New Yorker Satire Falls Flat

I’ve never been a big fan of satire.  I find that it is the lowest form of humor.  However, I was really disappointed to see how many people overreacted to the New Yorker’s hysterical satire on their newest cover.  The cover which portrays Barack Obama dressed like a Muslim giving a terrorist fist bump to his wife who is dressed as a black panther.  There is a fireplace with a picture of Osama bin Laden and a US flag in the fireplace.

What people have failed to realize is that this is a satire of Obama showing how we perceive him and was in no way racist.  The New Yorker shouldn’t have been surprised that people couldn’t figure it out.  There is a long history of satire involving African Americans being misinterpreted as hatred.   Minstrel shows were a type of satire that were really popular in the 19th century.  They featured white actors in black face lampooning black culture.

In this century Amos and Andy came into America’s living room over the radio for 30 years.  The two main characters were actually played by white actors satirizing the lives of Southern blacks living in the Norths.  Like the minstrel shows, Amos and Andy was mistaken for racism as well.

Its not just black people who don’t seem to get satire.  A satirical book in Russia called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion have had Jews up in arms for centuries. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail and African-Americans will stop taking themselves so seriously.   Lighten up, its satire.  I don’t get uptight about WASP jokes.