Editor & Publisher picks up on a controversy I’ve been blogging here for a couple of days:
NEW YORK Cartoonist David Cohen of the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times is being criticized over his cartoon depicting a black thug with a gun pointed to a white man saying, “I’m going to put a cap in your a**,” accompanied by an image of President Obama pointing a finger at a white man and saying, “I’m putting a cap on your salary!” Alan Gardner reports on his blog The Daily Cartoonist.
In response, Cohen tells the site the comic was just employing a creative play on words to express a point about Obama’s policies.
“A lot of my work, for those who have followed it over the years, is based on the glories of the English language and it’s many opportunities for satire and manipulation,” Cohen says. “When I heard about the salary cap proposed by the President, my mind looked for a comparable phrase that might be related and cartoonable. I have personally heard, not only in person, but also in published, broadcast music, the phrase, “putting a cap in yo’ ass”, not to mention a Chris Rock routine on Comedy Central.
“Now, to illustrate that point, I drew a black man pointing a gun at a white man. Not to represent ALL black people; A black person. Every white person that I draw only represents that person, not all white people.”
Note that the cartoon did not run in the Citizen-Times. It was published online.