Secondly, even if you reject that argument, I think that a caricature, drawn with no racist/bigoted intent, that invokes any number of racist stereotypes (has an overly broad nose, nappy hair, etc) will have the effect of reinforcing racism and racist attitudes and systems, and offending/oppressing people of colour. And as far as I’m concerned, that real measurable effect renders any distinction via intent academic.

In short:
I don’t really care if you’re trying to be racist or not, if you publish an image of Obama as a monkey, that image is RACIST. And if you’re willing to publish that, you are racist by extension.

We are all raised to be racists, and until we take the time and effort to really begin to unlearn that (and even after; we all mess up), we will act it out and perpetuate the system(s). Until we admit we have a problem, and the full extent of it, we cannot hope to fight it.

Someone can say something that is racially insensitive unintentionally, but racism is necessarily something predicated on the *basis* of race.

So if I make a caricature of a black candidate on the basis of anything BUT race, and the caricature emphasizes parts of his/her countenance in a racially offensive manner, I have not “been racist”.

That, too, is an important distinction to make.

I’m also willing to run with your question, and say that it would be VERY HARD to make caricatures of black candidates without those images being racist. Over the past 400-some years people of colour have been depicted in many different caricatures, all of them associated with very real and often violent, brutal oppression. And evoking any of those images is racist because it evokes those associated oppressions, even if that wasn’t the conscious intention of the creator.

That last distinction is really important; someone can be racist without being a bigot, or having any mean-spirited intent- and something that seems totally innocuous to one person might strike a really sensitive, hurtful chord with another.

This has nothing to do with Aunt Jemima. There is not a single thing on the box that even suggests it. Have seen anyone present anything on the box that is racist.

The caricature is pretty straightforward and doesn’t hint at racism either. Again, I ask “Is it possible to do a cartoon caricature of a black candidate without it being called racist?”

How could you not see this as racist? If it wasn’t so obviously a spoof on Aunt Jemima why is it that the Values Forum pulled the item from sale? http://www.star-telegram.com/464/story/907001.html (sorry I don’t know how to make live links)

And Aunt Jemima does make waffle mixes. Just google it and you’ll find out.

Looks like a straight forward caricature of the candidate Obama. I don’t see anything racist about it at all. Also, I don’t see the “Aunt Jemima styling of the box”. Looks like a cereal box to me.

Further, what does Aunt Jemima have to do with waffles?

Seems to me that this post raises two issues:

- Is it possible to do a cartoon caricature of a black candidate without it being called racist?
- The “Aunt Jemima” connection is a square peg in a round hole.