Last week The Other Charlotte blasted aging-hippie cartoonist Garry Trudeau for his April 7 “Doonesbury” strip that had President George W. Bush addressing National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice as “Brown Sugar” (See Condi Week, April 8). We at the IWF found the remark racist and sexist–and hence a bit surprising for the studiously politically correct Trudeau.
One of our liberal readers, however, sent us an e-mail telling us that a little racism isn’t so bad, as long as it’s in the service of the good cause of bashing Bush, the liberals’ Beelzebub (See Condi-Bashing and Bush-Bashing, April 12) .
A second e-mailer, who also believed we were blowing up a bit of racial good fun out of proportion, wrote to address me (or perhaps TOC or even Condi) as “toots.” That letter seems to have set a precedent, for here’s a third e-mail from reader M.W.C.:
“Re ‘Brown Sugar’: Lighten up, sweetheart, and get concerned about something that’s important.”
OK, now a little sexism isn’t so bad, as long as it’s for the good cause of bashing Bush. We wonder what would have happened if Clarence Thomas had addressed Anita Hill as “Brown Sugar.” Or “toots” or “sweetheart.”
Fortunately, sanity reigns in at least one corner of InkWell reader-dom. Reader J.R.W. e-mails:
“The ‘brown sugar’ comment by Trudeau is a slap in the face to all of us who judge by content of character. It is demeaning and insensitive. If Trudeau were a registered Republican, his cartoon would be dropped by the few papers that might still be carrying it.”
Again, I respond: Exactly.