Meyer Media Portfolio Entry #10

I found this comic here. It was drawn by Ted Rall. The comic depicts several different white people talking about what kind of person they would give their vote to for President of the United States. It makes a comparison between the time when Colin Powell was considering running for president and Barack Obama. The entire strip is loaded with sarcasm and is very critical of the notion that Americans may put a Black man into the office of the president. I chose this comic strip this week because it is a good representation of the racism that still exists in politics and the government today.

We have discussed the idea that race is socially constructed in this class several times. In this cartoon we are shown several different ways that people are holding on to their racial issues without even really knowing it. It goes back to Johnson’s Getting off the Hook chapter. Whites may be aware of the oppression of blacks and they feel guilty for that. They then lie to themselves until they convince themselves that they are not racist because they would vote for a black man or whatever other reason they can come up with. The truth is that there is still a lot of racism hidden in America and government. The comic strip hints that the only way a black man will win the presidency is if he/she is willing to become more “white.”

When I came across this comic strip, I found myself thinking the comments sound very familiar. It is sad and amazing that we have elected 43 presidents and they all have been white men. In a country that was founded by immigrants and is supposed to be open to everyone, it is amazing that we have so much trouble with diversity and race. It just goes to show how engrained race is in society.