Journalists must often write about cultures they don’t understand. And their ignorance can cost their credibility dearly if and when they don't do their homework and that ignorance lands in the newspaper. The risk can increase in white-dominated news operations with key editors whose grasp of other cultures is minimal.
An example occurred just a few days ago when the Daily Oklahoman ran an editorial cartoon that clearly displayed ignorance of the cultures that make up Latin America.
The cartoon, by Creators Syndicate cartoonist Chip Bok, presented Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as a piñata strung up on a tree. As the media’s cameras capture the moment, President Obama, wearing a sombrero, asks three Republican elephants wielding big sticks: “Now, who wants to be first?” The caption reads: “Fiesta time at the confirmation hearing.”
As an editor told me once after an idea of mine flopped: "Nothing fails like a great idea that doesn't work." That applies to editorial cartoons, too. As much as I love and applaud editorial cartoonists' gift for lampooning political developments, I can't support this cartoon or the editors at the syndicate and the Oklahoman who let it get past them. It would be interesting to know whether some newspapers rejected the cartoon because of the culturally inaccurate characterizations. If you know of any, please let me know.
Aside from the troubling stereotypes stirred up (such as minorities and lynchings, abuse of wome, racism, sexism), the concern here is that Mexican culture is applied to conflict involving Sotomayor who’s Puerto Rican. As Dallas News editor Bruce Tomaso notes: “The cultural imagery … doesn't make any sense. Both the sombrero and the piñata are Mexican in origin. Mexicans are no more Puerto Rican than, well, Oklahomans are Texans.”
The Daily Oklahoman and Creators didn’t know that? Surely they do now. The cartoon drew criticism from many directions, including Jean Warner, the chair of the Oklahoma Women's Coalition, who said: "A picture speaks louder than words and that cartoon sends a message to women of all ages: 'Back off. Know your place. Or we'll take a stick to you and teach you a lesson.'"
According to hispanicbusiness.com, Bok told Oklahoma TV station KOCO: "Since she emphasized her Latina-ness and played it up as a virtue, I thought, 'Well, how about a fiesta and a pinata?'" he said. "This is a Mexican thing, but again, we're dealing with stereotypes. That's all kind of the joke, I thought."
No, no, no. Wrong, wrong, wrong. This is not about “a Mexican thing.” This is about ignorance of Latin America and the vast diversity in the cultures that comprise Latin America -– a reality that, sadly, many North Americans do not understand and evidenced so well by this controversial cartoon.
Mexicans are not Puerto Ricans. Not all Mexicans are alike just as not all Americans are alike. Learn cultures, journalists, and avoid stereotypes. A metro news outlet that lives in a world so small that none of that registers is asking to be stereotyped in return -- as a crude redneck doofus.
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