at the Atlantic article I posted- they assert that it is possible to make cartoonish caricatures of black people without drawing on historical racist images and stereotypes. It requires more research and sensitivity on the cartoonist’s part to do this but if you’re a professional cartoonist then it would seem to me that that is part of your job.

It’s like a writer’s not being allowed to use the N-word. Maybe it limits his ability to express himself but that’s the skill of being a writer.
 

shack

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it is possible to make cartoonish caricatures of black people without drawing on historical racist images and stereotypes. .
So what aspects of the cartoon are drawing on historical racist images and stereotypes and how could they have been drawn differently and still be a cartoon. Should it have been a portrait?
 

Smallcock

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Perhaps if Neil Mitchell had spent his life feeling he and people like him were the butt of "sambo-like" cartoons, his mind might have been crossed in a different direction.
It's not the 1920s anymore. Most people have never seen or heard of "sambo" in their entire lives.

As for the "tantrum" I can't comment because I didn't watch the game.
 

LT56

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It's not the 1920s anymore. Most people have never seen or heard of "sambo" in their entire lives.

As for the "tantrum" I can't comment because I didn't watch the game.
I’m not a historian but I could immediately tell from looking at that cartoon that it would be offensive to black people.





Coming from the guy who posted this pic, though, I’m not surprised that you don’t see a problem:
 

Ref

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Aren't cartoons supposed to be "cartoonish"? There are always some exaggeration of features which, IMO, should be accepted as part of the context of a cartoon.
Good point. Where would those cartoons of old be without Mulroney's exaggerated chin, Sr. Trudeau's teeth or Nixon's nose?
 

Smallcock

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I’m not a historian but I could immediately tell from looking at that cartoon that it would be offensive to black people.

Coming from the guy who posted this pic, though, I’m not surprised that you don’t see a problem:
How does it measure up to all the other cartoon depictions from that newspaper? My guess is that it's in line with the rest of his works, and that there are plenty of them that someone somewhere will find offensive.

Is it your belief that the cartoonist is racist or that he made a mistake or something else?

The other cartoon you reference is extreme accurate of the extreme Left, don't you think?
 

LT56

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How does it measure up to all the other cartoon depictions from that newspaper? My guess is that it's in line with the rest of his works, and that there are plenty of them that someone somewhere will find offensive.

Is it your belief that the cartoonist is racist or that he made a mistake or something else?

The other cartoon you reference is extreme accurate of the extreme Left, don't you think?
The evil looking spider with the Star of David over it’s head speaks for itself.
 

Smallcock

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Polaris

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There was an expression I heard from originating from Asia in the 1980's.

It was really simple, only two words.

"Fucking Aussies".

Guess nothing ever changes, eh?

:hippie:
 

oldjones

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It's not the 1920s anymore. Most people have never seen or heard of "sambo" in their entire lives.

As for the "tantrum" I can't comment because I didn't watch the game.
We're talking about a tasteless, thoughtless cartoon, not the excuses and explanations offered for it and for the reaction. Since you're not asking, it seems you know very well what it means. So do I.

So do the Australians I quoted, who first used the term.

And Google is there, if you don't.
 
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