Are All Anti-Obama Cartoons Off Limits?
Now that the creator of the Obama Joker image has been identified as 20-year-old Chicago history major, Firas Alkhateeb, can we put to rest the claim that the image is hate speech or racism? Philip Kennicott in a recent Washington Post column declared the poster racially charged, writing, “The charge of socialism is secondary to the basic message that Obama can’t be trusted, not because he is a politician, but because he’s black.”
It is interesting to compare the reaction to this work with another famous Obama influenced piece. During the campaign, we had the iconic image of Obama, the multicolored now legendary work of artist / businessman Shepard Fairey. The Fairey image and Obama’s use of it during the election was propaganda use at its best, and no one can deny the important role it played in his successful campaign: presenting and positioning Obama as the candidate for a younger generation.
It’s common for the left to declare imagery or art contra to their beliefs to be evil propaganda, and it is also a tool of the left to declare one at least partially racist for criticizing this president. Guilt is a powerful weapon and so is art. Yet, for decades art which was anti-Nixon, anti-Reagan, and anti-Bush was the weapon of revolutionaries and romantic freedom fighters.
Patrick Courrielche, writing in Reason Online wonders if,
the incendiary criticism will keep others from creating similar images. But regardless of political affiliation, the art community must embrace all rational dissenters. Art must not exclusively serve the interests of any presidential administration.
An excellent point. Its doubtful, however, that anyone in the art world is listening.
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