How Far Has America Really Come?

This week’s cover of the New Yorker magazine is controversial. New Yorker editor in chief David Remnick tells ABC News’ Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper that, "The intent of the cover is to satirize the vicious and racist attacks and rumors and misconceptions about the Obamas that have been floating around in the blogosphere and are reflected in public opinion polls," Remnick says. "What we set out to do was to throw all these images together, which are all over the top and to shine a kind of harsh light on them, to satirize them. That’s part of what we do."

For those who don’t know a satire is defined as “the use of ridicule, irony, sarcasm, etc., to expose folly or vice or to lampoon an individual”. Some are arguing that most people don’t know what satire is and would not view the cover as it is intended. The cover of the magazine, for different reasons, could be viewed as everyone’s worse nightmare. For some Americans, it’s a depiction of all their fears associated with race and ethnicity. For African Americans, it may take folks back to a time when covers like this were the norm.

I don’t have a problem with satire and I support the first amendment. I do question the timing of this week’s New Yorker cover and wonder if there will be a forthcoming satirical cover of John McCain and his wife. Maybe the magazine needed to boost sales and saw this as a way to do that. I mean, most of us are worried about the economy and the energy crisis so this is the type of thing that could slip by us without much notice except nothing that evokes race ever slips by us.

This cover is divisive and keeps us focused on race rather than on the issues. That may not have been the intention but that is what comes across. Jobs are being lost, the economy is slow, gas prices are up, etc, etc. However, race is the one issue that trumps everything. A person’s race or ethnicity should not keep him or her from holding the highest office in America. A person’s race or ethnicity is not an indicator of whether or not he or she is capable of being president. Because if we are honest a lot of the issues we are facing right now were caused by white men and these men are loved and supported by their wives who are white women. So clearly race and ethnicity should not be a factor when choosing the next President of the United States of America. And let us applaud Senator Obama and his wife for being proud patriots and lovers of a country that would treat them like this.