Words For Warfare

"I think the cover of this magazine is absolutely revolting. The only thing that could have been much worse for them to do would have been to depict Barack Obama as Sambo and his wife as Aunt Jemima. I don‘t understand it, particularly given what happened in New York on 9/11, the fact that so many questions have been raised about their patriotism, whether or not he‘s a Muslim; it all fits in this caricature and stereotype that we have seen, that I really think borders on racism. It borders on being prejudicial religiously. I don‘t see the satire in it. I don‘t think the rest of the country that looks at it will see any satire. I don‘t think there‘s anything funny about it at all."

"But it only works when people get it. You seem to be one of the only people I‘ve heard all day long that actually gets it and sees the satire in it. Maybe if you were in a different skin, you could see the problem with being depicted as this women with this huge Afro and AK-47, doing the fist pump and wearing this Muslim garb. There‘s a problem when you depict people in that type of fashion. And also, saying—I guess they say in a satirical way that there‘s something that‘s wrong with being a Muslim, if he were to be a Muslim, or his wife were a black panther."

--- Michelle Bernard