Charlie Hebdo cartoons similar to when Irish were seen as apes

[barryqwalsh]

Teju Cole writing in New Yorker this week about Charlie Hebdo stated it best about the forces at play in the magazine at the center of the dreadful massacre in France.

Is it a satirical magazine that should be allowed print whatever it likes or did it shade into blatant racism in recent times?

Cole wrote: ”In recent years the magazine has gone specifically for racist and Islamophobic provocations, and its numerous anti-Islam images have been inventively perverse, featuring hook-nosed Arabs, bullet-ridden Korans, variations on the theme of sodomy, and mockery of the victims of a massacre.”

“It is not always easy to see the difference between a certain witty dissent from religion and a bullyingly racist agenda, but it is necessary to try.”

It is indeed. In the 19th century, cartoons depicting the Irish as apes were very popular in Britain and the US.

One cartoonist Thomas Nast made much of his reputation displaying the Irish as gross simian caricatures in Harper’s Weekly and urging that immigrants from Ireland be sent back home.

Charlie Hebdo cartoons similar to when Irish were seen as apes - IrishCentral.com

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Humans do like to dehumanize. Yellow horde, gooks and a lot more. Goes back further than that. Look at early political and social cartoons/drawings from here as well as other countries. They're vicious and racist and go straight for the gut.

Just as now, many of them rely on stereotyping and outright lies to denigrate whomever they decide is the current enemy. Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, gays, women; no one is safe.

FWIW, Charlie was known for lampooning just about everyone.

IMO, people are free to embrace their ignorance about their chosen hate group but free societies, like France and the US must not make any effort to curtail the expression of their opinions, ignorance or hate.

I would like to see terrorists (kkk, white supremacists, Westboro, other hate groups) off the face of the planet but as long as don't harm others, I'll support their right to spread stupidity and hate. Problem is, some of them kill to make their point.

Muslim or other terrorists (kkk, for example) - If they kill, they deserve to be killed.

 

[barryqwalsh]

Despite his racism his reputation has survived and he is known these days in cartooning circles as “The Father of the American Cartoon.”

The racist cartoon campaign against the Irish was used even more heavily against Blacks, portraying them as tree dwelling, monkeys, lazy, shiftless, often drunk.

Before he was the beloved Dr. Seuss, Theodor Seuss Geisel thrived on anti-Black, anti-Arab, anti-Japanese stereotype cartoons. He too survived as a major beloved figure.

Charlie Hebdo cartoons similar to when Irish were seen as apes - IrishCentral.com

 

[barryqwalsh]

The terrorist attacks in Paris were despicable and can't be justified in any way.

However, Charlie Hebdo is not a magazine, satirical or otherwise. It is a vile, nasty, sewer that was not witty or intellectual, just vulgar and crass.



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Charlie Hebdo cartoons similar to when Irish were seen as apes - IrishCentral.com

 

[8236]

Charlie also printed cartoons of nuns defecating on the pope and having orgies. The difference is that in Catholic France people take it with a pinch of salt, whereas in Saudi Arabia a man has just been sentenced to 1000 lashes to be performed 50 per week and 10 years in a comfortable Saudi jail for starting a 'liberal' blog.

To echo an Irish faction: No Surrender.