Don’t shoot the messenger: Ed Gamble’s cartoon is troubling not because it is racist, but because it is right about black thug culture

by

Beni Dakar

Author’s note: Instead of doing the difficult work necessary to make both the individual and collective lives of African-American people better, reactionary black media elites are busily attacking a white cartoonist named Ed Gamble of the Florida Times-Union for an August 17th cartoon that takes on the issues of self-depreciating speech and the “don’t snitch” tradition that enables a thug culture in too many black communities.

Why is it that we [blacks] can admit to each other in ‘living room’ conversations about the undercurrent of disrespect and criminality in many African-American communities; but we can only blame whites and the ‘system’ publicly for the decay and demoralization in black communities?

Those of us dedicated to ‘speaking truth to power’ must raise our voices to both the official power structure that seldom has our best interest at heart and to those of us who are misguided or delusional about the many crises in black America, if we will ever move beyond simply enumerating the problems of black existence in America to solving those problems.

Below is a response that I offered to a poster at “Richard Prince’s Journal-isms” who was upset by both the visual depiction and the words used by Gamble – who created the cartoon. The writer alleged that Gamble exploited his “white privilege” by creating the cartoon and was racially stereotyping blacks by having the central character speaking ungrammatical English and using the word "ho" in reference to a female sub character. Since cartoons are often an exaggeration of reality – I think that Gamble hit the nail on the head in this cartoon. Below is my response to the writer who objected to this cartoon.
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So some black folk are bent out of shape about a cartoon that portrays an accurate depiction of how life is lived in too many black enclaves. Why aren’t we at least equally if not even more offended by the misogynistic and “don’t snitch” mentality that is assaulting black girls and women and aiding and abetting criminals in our neighborhoods?

White privilege is a reality in our culture and the world in general. But in this instance I do not think the charge is valid and applicable. The cartoonist (who is showcasing his art form) is simply parroting back in cartoon-like fashion what is a sad reality in too many black neighborhoods.

What outrages me the most is how I and other so called educated and middle-class blacks have had little influence on how to combat the successful marketing of the lower world consciousness and self-destructive mentality that is being sold to our community by the mainstream media that too many of our people are sorrowfully buying into.

The marketing of this animalistic mentality of ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘anything goes’ for me is the greatest challenge to black Americans in this century. Why is it that “getting paid” often means exploiting one another and it is okay as long as there is material gain? Why do we have to be so hard and timid in showing our human emotions? Why is it a weakness to call the cops on or testify against neighborhood terrorists? Why is it okay to use language that is self-depreciating to define each other and ourselves?

The reason why this is the greatest challenge is because it is infinitely easier to focus on the external forces of racism opposed to focusing on how we individually and as a community deal with the emotional and psychosocial fallout of racism. For black individuals to succeed in this new century we have to learn to not only focus on and to conquer the devils around us but also the devils within us. With ‘devils’ being an euphemism for obstacles that we face in our development as healthy black individuals, who in turn make healthy black communities.

It is easy to attack the cartoonist in this instance, but what is really necessary is to fight the circumstances that the cartoonist sought to portray through his art form. To succeed in that battle would be a meaningful victory.