Image via Complex Original
Racist political cartoons are as American as apple pie (baked by a black mammy for Thomas Jefferson). They've long been used to stir up fear of minority groups depicted as encroaching menaces, be they African-American, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Irish, Jewish, and really anyone who isn't a WASP.
As overt racism has become less socially acceptable, most artists have become less bigoted or simply toned down the ignorance in their artistic social commentary, but a select few still stoke the fires of insensitivity with caricatures of President Barack Obama that are both racist and disrespectful to the office he holds. With race still an issue in the 2012 Presidential Election taking place today, take a look at The 50 Most Racist Political Cartoons to see how far the country has come.
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Written by Adam Martin (@ghostofkelor)
50. The Man Who Won the Elephant at the Raffle
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: January 1863
Published In: Unknown
People/person Targeted: African-Americans
This portrayal of a black man as an elephant refers to the feelings of the North, which became a destination for emancipated slaves. Many northerners wanted emancipation of slaves, but they didn't want the freed slaves to move into their region.
49. Does Not a Meeting Like This, Etc.
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: November 22, 1879
Published In: Harper's Weekly
People/person Targeted: Chinese-Americans, African-Americans
This cartoon makes reference to an 1869 drawing showing the meeting in the middle of the transcontinental railroad, whose caption reads: "Does not such a meeting make amends?" Here, the suggestion is that any rivalry between African-Americans and Chinese-Americans can be smoothed over now that they both have access to more of the country, where white laborers see them as a threat.
48. Admission Free
Artist: Frank Beard
Publishing Date: 1896
Published In: Ram's Horn
People/person Targeted: Immigrants, in general
Shows Uncle Sam as reluctantly allowing in an immigrant, who's drawn with all kinds of qualities seen as threatening to U.S. life, including desegregation, Sabbath, poverty, disease, and anarchy. "Can I come in?" asks the immigrant in the caption. Uncle Sam replies, "I suppose you can. There's no law to keep you out."
47. The first blow at the Chinese question
Artist: George Keller
Publishing Date: December 8, 1877
Published In: The Wasp
People/person Targeted: Chinese-American immigrants
Another example of anti-Chinese immigrant sentiment, from the point of view of white labor in San Francisco, the same year a race riot broke out targeting the city's Chinatown.
46. The Anti-Chinese Wall
Artist: Friedrich Graetz
Publishing Date: 1882
Published In: Unknown
People/person Targeted: Chinese
Putting aside the cartoonish depictions of the various groups, ethnic and otherwise, that are banding together to build a wall against the Chinese, the clear implication here is that with the United States opening trade and immigration with China, it presents a threat to laborers at home—a sentiment still held by many today.
45. The poor barbarians can't understand
Artist: Thomas Nast
Publishing Date: September 13, 1879
Published In: Harper's Weekly
People/person Targeted: African-Americans, Chinese-Americans
This cartoon occupies a special place because it is actually designed to lampoon racism, and yet to our eyes looks so very racist. "The poor barbarians can't understand our civilized Republican form of government" is written sarcastically, and "the nigger must go" is meant to mock the very real anti-Chinese slogans coming from California. It's all very well-intentioned, but born of such a culture of racism it's hard for modern eyes to decipher.
44. Slaves of the Jews
Artist: James Albert Wales
Publishing Date: December 9, 1882
Published In: Unknown
People/person Targeted: Jews
Depicts Jewish factory owners as lecherously exploiting young women who would go to work for them. The lower left image of a man with an oversized key, saying, "It vos not mine pizness if dey gets burned," invokes factory owners who would unsafely lock their employees in (though the cartoon precedes themost famous tragedy related to that practice, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire).
43. No Job for a Racehorse
Artist: Jon Kennedy
Publishing Date: May 17, 1954
Published In: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
People/person Targeted: Integration
The racehorse vs. plow horse metaphor makes the case that the South was doing just fine making gradual progress on race relations in the mid century, thanks very much, and nobody needed to come in and speed things up with integration.
42. The Bandits Bride
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1847
Published In: Vide Herald
People/person Targeted: Mexicans
The cartoon portrays Mexicans who opposed the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo as bandits, in this case stealing a woman away from her family on the highway.
41. Killing the Golden Goose
Artist: Thomas Nast
Publishing Date: 1871
Published In: Harper's Weekly
People/person Targeted: Irish, Catholics
A classic Nast depiction of an animalistic Irishman, this time shown as bleeding dry the public coffers in the form of the Democratic Party as the goose that laid the golden egg.
40. Quick, Give Them a Casino
Artist: Zachary Kanin, Deron Grabel
Publishing Date: September 13, 2010
Published In: The New Yorker
People/person Targeted: Native Americans
The cartoon takes an outdated stereotype (Indians attacking cowboys with arrows) and gives it a new twist, with a cowboy-attired executive offering the attackers a casino. But while the cowboy figure has been updated to 21st-century norms, the Native Americans still use arrows to attack, and the insinuation is that the savages must be pacified.
39. Goose-Stepping Star of David
Artist: Pat Oliphant
Publishing Date: March 25, 2009
Published In: Universal Press Syndicate
People/person Targeted: Israelis
Shows Israel as a headless, jack-booted figure oppressing Palestine, evoking outrage from the Jewish community for its similarity to Nazi imagery.
38. Say Hello to Batista
Artist: Pat Oliphant
Publishing Date: August 22, 2007
Published In: Universal Press Syndicate
People/person Targeted: Cuban-Americans
Here, Uncle Sam refers to Cuban-Americans as "nuisances" as he shoves a boatload of them into the ocean. The Cubans are demanding a chance to "interfere" with the 2008 election, while the little duck off to the side yells, "Say hello to Batista," implying they're all supporters of the U.S.-backed dictator who was overthrown in the Cuban Revolution.
37. Battle Decoration
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1957
Published In: Citizens Council
People/person Targeted: African-Americans
Shows Eisenhower decorating a black soldier while white soldiers beat up white citizens, as a criticism of the National Guard enforcing integration.
36. Uncle Remus, 1957 Version
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1957
Published In: Capital Citizens Council
People/person Targeted: African-Americans
Here, President Dwight D. Eisenhower is shown entangled in a "tar baby," a concept from African folklore, representing his entanglement in the "sticky" situation of school integration.
35. Idiot Card
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1957
Published In: Sam Adams Committee for Public Safety
People/person Targeted: African-Americans, Jews
This anti-Semitic, anti-black cartoon is meant to show a Jewish-controlled media spreading "propaganda" in favor of Jews and African-Americans.
34. The Savages Let Loose
Artist: William Humphrey
Publishing Date: 1783
Published In: Strand
People/person Targeted: Native Americans, all Americans
This pro-loyalist cartoon of the Revolutionary War era shows Americans as savages, hanging British loyalists from a tree.
33. See-Saw!
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: November 14, 1893
Published In: The Evening World (Brooklyn)
People/person Targeted: Hawaiians
Uncle Sam is shown as a savior type figure, lifting up the "savage" Hawaiian queen on a see-saw over a barrel of sugar, Hawaii's main export of the era.
32. Troubles which may follow an imperial policy
Artist: Charles Nelan
Publishing Date: 1898
Published In: Cartoons of Our War with Spain
People/person Targeted: Filipinos
An anti-imperialist statement, making the case against incorporating the Philippines not because of their sovereignty but because Filipinos are "savage" and a threat to U.S. civilization.
31. History Repeats Itself
Artist: Watson Heston
Publishing Date: April 15, 1896
Published In: Sound Money magazine
People/person Targeted: Jews
Here, we see Uncle Sam crucified on a cross while caricatured Jews representing "Wall Street pirates" poke him with a spear and raise a wad of poison to his lips.
30. Oh Yeah! Say What?
Artist: Don Wright
Publishing Date: September 2003
Published In: Palm Beach Post
People/person Targeted: Clarence Thomas, African-Americans
Shows Clarence Thomas as a jive-talking puppet of fellow conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
29. Honolulu Crown
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: February 3, 1893
Published In: St. Paul Daily Globe
People/person Targeted: Hawaiians
Depicts Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning monarch of Hawaii, as a primitive woman—underdressed, with bare feet and comically big lips—whose crown, never worth much, is now worthless.
28. Golly I've gone and did it again
Artist: James H. Donahey
Publishing Date: July 1912
Published In: Cleveland Plain Dealer
People/person Targeted: Afro-Cubans
In the run-up to the American invasion of Cuba in 1912, portrays Afro-Cubans, who had just staged a rebellion, as the reason Cuba couldn't govern itself.
27. The New Joss
Artist: Robert Minor, Jr.
Publishing Date: March 1912
Published In: Cartoons Magazine
People/person Targeted: Chinese
This obviously racist depiction of a Chinese man appears to suggest the Chinese want to burn the Statue of Liberty like so much incense. But the International Team of Comics Historians claims it has the opposite meaning: That following the overthrow of the Manchurian dynasty, China had begun focusing on liberty. It's pretty hard not to get creeped out by that depiction of a Chinese man, though.
26. The Thanksgiving of Our Forefathers
Artist: "Chips" Bellew
Publishing Date: November 20, 1890
Published In: Life magazine
People/person Targeted: Native Americans
Portrays pilgrims in church being set upon by violent Native Americans. Showing Native Americans as bloodthirsty savages was a way to justify the stated U.S. "manifest destiny" of continental dominion.
25. The Two Platforms
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1866
Published In: Unknown
People/person Targeted: African-Americans
In the Pennsylvania governor's race of 1866, Democrat Hiester Clymer ran on a white supremacist platform, equating his Republican opponent James White Geary's support for African-American voting rights as "radical."
24. The Great Fear of the Period
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1860-1869
Published In: Unknown (San Francisco)
People/person Targeted: Irish, Chinese immigrants
Shows one Chinese and one Irish immigrant eating Uncle Sam from each end, with the Chinese immigrant eventually eating the Irishman.
23. The Usual Irish Way of Doing Things
Artist: Thomas Nast
Publishing Date: 1871
Published In: Harper's Weekly
People/person Targeted: Irish immigrants
Depicts an Irishman as an animalistic drunk, sitting on top of a barrel marked "Uncle Sam's gun powder" and apparently holding a torch.
22. What We Would Like to See
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1888
Published In: The Wasp (San Francisco)
People/person Targeted: Immigrants, in general
Shows a white American settler tossing a Chinese and Italian immigrant in each hand, over the caption "What we would like to see." Not terribly subtle.
21. Mexican Peon
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1924
Published In: Fullerton Daily Tribune
People/person Targeted: Mexican immigrants
Pretty hard to misinterpret this one: Shows a Mexican immigrant walking across the U.S. border, bringing "ignorance" and "disregard for the law."
20. The Yellow Terror in All His Glory
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1899
Published In: Unknown
People/person Targeted: Chinese immigrants
Depicts Chinese immigrants as savages who want nothing more than violence against whites.
19. The Mountain Came with Mohammed
Artist: Jack Higgins
Publishing Date: September 20, 2008
Published In: Chicago Sun-Times
People/person Targeted: Muslims
In this cartoon, Higgins portrays Islam as a religion based on wholesale violence and its faithful as mindless reactionaries.
18. When did you ever vote?
Artist: Pat Oliphant
Publishing Date: June 25, 2008
Published In: Syndicated
People/person Targeted: African-American men
The cartoon plays on the stereotype of African-American men as deadbeat fathers and generally shiftless. It suggests Obama is pandering to a group that is, in the cartoonist's opinion, not pulling its weight.
17. The American River Ganges
Artist: Thomas Nast
Publishing Date: 1875
Published In: Harper's Weekly
People/person Targeted: Catholics
Nast portrays Catholics as crocodiles wearing pope hats in a flood that threatens what appear to be "upstanding" Americans.
16. Like a Bad Neighbor
Artist: Donna Barstow
Publishing Date: April 27, 2009
Published In: Slate
People/person Targeted: Mexicans
This is just a really dumb cartoon, pointing to all the bad things happening in Mexico as threats to the United States. The caption, "Mexico is (still) there," suggests the artist would prefer it was not.
15. The Hon. Fifth Column
Artist: Dr. Seuss
Publishing Date: 2/13/1942
Published In: Unknown
People/person Targeted: Japanese-Americans
During WWII, Dr. Seuss portrayed Japanese-Americans as terrorists, waiting for a signal from Japan to carry out sabotage within the United States.
14. Terrorist Fist Bump
Artist: Barry Blitt
Publishing Date: July 21, 2008
Published In: The New Yorker
People/person Targeted: President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Muslims
Blitt meant the cartoon to lampoon Obama's political opponents' portrayal of him and Michelle's "terrorist fist bump" but Obama and his campaign were unimpressed, calling it "tasteless and offensive."
13. Who Wants to Be First?
Artist: Chip Bok
Publishing Date: July 3, 2008
Published In: The Oklahoman
People/person Targeted: Sonia Sotomayor, Latinos
Portrays Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor as a piñata, because she's of Puerto Rican descent, you see.
12. Conversations with My Mother
Artist: Jerry Breen
Publishing Date: April, 2008
Published In: Unknown
People/person Targeted: President Barack Obama
In his memoir Dreams from My Father, Obama describes using one of the "tricks" he'd learned for dealing with white people on his mother. Many on the Right have pointed to this as evidence of Obama's own racism toward white people, which is what this cartoon clumsily tries to do.
11. Suicide Obama
Artist: Robert Ariail
Publishing Date: April, 2010
Published In: The State (Colombia, SC)
People/person Targeted: President Barack Obama, Muslims
Ariail said the cartoon was meant to chide Obama's verbal gaffes, but portraying him as a suicide bomber is a pretty clear allusion to the whole "Obama is a secret Muslim" thing.
10. Uncle Obama's Cabin
Artist: Carlos Latuff
Publishing Date: February 18, 2010
Published In: Black Commentator
People/person Targeted: President Barack Obama, African-Americans
Portrays President Barack Obama as an Uncle Tom and a slave to Uncle Sam. The suggestion here is that Obama is bending to the will of imperialist politicians, but drawing him on his knees, shining shoes, is overtly racist.
9. I'd Like to Register a Complaint Against the NYPD
Artist: Sean Delonas
Publishing Date: February 24, 2012
Published In: New York Post
People/person Targeted: Muslims
Portrays the Muslims who the NYPD spied on as actual terrorists being protected by the Associated Press, which broke the story of NYPD spying.
8. They'll Have to Find Someone Else to Write the Next Stimulus Bill
Artist: Sean Delonas
Publishing Date: February 18, 2009
Published In: New York Post
People/person Targeted: President Obama, African-Americans
The cartoon compares the author of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with the chimpanzee that was killed after it attacked a woman in Connecticut. The widely held interpretation is that the chimp represents President Barack Obama, who signed the bill shortly after taking office.
7. Trayvon Martin and the Case of Yellow Journalism
Artist: Stephanie Eisner
Publishing Date: March 27, 2012
Published In: Daily Texan
People/person Targeted: Trayvon Martin, media, African-Americans
This cartoon in the student paper at the University of Texas, Austin, suggests the media is blowing the Trayvon Martin story out of proportion out of some kind of racial motivation. It also uses some outdated racist terms, referring to Trayvon Martin as a "colored" boy.
6. Nice Day for a Wok
Artist: A.F. Branco
Publishing Date: April 20, 2012
Published In: Conservative Daily News
People/person Targeted: President Barack Obama, African-Americans
Portrays President Obama as unable to stop himself from eating dog, after Mitt Romney's campaign pointed out that he described doing so in Indonesia in his memoir Dreams from My Father.
5. The Reconstruction Policy of Congress, as Illustrated in California
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1867
Published In: Unknown
People/person Targeted: Chinese, Native Americans, African-Americans
Satirizes California Republican gubernatorial nominee George C. Gorham's notion that minorities should have voting rights.
4. What Shall We Do with John Chinaman?
Artist: Unknown
Publishing Date: 1869
Published In: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
People/person Targeted: Chinese, Irish
Suggests the Irish view Chinese immigrants as competition for work, while Southern plantation owners view them as replacement for freed slaves.
3. "The Nigger" in the Woodpile
Artist: Louis Maurer
Publishing Date: 1860
Published In: Currier & Ives, lithographers
People/person Targeted: Republicans, President Abraham Lincoln, African-Americans
Here, Maurer illustrates the racist turn of phrase literally, suggesting that Republicans were disingenuously playing down an abolitionist plank in their platform.
2. An Heir to the Throne
Artist: Louis Maurer
Publishing Date: 1860
Published In: Currier & Ives, lithographers
People/person Targeted: Republicans, President Abraham Lincoln, African Americans
The figure in the middle, holding the spear, is a deformed African man featured by P.T. Barnum as a "whats-it," according to the Library of Congress. The purpose here is to mock Republican support of African-Americans by suggesting they wanted this man to run for president.
1. Obama the Pimp
Artist: Mike Lester
Publishing Date: 3/4/2012
Published In: Rome, Ga. News-Tribune
People/person Targeted: President Barack Obama, African-Americans
The cartoon portrays President Barack Obama as a 1970s-style pimp for Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law student Rush Limbaugh labeled a "slut."