Contact: Louise Filkins
Phone: 202-419-1820


WASHINGTON, DC — The Independent Women’s Forum today denounced as blatantly racist several editorial cartoons featuring Dr. Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor and President Bush’s nominee for Secretary of State. These cartoons clearly draw upon centuries of deep-rooted, wicked and indefensible portrayals of black women.


“The depiction of Dr. Condoleezza Rice by Jeff Danziger, Pat Oliphant and Garry Trudeau as an ebonics speaking, big-lipped, black mammy who just loves her ‘massa’ is a disturbing trend in editorial cartoons,” said Michelle D. Bernard, senior vice president of the Independent Women’s Forum. “These cartoons take the racism of the liberals who profess respect and adoration for black Americans to a new level. It is revolting.”


Danziger, Oliphant and Trudeau, whose editorial cartoons are very popular in the United States, are also renowned all over the world. (We have linked to the cartoons in an effort to allow the public to view the negative portrayal of Dr. Rice, and by analogy, all black women, as portrayed by these celebrated cartoonists.)

“The most powerful woman in the United States is young, gifted and black. Given our nation’s history of race-based slavery, the ensuing civil rights movement and our continual battle against race- and sex- based discrimination, every citizen in our nation should take pride in Dr. Rice’s accomplishments,” said Bernard. “She is a representation of America’s past and future all at once. One must ask where is the outrage of the nation’s civil rights leadership, feminist organizations, and the so-called liberals who only seem to embrace black America in election years?”


“Condoleezza Rice was the first woman ever appointed as National Security Advisor. After Secretary of State Colin Powell, Dr. Rice will be the second African American to hold both posts,” said Bernard. “These cartoons are decidedly unfunny.”


Click here for an April 2004 opinion piece authored by Michelle D. Bernard, senior vice president of the Independent Women’s Forum, about a Doonesbury cartoon strip that referred to Dr. Condoleezza Rice as “brown sugar.” Doonesbury is the creation of Garry Trudeau.