Is it ‘satire’ or racism?

Does “race” still play a major role in the upcoming presidential elections? You bet your life it does. Consider the July 21 cover of the New Yorker magazine that depicts the Obamas as “terrorists” using a multitude of racial stereotypes. Calling it “satire,” editors of this magazine approved a horrendous racist graphic showing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, with a large nose, dressed in a tunic and sandals, with what is perceived as a Middle Eastern turban on his head.

His spouse, Michelle, is depicted with a large Afro, dressed in fatigues, with a gun over her shoulder. Both figures are standing in the Oval Office doing a fist bump, alluding to a previous attack on the Obamas by Fox News while they were campaigning in Minnesota last month. On the wall is a picture of Osama Bin Laden, while a U.S. flag is burning in the fireplace.

The Obama campaign released a statement calling the photo “tasteless and offensive.” Regardless of how the New Yorker defends this cover, the underlying message is meant to scare off U.S. citizens, especially if they are white, from voting for Barack Obama as the first Black president in a country that reinforces institutionalized racism and xenophobia daily.