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October 13, 2004

That Racist Danzinger Cartoon Explained (?)

A lot of people don't seem to get the racist Jeff Danziger cartoon. It's not funny whether you get it or not, but here's the attempted joke. I think.

Condi Rice is being parodied as, I think, Butterfly McQueen from Gone With the Wind. This character -- a black maid/slave, I think, but I've never seen the film, so don't hold me to that -- says something like "I knows all about birthin' babies" early in the film. Then, when she's actually called upon to deliver a baby, she famously cries out, "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies." (Thanks to Phil for clarifying this.)

So, the cartoon is saying that Condi Rice is a black slave, and putting derogatory "black slang" into her mouth which is accepted in GWTW (I guess) but which is obviously considered insulting now.

And they have her, ahem, nursing aluminum tubes, making the "joke," I guess, that while before the war she knew all about about aluminum tubes, now she doesn't, and confesses ignorance.

That's what we call a real knee-slapper round Ace o' Spades parts.

Basically, I think Danziger just hates Condi Rice and wants to find an acceptable way of calling her, well, the n-word.

I don't think he succeeded.

If you want to call someone a "ni***r," Danziger, why not have the guts to just come out and say it?

You effete douchebag.

See? Not this passive aggressive bullshit.

Meanwhile, Hugh McBryde says he recieved the following response to his complaint about the cartoon. I don't know where the cartoon appeared on the NYT, if anywhere; they don't publish Danziger in the paper, at least, though it may be linked on the website somewhere.

Mr. McBryde:
It is of considerable importance to us. I haven't gotten back to you again because I didn't have all the facts. I still don't, but I can see that I should have given you an interim report.

Obviously the cartoon is racist and deeply offensive. Whether that means that Danziger himself is racist I don't know and don't much care. My only real concern is whether and to what extent this cartoon had any relation to The New York Times. (It certainly was not published in the newspaper.) As soon as I can answer that question for you, I will. In the meantime, thank you for bringing it to our attention.

Best, Bill Borders

I can't vouch that's a genuine response, and I can't really even vouch for Mr. McBryde, but I guess I provisionally trust that this is real.

Look, the cartoon is offensive. There's no getting around that.

Apologies: I used the c-word -- the bad four-letter c-word, not the fun Norm MacDonald one -- in this post originally. I think this is the second or third time I've resorted to that word on this blog, and the second or third time I've quickly edited it out.

It's one of the harshest curses out there, and it's not even a playful one. I shouldn't have used it, and I'm sorry if I offended anyone by it.

posted by Ace at 04:49 PM

Comments

Just curious: why does 'nigger' get stars but 'cunt' does not?

Posted by: Karol on October 13, 2004 04:58 PM

I'm stunned that Mr. Movie Expert hasn't seen GWTW. I saw it relatively late in life, but I figured you would have seen it before.

You have the anecdote mostly right (although I couldn't tell you the character's name.) One part you missed, is that earlier in the movie she talks about how much she knows about "birthin' babies". Only when the time comes to deliver (so to speak), does she confess her memorable line.

That's why the cartoon references both times, the before and after.

And yes, it is despicable racist demagoguery.

Posted by: Phil on October 13, 2004 04:59 PM

Karol,

Well, okay. First of all, I just changed "cunt" to "douchebag." I meant cunt, and I'd rather call him a cunt, but that's one of the few real cursewords left. You can call someone a motherfucker all day and not get a raised eyebrow.

I decided I shouldn't leave it in there. (Nothing to do with you, necessarily.) Everytime I use that word, I regret it.

Next: Why stars for "N***er" and not "C*nt"? Because some fucking douchebag content-filter already has me banned for "Violence/Racism/Hate." Besides, if you use that word, even clearly to accuse someone else of using it or meaning it, then the fucking left is going to pretend that you're just sitting on your site saying the n-word about black people.

Posted by: ace on October 13, 2004 05:09 PM

Phil,

Thanks. The "joke" doesn't even make sense without understanding that.

It is my plan to go to the grave without ever seeing GWTW or, for that matter, the Wizard of Oz.

Posted by: ace on October 13, 2004 05:32 PM

Ace,

Just to let you know, as a woman, I was not offended by your usage of the c-word. I normally abhor the word and rarely can I countenance its employment. However, in this case, it worked. That being said, I understand your descion to edit the word for the sake of civility. Don't worry, I will continue to be amused by you!

Posted by: Bohemian Conservative on October 13, 2004 05:59 PM

I think dropping random C-bomb's is a pretty fun game. Then again, I don't have may friends...

...

Maybe there's a connection I'm just not seeing.

LOL

Posted by: fat kid on October 13, 2004 06:08 PM

I liked GWTW far more than I expected I would. I'll never see Titanic, though.

Posted by: Joe R. the Unabrewer on October 13, 2004 06:27 PM

There are so many words in the English language that offer the chance to denounce an opponents beliefs. Though he has been gone from public life for more than forty years, Churchill was able to quickly put someone in their place without the use of the word you cite.

Posted by: JThomas Lowry on October 13, 2004 06:49 PM

How do folk such as Danzinger walk around all day without having their ass handed to them?

As for GWTW, how dare you Joe R...

Using GWTW and Titanic in the same conversation.

Posted by: jmflynny on October 13, 2004 07:23 PM

10/13/04

Dr. Rice is a sophisticated, well educated, intelligent, well informed, professional, confident, assertive, successful, conservative, republican, black, woman. According to the preconceived beliefs of the “Democratic” Party and the liberal left, she can not and does not exist. Some one like Dr. Rice terrifies them because they are afraid she will run for president some day. They feel compelled to continually oppose her, and denigrate her accomplishments. Who do they have at a national level to compare with her? Al Sharpton? Jesse Jackson? Hillary Clinton? Dr. Rice is one person who cannot be intimidated or ignored, but who can be counted on to powerfully support President Bush.

Lonnie Kendall

Posted by: Lonnie Kendall on October 13, 2004 07:31 PM

Mr. Lowry, do you really come to this site to hear Ace talk like Churchill?

Reminds me of something Charles Krauthammer said the other night on Special Report, when they were talking about the Democrats criticizing the "botched" Afghan elections: "It's like getting a dog to sing opera and complaining because the last aria was off-key."

No offense intended Ace - I really do come here for the cool barking sounds.

Posted by: The Black Republican on October 13, 2004 08:54 PM

The cartoon has vanished from the official hosting sites but Ramblings Journal –- a site which says it’s “The politically incorrect ramblings of a black conservative” -- saved a copy and has some comments.

Check it out here.

http://mhking.mu.nu/

BTW, if you haven't already you might want to think about adding his site to your blogrolls.

Posted by: Lastango on October 14, 2004 01:09 AM

This Danziger character has just demonstrated that he's not fit to lick the boots of someone who is fit to lick the boots of Condi Rice. I've never seen GWTW either, so I didn't get the reference (something about it is reminiscent of Porgy and Bess).

As for the dreaded c-word, I'm sure this is more a US English thing. It's still maximally taboo in the UK, but you hear it all the time. I remember a highly amusing interlude when a fellow Englishman and I regaled a guy from San Francisco with all the ways in which you could use the word. He swears like a trooper and even he was shocked. I use it all the time, albeit sotto voce for the most part.

Posted by: on October 14, 2004 02:40 AM

Apology accepted.

Posted by: sonofnixon on October 14, 2004 04:14 PM

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What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
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A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
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The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring.
I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do.
But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.

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The only bad part of the trilogy are the Frodo/Sam chapters in The Two Towers. They're repetitive, slow, and mostly about the weather and terrain. But most everything else is good. Weirdly, the Frodo-Sam chapters in Return of the King are exciting and action-packed and among the best in the trilogy. (Though the chapters with everyone else in Return of the King get pretty slow again. Mostly people talking about marching towards war, and then marching towards war.)

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