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2012
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The big story leading the news all week around my way is about a caricature of local politico Nina Turner depicted as Aunt Jemima in the designated black newspaper, The Call and Post. The issue being debated isn't whether Turner is right or wrong, but whether or not it's racist to call her an Aunt Jemima, suggesting she is something of a white accomadationist. Meanwhile, back off the corner, a pervert gets sentenced for his attempt to single-handedly exterminate black women from the inner-city [25], And the black Coonerati are up in arms over a political cartoon.
Welcome to Cleveland.
For those of you who don't know--and why would you? -- The Call and Post [26] used to be called the Blood and Guts by many, known more as guide to Who Shot Bootney In The Foot? than a reliable newspaper of any stripe. The kind of paper that spelled George Bush's name wrong above the fold, and the ink came out in your hands. Where stories would be continued on page 33, and most often, there was no page 33. Like that. For years. Some time ago, boxing promoter Don King [27] bought the newspaper, then purchased Microsoft Word, a laptop and a few other 20th Century technological innovations to get the vernarable Post on track, more or less. No disrespect to my folks who work there, but beyond the funny papers and the infamous Nite Out page where you and your jump-off can pose with a snifter of half-price Hennessy at Bigger's Nightclub, the paper is virtually unreadable. Stil. I famously told the former editor John Lenear (RIP) that I wouldn't spank my dog with the Call and Post. That accessment still stands. At least it did, until this cartoon.
The editorial cartoon may be the first cogent commentary in the recent history of this rag. It is, after all, relevant, and the Call and Post has struggled with relevancy for years. But everyone is up in arms about it for the wrong reasons. Whether or not the paper should have called Turner Aunt Jemima, however, is irrelevant, but let's argue about it anyway, right [28]?
This tempest is the kind of black on black coonage white media loves -- loves to see high-falootant Darkies argue over that which does not matter. Because in the meantime the third most undereducated city in America [29] is like Pompeii in the last days -- everyone is packing up and moving to the suburbs en masse to escape the stench of rotting infrastracuture .... at least.... you HOPE that's what it is. [30]
Is the rendering racist and misogynistic, as the one writer put it? [31] No. It's everything political commentary is supposed to be: pointed, biting and provacative. The Call and Post finally has something it has rarely ever had: a point. The editorial writing sucks, but this picture is worth a thousand words. Bravo, I say. Job well done. Everything does not have to be about uplifting Da Race. What about you?
Do you think the Call and Post was out of pocket for calling Nina Turner an Aunt Jemima?
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