https://theconversation.com/mark-knight-...ist-102990
EXCERPT: . . . I have long thought Mark Knight the best and most intelligent tabloid cartoonist in Australia. I find it inconceivable that he deliberately sat down to draw a racist cartoon and accept his explanation of purpose at face value. Race is a real, if second order, category in how most people will assimilate the image of Williams; it is not “not there”.
I can imagine an Australian past when this cartoon, which shows Williams jumping on her racquet with a dummy on the ground, would have been less controversial. Williams has been dominant long enough that she might well have thrown a similar tantrum, say, in the 2002 Australian Open. Had she done so, the same cartoon would probably have passed with little comment.
[...] here’s the rub: in the endless passion play of US culture, there is no way the cartoon will now be read as non-racist in the US and, therefore, internationally. An artist’s intention cannot control the way images circulate any more.
[...] Cartoonists have to compress their images, so they often use stereotypes. This objectifies the subject and is thus, inevitably, an othering process. That is how representation works in general and how satirical representation works in particular. You just cannot draw Serena Williams without drawing her female and black. So should she never be drawn? Even when she has plainly made herself a topic of interest in a very public way? Is silence better than risk of offence?
The National Association of Black Journalists has accused Knight’s depiction of being “unnecessarily sambo-like”. They certainly have a point, particularly about Williams’ hair and lips, which could have been drawn more demurely without loss of fidelity. On the other hand, those who comment on Naomi Osaka being depicted as “a petite blonde” seem to miss that her skin tone is almost identical in the cartoon to Williams’.
So, is there any way of drawing an angry and powerful African-American woman and quarantining the image from old racist stereotypes? Should Knight just not have gone there? By all means make up your own mind....
MORE: https://theconversation.com/mark-knight-...ist-102990
EXCERPT: . . . I have long thought Mark Knight the best and most intelligent tabloid cartoonist in Australia. I find it inconceivable that he deliberately sat down to draw a racist cartoon and accept his explanation of purpose at face value. Race is a real, if second order, category in how most people will assimilate the image of Williams; it is not “not there”.
I can imagine an Australian past when this cartoon, which shows Williams jumping on her racquet with a dummy on the ground, would have been less controversial. Williams has been dominant long enough that she might well have thrown a similar tantrum, say, in the 2002 Australian Open. Had she done so, the same cartoon would probably have passed with little comment.
[...] here’s the rub: in the endless passion play of US culture, there is no way the cartoon will now be read as non-racist in the US and, therefore, internationally. An artist’s intention cannot control the way images circulate any more.
[...] Cartoonists have to compress their images, so they often use stereotypes. This objectifies the subject and is thus, inevitably, an othering process. That is how representation works in general and how satirical representation works in particular. You just cannot draw Serena Williams without drawing her female and black. So should she never be drawn? Even when she has plainly made herself a topic of interest in a very public way? Is silence better than risk of offence?
The National Association of Black Journalists has accused Knight’s depiction of being “unnecessarily sambo-like”. They certainly have a point, particularly about Williams’ hair and lips, which could have been drawn more demurely without loss of fidelity. On the other hand, those who comment on Naomi Osaka being depicted as “a petite blonde” seem to miss that her skin tone is almost identical in the cartoon to Williams’.
So, is there any way of drawing an angry and powerful African-American woman and quarantining the image from old racist stereotypes? Should Knight just not have gone there? By all means make up your own mind....
MORE: https://theconversation.com/mark-knight-...ist-102990