I assume you’ve seen the cover of this week’s New Yorker magazine? It features Michelle and Barack Obama and the picture is NOT flattering. See it here.
Click here for my reaction.
Now let me expand a little on this offensive picture. First of all, give The New Yorker credit for one thing; they’ve been successful in capturing media attention and I’m sure sales will sky rocket this week. But should that really be the end game?
I know they say it’s satire and that it is just a joke. Ha Ha. Look, The New Yorker ain’t National Review. They’re liberal so there’s an argument in there somewhere as they try to say that the picture is the unfair portrayal of Obama by his right wing critics. But c’mon. Give me a break.
Visuals mean something. They are very powerful and when a high profile magazine like The New Yorker comes out with something like this, the mainstream media takes notice. If the media takes notice, it will seep into public discussion across America. The New Yorker may think that’s a good thing but those images in the controversial picture feed into a certain stereotype. And while The New Yorker may think that portrayal isn’t accurate, Obama’s critics on the right think the picture is spot on. I mean, this thing has ‘copy and paste” written all over it. Expect to see this jpeg picture popping up in conservative emails everywhere. Also, the picture can and will be used as future discussion points about some of the Obama ‘controversies”.
The biggest problem I have with it is that, satire or not, it plays into this stereotype game we have out there. Here’s what I mean. Very often we try and label people or groups of people a certain way. Obama and his wife are being labeled a certain way and quite frankly it doesn’t reflect the entire story at all. Sure both of them have made statements in the past that raise concerns of some Americans but that doesn’t mean they are these crazy left wing America hating Muslims who have a racial chip on their shoulder. That’s called an unfair caricature and Evangelicals should be especially sensitive to stuff like this.
How many times do Evangelicals get portrayed as right wing nut jobs when it’s simply not true? How many times have Evangelicals been portrayed negatively in pictures? I’m sure Evangelicals take offense when that happens because people don’t fully understand the complete story. Same thing here. It’s apples and apples. Playing the stereotype game is dangerous and silly because it puts a person or a group of people into a simple box. It requires a lack of thinking and ignoring the complexities involved.