In a passage that our class read earlier in the year, we found that humorists like comedians are used to reveal the harsh truth through a comedic environment and tone. I especially think that political cartoonists are especially helpful for those that are young at heart. People in my generation mostly get their news from twitter and other online web sources. Even though people in the generation before mine are becoming more progressive with social media, some still like old school, hard copied newspaper.
In the cartoon above, a black man and white man are seen having a conversation about their fears. While the white man is afraid of the terror group ISIS, you can see that the black man clearly is not focused on that. He is focused on his safety in America. The illustrator shows on a nearby news stand, reading, "More Police Shootings...... Minneapolis.....Chicago." The illustrator employs an ironic tone because the white man is completely oblivious to what was happening to American citizens of color. Recently, the news hasn't shown much about white on black crime. What upsets me is that the other day, my sister, Kassidie, showed me a video of a white man getting pulled over by a police officer. The officer asked him, "license and registration," and the white man gets out of his car, opens the trunk, reaches inside, and pulls out bowling pins and starts to juggle them. Now imagine if a black man was the man in the car. We all know that a black man can barely even grab his license without getting shot, let alone get out and reach into the trunk of his car. In the end, I am glad that political cartoonists and other humorists like this are using their platforms to show others that there are bigger problems in America than ISIS and that black people are under represented.
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