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Is Colorism being seen in Political Cartoons?

A Political Cartoon is defined as a drawing or comic strip that contains a political or
social message that usually relates to current events or personalities. We first started seeing
political cartoons when Benjamin Franklin published his Join or Die cartoon. As more and
more cartoons were being created we saw that people started to involve racism in political
cartoons.
When people think of racism they think about the more general racism, which is
discrimination towards a specific race. However, there are four types of racism. There is antiracism, colorism, subtle racism, and Internalized racism. Colorism really caught my attention for
the reason being that now over a couple of months we are seeing a lot of this type. Colorism is a
discrimination against people with dark skin color. We hear about colorism all the time in the
news. For instance, the unarmed black male Armand Bennett. Bennett was shot in the head three
times for driving in an upscale neighborhood in August. In addition to Bennett story, we see
colorism in the essay Black Men in Public Spaces by Brent Staples when he converses about a
black male reporter. He states, He went to nearby Waukegan, Illinois, a couple of months ago
to work on a story about a murderer who was born there. Mistaking the reporter for the killer,
police hauled him from his car at gunpoint (Pg. 185). From this example we see that the
police mistook him for the killer just because of his skin color. Now these types of cases are
more frequently heard of. Colorism is not only being seen in the news but now we are seeing it in
political cartoons. These types of cartoons are being seen more and more among the web.
In the Political Cartoon published in The Denver Post in April 24, 2014 drawn by Mike
Keefe we see colorism. In the cartoon we have a desert background scene. In the background we
see a cop car and in front we see a dark tone man in his car sitting down. One police officer is

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pointing a gun at him while the other police officer is holding a color wheel to the dark mans
forehead that goes from white to dark skin colors. The cop holding the color wheel has his
tongue up his upper lip as if he is thinking on what color is appropriate for him.
The cartoon is also accompanied with some words. The words are Step Out of the
Vehicle and place your hands on your head. These words are coming out of the police officer
that is pointing the gun at him. The words are meaningful because they are telling him to step out
and place his hand on his head right when the cop believes he has found the right shade, which is
a dark shade. The style of language in which it is written is Standard English. We could see that
the words are straightforward. However, the part I thought was bizarre was the font style that the
artist choose. The font was not a regular Times New Roman font which is a font used to create
more of a serious tone, instead he choose a font very similar to graffiti. My interpretation for his
choice of font is that he doesnt want to make the cartoon seem so serious though it really is.
In the drawing, the police officers have more power over the man. First because they are
police officers, second they are standing up while the man is sitting down. Finally, one of the
officers is pointing the gun at the dark man. In this cartoon, we see that the scene of the man with
the police officers is closer to us. We also observe that we are looking at the action that is going
on and not being involved in it.
The author chooses to involve earth tone colors and well as some variety of different
primary colors. We observe these earth tone colors in his background as well as in the police
officers uniform. One thing highly noticeable is how the police officers faces are brighter than
the man. We also observe that where the police officer is matching the skin color on his
forehead, behind the color wheel, we have a white spot as if the author was highlighting it to
make it more obvious. In addition to that white spot behind the color wheel, he as well puts

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another white spot on the cop car sirens to make us understand that they were cops. The earth
tone colors the artist used were used to make the scene more of a calm scene but also to make
our attention go on the scene that was closer to us by not having anything distract us.
Looking at this drawing, we immediately notice that it is an anti-racist cartoon. My logic
for thinking the authors drawing is anti-racist because he is making cops look racist. When
drawing the cop with a thinking face and matching a color wheel to the guy forehead he is trying
to shows that cops need a color wheel as part of their job. It also demonstrates that cops first
identity your skin color and go based on that. For me, the color wheel had the negative connation
because of the use it has in the drawing. The police officers color wheel is not like a regular color
wheel that has all different colors. This color wheel was from white to black but with neutral skin
colors in between. I strongly believe that it is wrong. No one should be judged by his or her skin
color. Even though people might say that they the dark skin people (which are mostly African
American and Hispanics) themselves have brought the misconceptions by their actions you
cannot let a persons actions determine the whole race.
The effect that I got from the picture was a sad effect because colorism is still being seen
nowadays when things have advance so much but people cannot change one simple thing and
that is to not discriminate someone for there skin color. The purpose of this image is to show this
issues is still being seen today and that we should not ignore it instead do something about it.
Colorism is an issue in which people have to take action and try to change it. A persons
skin color is not going to determine how they are; it is just a simple color like any other.

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Work Cited Page

Staples, Brent. Black Men in Public Spaces. Chicago. McGraw-Hill Higher

Education.1995.Print
Keefe, Mike. The Denver Post.2014.Web. 14 October
2014.URL=http://www.denverpost.com/ci_17874449
Political Cartoons. The National WWII Museum. N.p., 26 Sep. 2011. Web. 19 Oct.
2014
http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/at-aglance/political-cartoon-snapshot.pdf
Nittle, Nadra Kareem. Four Different Forms of Racism. About. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct.
2014.
http://racerelations.about.com/od/understandingrac1/tp/Four-Different-Forms-Of-Racism.htm
William, Joe . 5 Shootings of Unarmed African American Men by Police in August So
Far. Why? . Blue Nation Review . N.p., 20 Agu.2022. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
http://bluenationreview.com/shooting-of-unarmed-african-american-men/

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