By David K. Shipler
Metro said Thursday that it will not allow new issue-oriented
advertising in the transit system after a controversial pro-Israel group sought
to place ads featuring a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad, a drawing that was
linked to deadly violence in Texas this month.
--The Washington Post
Just for
the sake of argument, let’s say that the White Aryan Resistance wanted to put
ads on Washington Metro trains and buses featuring a cartoon from the gallery it
labels “Kikes.” For example, take the one that portrays a long-nosed,
thick-lipped, cigar-chomping giant leering maliciously as he applies a drill
bit to the stomach of a smaller, terrified blond fellow he’s holding down with
a meaty hand. “Never forget, white man,” says the caption, “the Zionist Jew is
working around the clock to DESTROY YOU.”
Or, let’s
imagine that some purveyor of one of those Photoshopped images of Barack and
Michelle Obama as subhuman primates (you can see dozens by Googling “Obama Ape”)
decided to display it throughout the capital’s transportation system. Picture
buses circulating through the streets of Washington adorned with posters of an
anti-Semitic caricature of a Jewish monster or President Obama morphed into a chimpanzee.
There might
not be a risk of violent reaction. But it’s a safe bet that very few Americans
would defend the parade of such ugly bigotry against Jews and blacks. Consider,
then, the application to Metro by Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative
to buy space for the winner of its cartoon contest in Texas—a drawing featuring
the traditional stereotype of a fierce, raging Arab, glaring and waving a
curved scimitar as he declares, “You can’t draw me!” The artist, out of the
frame, replies, “That’s why I draw you.”
