Is Orange the New Black?

HuffPo:

A political cartoon published Monday in Illinois outlet the Belleville News-Democrat appears to draw parallels between DeVos and civil rights activist Ruby Bridges. In 1960, at the age of 6, Bridges became the first black child to integrate a segregated, all-white elementary school. Federal marshals had to escort the child into the school while crowds of people taunted her.

Her story was documented in a famous Norman Rockwell painting, called “The Problem We All Live With.” The painting looks similar to the cartoon drawn by conservative artist Glenn McCoy, which depicts Betsy DeVos instead of Bridges.

Glenn McCoy is one of my favorite political cartoonists from the right. I like his drawing style, as much as the political wit infused in much of his cartoons.

Well, this time he seems to have struck a nerve. A friend on Facebook linked to a petition to have news rags drop McCoy.

That should not happen. People can react differently to the cartoon and have different opinions; but, truly, how is it so outrageous and offensive, that it rises to the level of cyber torches and pitchforks?

McCoy’s reaction:

“My cartoon was about how, in this day and age, decades beyond the civil rights protests, it’s sad that people are still being denied the right to speak freely or do their jobs or enter public buildings because others disagree with who they are or how they think,” he said in the statement. “I’m surprised that some readers see ‘hate’ in this cartoon when I thought I was speaking out against hate.”

Many Twitter users were offended by the cartoon, which they viewed as putting forward a false equivalency between DeVos, who faced questions about her qualifications for a Cabinet position, and a child facing violence for desegregating a school.

McCoy went on to say that he truly saw similarities between those two situations, and that he feels protestors were hateful toward DeVos when they blocked her from entering a Washington, D.C. public school last week.

“The drawing depicts a woman passively walking while being protected from angry protesters,” he said in the statement. “Isn’t that what went down the other day when Devos visited a school to do her job? You may disagree with her on issues but I didn’t see any hate coming from her. I did, however see hate going in the other direction which is what made me think of the Rockwell image.”

McCoy apologized if “anyone was offended” by his visual metaphor, but said he wanted to open up a dialogue in what he characterized as a toxic political climate.

“The level of toxicity in today’s political climate has reached ridiculous levels,” his statement concluded. “I regret if anyone was offended by my choice of metaphors but my intention was to focus on the protesters being hateful and to open up a dialogue on this point.”

Cartoons are often engaged in hyperbole- the very nature of drawing caricatures is often done with exaggerated features. How is this cartoon any more offensive than any number of hyperbolic comparisons that are made by others, all the time? Like comparisons of Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler?

This cartoon offends the taste buds of liberals into public complaints worthy of garnering media headlines? But not past cartoons like these:

I’d say a lot of political cartoons can often cross the lines of good taste and offensiveness. Just shrug your shoulders and turn the page.

The hoopla from the left is only good advertisement and exposure for more and more people becoming aware of Glenn McCoy’s excellent, conservative cartoons. I bet before this attention, a lot of people have never seen any of his work. So keep feeding that “troll”.