Comments on: Censorship I Don’t Understand

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:56:02 +0000

It was a good cartoon, making a trenchant point wittily. That is the reason that the PLAIN DEALER didn’t print it.

By: AmazingThor

AmazingThor — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:33:05 +0000

Just taking a stab at what the joke could be…Is this a reference to Uncle Remus’ Brer Rabbit? I know those featured a Brer Fox and Brer Bear, not sure about snake and cat(?) Maybe because they all share the same identifying “Brer” in their names he can’t distinguish them. Also could be why it was banned. Uncle Remus’ stories (made famous in Disney’s “Song of the South”) have been criticized as racist. Disney has never released that movie on video and IIRC the story featured one tale of a “tar baby”, just to cite one example of its racism.

By: turquoisecow

turquoisecow — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:13:48 +0000

While this strip could certainly be considered objectionable, it’s far from the most objectionable strip ever done by Non Sequitur. I wonder if the Plain Dealer has pulled them in the past.

By: The Ploughman

The Ploughman — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:04:23 +0000

It seems like the decision might betray a bit of prejudice on the part of the editors. If the rabbit is supposed to represent one race and the predators a single other, what races are they representing? And if they don’t represent specific races, why is the comic offensive, rather than a comment on racism? Methinks the Plain Dealer had an answer in mind for the first question.

By: Kilby

Kilby — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:03:42 +0000

“Hey, carnivores aren’t all that bad. Heck, some of my best friends are carnivores.”

By: Ian Osmond

Ian Osmond — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:19:05 +0000

For what it’s worth, there were a couple weeks in college where, for no good reason except random chance, most of the people I was hanging out with, studying with, and stuff, were mainly non-white.

After a week or so, all whites started looking alike to me. Mind you, I was REALLY sleep-deprived by that point.

By: AMC

AMC — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:48:48 +0000

It was pulled because they are all taking a dump on a porch, instead of in the woods, as God intended.

By: Mark in Boston

Mark in Boston — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:32:25 +0000

OK, if it were 1902 and the animals in the lineup were all raccoons, then it would be a reference to Ernest Hogan’s hit song and it would be funny.

But it’s not and they’re not and it’s not so it’s not.

By: James Pollock

James Pollock — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:25:05 +0000

The “they all look alike to me” statement is typically associated with the dominant racial group’s inability to recognize individuals from other races (although the underlying difficulty seems to apply equally between any two racial groups) and the unspoken implication is “… and I can’t be troubled to learn to tell them apart.”

ANY reference to race or race relations draws angry comments, either from the people who complain about racism (which exists but not nearly as much as its proponents claim), or the people who complain about “reverse racism” (which exists but not nearly as much as its proponents claim)… and features editors don’t like angry phone calls. The editorial page staff are used to it, but not the features page editors… which is why they are so hesitant to drop a comic no matter how boring its become… the strip’s 15 fans will ALL call to complain.

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:19:02 +0000

Greg - Since this comic appeared on Friday I don’t think it has anything to do w/ Martin Luther King’s birthday. I won’t comment on being aware.