Oh, the irony. The New York Times is rightfully condemned for publishing a cartoon employing anti-Semitic tropes. What was the main aspect of condemnation? The use of a demeaning caricature of Benjamin Neetanyahu as a dog. “The Nazis also depicted us as animals,” Jerusalem Post writer Seth Frantzman wrote. "Antisemites have compared us to dogs, pigs and monkeys before. Alan Dershowitz noted that “One of the weapons of hate against Jews deployed by Nazi Germany were cartoons and caricatures that depicted Jews as subhuman animals, often as dogs or spiders.”
Who else has a track record of trafficking in imagery like this? Mike Lester does. He repeatedly depicts people of color as “subhuman animals.” Last August 6 he drew New York Times writer Sarah Jeong as a dog. Not a month later, on September 5, he drew Colin Kaepernick as a barking seal. Lester’s racism isn’t exactly breaking news. In 2014, for example, Salon described Lester’s portrayal of Barack Obama as a pimp as “disgustingly racist.” Now Lester is a self-acknowledged racist.
In July 2016, Donald Trump published a cartoon using the Star of David as a badge of corruption, lifted from a Nazi-sympathizing, white supremacist website. Mike Lester said not one word and drew not one line criticizing Trump for using even more overtly anti-Semitic imagery. It looks like, in Mike Lester’s mind, the only good anti-Semite is a pro-Trump anti-Semite.
Oh, the irony. The New York Times is rightfully condemned for publishing a cartoon employing anti-Semitic tropes. What was the main aspect of condemnation? The use of a demeaning caricature of Benjamin Neetanyahu as a dog. “The Nazis also depicted us as animals,” Jerusalem Post writer Seth Frantzman wrote. "Antisemites have compared us to dogs, pigs and monkeys before. Alan Dershowitz noted that “One of the weapons of hate against Jews deployed by Nazi Germany were cartoons and caricatures that depicted Jews as subhuman animals, often as dogs or spiders.”
Who else has a track record of trafficking in imagery like this? Mike Lester does. He repeatedly depicts people of color as “subhuman animals.” Last August 6 he drew New York Times writer Sarah Jeong as a dog. Not a month later, on September 5, he drew Colin Kaepernick as a barking seal. Lester’s racism isn’t exactly breaking news. In 2014, for example, Salon described Lester’s portrayal of Barack Obama as a pimp as “disgustingly racist.” Now Lester is a self-acknowledged racist.
In July 2016, Donald Trump published a cartoon using the Star of David as a badge of corruption, lifted from a Nazi-sympathizing, white supremacist website. Mike Lester said not one word and drew not one line criticizing Trump for using even more overtly anti-Semitic imagery. It looks like, in Mike Lester’s mind, the only good anti-Semite is a pro-Trump anti-Semite.