New York – The head of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization on Saturday urged readers to boycott the New York Post, calling a cartoon the tabloid published an invitation to assassinate the president.
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Earlier this week, the newspaper apologized to anyone who might have been offended by the image, which some say likens President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police in Connecticut.
But the apology wasn’t good enough for the NAACP, and President Benjamin Todd Jealous said the cartoon printed Wednesday was “an invitation to assassination.”
He said the tabloid should remove editor-in-chief Col Allan, as well as longtime cartoonist Sean Delonas.
On Thursday, after a series of protests by notable figures including director Spike Lee, the paper posted an editorial on its Web site saying the cartoon was meant to mock the federal economic stimulus bill, but “to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.”
A spokeswoman for the newspaper Saturday referred The Associated Press to the paper’s editorial when asked about the proposed NAACP boycott.
Jealous called the editorial “a half of an apology, without elaboration.” The drawing, he said, “picks off the scabs of all the racial wounds.”
He spoke as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gathered for its annual meeting in New York, where it was founded a century ago.
Jealous was joined by NAACP officials, including Chairman Julian Bond and Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who was honored with one of six new U.S. postage stamps officially unveiled Saturday. They commemorate the lifelong achievements of NAACP founders and leaders.
In addition to electing new board members, the NAACP is marking the centennial of the grass-roots organization that is still seeking reparations for slavery.
The NAACP officials said that if the Post does not take “serious disciplinary action,” they would reach out to organizations across the country to join them in their efforts against the tabloid.
Bond called publication of the cartoon “thoughtlessness taken to the extreme. … Anyone who is not offended by it does not have any sensitivity.”
ok fine..I won’t buy 2 copies of the post. I will buy 3.
In support of freedom of speech and freedom of press, lets all start buying the NY Post. It was a cartoon with a humorous message, and if they are so obsessed with their likeness to monkeys, let them deal with it.
let’s get the U.S. attorney in on this one.
stop already this is non scense.
how many times did they make fun of bush.
i always hated the post but now that I hear that the despicable NAACP is boycotting it i might start buying the post
I say We all buy the post for the next two Weeks.
Let’s judge this cartoon controversy based on its merits, not based on an “if the NAACP is against it then I must be for it” mentality.
Let’s face it, if there wasn’t some racist intention when drawn & submitted (and I find that hard to believe), the editors should have been doing their job of editting and realize that many will (rightfully) take offense.
Like the example given by a prior commentor: if there was a news story of an animal found in an oven, how would we react if a cartoon was published depicting that scene along with a caption “Well, I guess Bernie Madoff’s investing career is over”?
I support the boycott, however, I never bought that third grade level rag anyway. Whenever I would read it I somehow fealt the immediate need to shower afterwards.
If the cartoon was about Jews, would anybody be boycotting the paper or making so much noise like this?????
I am fed up with this! If anyone is too stupid to know the laws of the country as to who WRITES the bills or if they CHOOSE to play stupid then they could go to g’henim.
The #
$#$$% monkey wasnt referring to Obama or his momma! It was referring AS IT SAID! TO THE WRITERS! Zeh Hu!!
Enough with the shchoyrim like The Justice Brothers (Sharpton & Jackson) already who always scream “race” for any little stupid thing that they in their pithy minds think is race OR THEY COULD MAKE A BUCK ON! I am just plain sick of it! I worked hard on myself over the years from when I was a teen not to make racist “jokes” and I have been pretty succesful but whenver these above mentioned idiots or the NAALCP (National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People) open their mouths with stupid things flowing, it gets me back to where I was!
THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH OBAMA AND IF YOU THINK IT DID, THEN YOU ARE AN IDIOT LIKE NO OTHER!
(I Am So Sick & Tired Of Blacks Playing The Race Card apologizes to everyone for SCREAMING but I am so sick and tired of this garbage!)
Obama the false messiah is the last person in the world who will get assassinated. The “establishment” i.e the one world gvt people (the CFR, The Trilateral Commission, Skull and Bones etc). found their front man to pull off their schemes to make emasculate the USA and turn it into a communist State. He is the most protected man on the face of the earth!
The NAACP needs to see that they are being exploited and made fools of
Alas, my prediction came true. I said during the primaries if Obama is elected any one criticizing him will be called a racist. For some reason many blacks take anything any white person or black conservative says and put it under a microscope, they then drive that person out of town. There are many many stories the most blatant is Senator Trent Lott who praised another senator at his 99th birthday. Here in New York we once had a Mayor Dinkins if you ask black people who was the best mayor NYC had they will say Dinkins despite the fact that almost every agency in his administration was mismanaged.
If NAACP says boycott I start to buy the paper
Ithink the NAACP is making. A big mistake they should be pointing out that the american peaple are not racist and vated for a black man and not go back to the old non scence when Obama’s plan is not working
If the cartoon Ga’fabid meant like the NAALCP claims, that would mean Biden would be president. I dont know of anyone who would want that! Granted there would be some wakkos out there who would be ok with it, I guess.
I did a lot of reading for high school reports on the deaths of our presidents in office. I did a full report on President McKinley as well as President JFK and the nation was not doing well from their demise. I recall the attempt on President Reagan’s life in 1981 and how the nation reacted to the hours/days of, “Here we go again!”
No one in their right mind wants that to happen to the President no matter what we think of him and for the NAALCP to even advocate that is CRAZY. Considering the incitment being done by The Justice Brothers (see post 15) as well as NAACLP, I would even go so far as to suggest the Secret Service seriously investigate THEM for ha’mayvin yovin!
What else do you expect from an ignorant, racist organization? The NY Post’s biggest mistake was assuming its audiences had any intelligence. Otherwise, they would have put the word CONGRESS across the dead chimp.
The apology should have read`has follows: To the people that weren’t smart enough to understand the cartoon and think that the president drafts legislation and not the congress, We’re sorry you’re ignorant. For those people that thought the monkey meant Obama when it clearly didn’t, we’re sorry your opinion of him is lower than ours, and for the people that understood it, we’re sorry that you’ll winding up paying for it.
The NAACP ran ads linking Bush to lynching, and the congressional Republicans to church bombings! It has a chutzpah to comment on anything any more. Its time has long past, and it should just curl up and die.