Last week The Other Charlotte denounced over-the-hill cartoonist Garry Trudeau for his racist, sexist April 7 “Doonesbury” strip that had President George W. Bush addressing National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice as “Brown Sugar” (See Condi Week, April 8). Our mother organization, the Independent Women’s Forum, added its official protest against the strip as “innappropriate and offensive” to our unofficial outrage. Our senior fellow Michelle D. Bernard, a graduate of Georgetown Law School, said, “I’m particularly offended and believe this is old-fashioned plantation racism.”


Some of our readers weren’t at all offended, however–for reasons that may surprise you. Here’s an e-mail from R.G.:


“Out of context, the ‘Brown Sugar’ label was certainly inappropriate. But it pales in the context of Bush’s screwing up the world with arrogance and discrimination. Invading Iraq, budget deficits, trashing the environment–all these seem bigger than his being portrayed as a racist.”


Oh. A little racism is OK, as long as it’s in the service of a good cause. Such as propping up the Saddam regime.


And here’s D.C.:


“Regarding Garry Trudeau’s gaffe in Doonesbury, the author, Ms. Michelle Bernard, makes the mistake typical of too many black and feminist activists; she uses the behavior of one fool as her proposed model for the entire race or gender. This tactic is shallow, intentionally misleading, and makes the user as biased or more so than the group she wishes to spank….Sorry, toots.”


I can’t speak for Michelle, toots, but I do know that neither she nor TOC was indicting the the entire masculine gender, nor even that hated subset, White Males. There was exactly one offender in Garry Trudeau’s case, and it was Garry Trudeau.


And here’s reader K.N. with kudos for TOC, who pointed out Friday that the aim of the 9/11 commission and its liberal commentators seems to be to blame Bush, not Wahabi terrorists, for the mass murders of that day. (See Easter Thoughts: Has W. Civ. Laid An Egg?, April 9). Indeed, a front-page story in yesterday’s Washington Post faults Bush for having dared to enjoy a golf game while on summer break in Crawford, Texas, a month before the attacks.) Here are K.N.’s thoughts:


“The day of Dr. [Condoleezza] Rice’s testimony, ABC News included interviews with families of 9/11 victims. One family member made a comment that she would not rest until someone was held accountable for the attacks. I heard no rebuttals to the effect that the persons responsible for 9/11 are not under the purview of this committee. Isn’t this just another form of American hubris: Everything that occurs in the world has it’s source and meaning in the United States. Scary.”


Right.