On Sympathizing With the Killers

The outrageous Sean Bell verdict is still weighing on my mind. And I am getting really, really sick of people in the media and in person falling all over themselves to have sympathy for the undercover detectives who shot an innocent black man 50 times.

They say it is SUCH a hard job to be a police officer. It is just so SCARY. They were just SCARED, and DISORGANIZED. The implication is: wouldn't ANYONE be SCARED of an (innocent unarmed) black man?

We always hear this after incidents of police brutality. dNa sums it up at Racialicious ("On Sean Bell: fear is cause for slaughter only when victim is black"):

The Bell verdict will only cement the NYPD’s indifference to wasting black life. They simply aren’t held accountable. All they have to do is say they’re “scared”, and the media sympathizes, because they’re scared of us too.

You know, if being a cop is such a hard job, why not take one of those nice easy jobs?

Like the EASY job of being the mother or father of a (murdered innocent unarmed) black man?

Like the EASY job of being the fiancée or daughter of a (murdered innocent unarmed) black man? (see above photo)

Or the EASY job of being a little black boy who will someday grow up to be an innocent unarmed black man?

Doing a search on some of the history of police brutality cases in NYC, I came upon a moving NYTimes piece ("Police Shooting Reunites Circle of Common Loss") about the way that the families of the victims have formed a friendship network based in shared pain, and the Sean Bell funeral was cause for a painful reunion:

“I don’t know what I would have done without them,” Mrs. Dorismond, a Haitian immigrant who came to New York at 18 to study nursing, said of the relatives of Amadou Diallo and others who died in encounters with the police. “Nobody can understand that pain but me, Mrs. Diallo and the others. When it was my turn, everybody came.”

They had come and been there for her, rushing to her side to introduce themselves — at her son’s wake, at his funeral, at the protests on the streets. Amadou Diallo’s mother, Malcolm Ferguson’s mother, Nicholas Heyward Jr.’s father, Abner Louima himself.

Save your sympathy for the real victims, please.

Toon: Primary Fever

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More like Primary Fatigue. Really, all I do want to talk about is Battlestar Galactica. I don't want to hear any more of Hillary trying to prove what a bomb-hungry hawk she is, or Obama going out of his way to sing the praises of bipartisanship (otherwise known as "letting Republicans have their way"). Nor do I want to hear anything any more of those gazillion weird racist smears and internet rumors going around about him. And I especially do NOT care about flag pins.

50 Shots and an Outrageous Verdict

Morning outrage: the police officers who shot (and killed) an unarmed young man on his wedding day got away with murder. They shot Sean Bell 50 times but were declared not guilty on all counts. Business as goddamn usual--the police get away with killing another young black man, on the excuse that they were "scared" and "confused" and "disorganized."

Here's my original cartoon about the case, and a much older cartoon on police brutality.

Random Battlestar Galactica Love

Words cannot describe how much I love the brilliant, complex, thrilling and soon-to-be-over new Battlestar Galactica television series.

I don't even have cable TV (or any TV, beyond what the internet so generously provides) and I'm not a big TV fan in general. Lost is sort of OK but I won't cry if I miss an episode or ten or twenty. Arrested Development was hilarious and awesome but is long over.

So yeah, I don't care much about TV. But I DO love well-crafted science fiction, especially dark and gritty post-apocalyptic science fiction featuring complex characters, political intrigue, stolen elections, resistance movements and fundamentalist religious robots bent on total human genocide. Battlestar Galactica is without a doubt the best television show of all time (or is at least MY personal favorite show of all time). And it's much more politically gripping than the real-life primaries we're currently enduring.

I even considered braving the horrible heinous crowds at New York Comic-Con this weekend just to see some of the Galactica cast-members.

OK, I just had to share that.

Kevin Moore has "Snappy Answers to Stephanopoulos Questions"

Fellow Cartoonist With Attitude Kevin Moore sums up the worst of the latest debate in this awesome cartoon.

No, it's NOT Easy Being Green; or Their Fake "Green" Lives

If I see one more article about a gazillion pieces of fancy overpriced "organic" or "recycled" designer crap we can cram into our lives to pretend we're doing something significant to save the planet, I'm going to shoot some (organic!?) steam out my ears.

With every Earth Day there comes a flood of special newspaper and magazine "Green Issues," all generally pushing the same deluded feel-good idea that if only we replaced non-green products with slightly more green products, we'd really Make a Big Difference and Save the Planet. We don't really need to change our consumer culture or hold corporate polluters accountable or enact sweeping and drastic environmental legislation--we just need to change our lightbulbs and wear organic cotton T-shirts.

Case in point: Domino magazine's latest "Green" issue (cover headline: "150 Easy Ways to Go Green") and "Green" list, all about "easy" and "painless" ways to save the planet... by nothing more stressful than shopping. Which is kind of like saving money by... buying what you don't need because it's on sale.

Domino's special Green issue is just an extension of their "my green life" column, which features a different model or celebrity or "activist" each month talking about all the fancy products and organic jeans they CONSUME and BUY while flying around the country on... jet fuel. Sure, life is full of contradictions. I fly myself. I don't live a perfect green life. I can't manage to embody all of my politics in everything I do as an individual in my daily life. But I don't hold my lifestyle up as a magic model that will easily and painlessly save the world.

Anyway, here's the thing: buying more fancy stuff you don't need (no matter how organic or recycled it is) is fundamentally an anti-green act. If you replace your perfectly good couch with some fancy organic or more sustainably produced designer creation, that does not mean you are saving the planet. It means you are buying a nice couch that is slightly less destructive than another couch. You're still consuming, and you're still creating waste. You are not a hero, and you are not an activist, you're just a less destructive shopper.

And shopping is not a substitute for action. Buying a red sweatshirt or red iPod that donates 1% of its profits to a poorly-run AIDS charity that spends all its money advertising red sweatshirts or red iPods is not real action for change. A lot of this feel-good, do-nothing shopping as "activism" (ActivismTM) crap is just an excuse to give yourself an excuse to BUY MORE CRAP YOU DON'T need.

Don't get me wrong--I do think it's good that more manufacturers and craftspeople and companies are being conscious of what goes into their products, and trying to minimize their impact on our already overtaxed planet. I think it's messed up that it took Apple this long to design a greener Mac. I am all for architects designing more environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient buildings (though before you go through the trouble of constructing some perfect energy-saving home, it might be more green to buy one of the many vacant homes that already exist).

And yes, if you DO have to buy something new, it's much better to buy something sustainably produced, something made under fair labor practices, etc. Or to buy something used and discarded by another American shopaholic. I get a good percentage of my work attire from the Goodwill, and I'm not talking holey sweaters and ratty jeans--I'm talking tailored skirt suits and cashmere cardigans.

But back to buying new--if "environmental"--stuff. A lot of these fancy new products aren't green, they're "Green(TM)." They're green as a marketing tool, not as a reality. Like the green Hummer I cartooned about recently. If you buy a "green" Hummer or if you buy more than you would have normally have of something because that product is "greener" and somehow more virtuous--well, the marketing team that pulled one over on you is getting a big bonus for sure.

Many of the products featured in Green Issues are cosmetically green at best--their "green" or "organic" labels are just another sales pitch or a designer fashion trend, and we all know how fickle the fashion world is. One minute fur is out. The next all those models who appeared in anti-fur ads are strolling down the runway covered in peeled fox heads.

So no, watching an Al Gore documentary or buying recycled organic toilet paper is not going to save the world. We need drastic change and we need it yesterday and it is NOT going to be EASY.

Some further reading:

Cartoons by me on this topic:
• "The New Green Hummer"
• "Quick Fixes for Every Crisis!"
• "Confessions of a Closet Conservationist"
• "Quick and Easy Guide to Conservation"

Cartoon work by Stephanie McMillan on this topic (Stephanie is really the master of this subject):
• "I'm recycling my dead monitor..."
• "Lie to Me"
• As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial (graphic novel)

Toon: Give Me Convenience (and Give Me Debt)!

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This cartoon was inspired by a column my dad sent me about RFID emitters being developed for cellphones. Obviously there are security and privacy issues involved when your credit card or bank account number is being broadcast from your phone, but that's not the point of this piece.

The real thing that pissed me off is the idea that somehow BUYING USELESS OVERPRICED CRAP is so damn DIFFICULT that we need to make it even EASIER to part people from their hard-earned cash.

If anything, it's way too EASY to spend, spend, spend. The statistic I generally hear is that the average American has no savings at all and is $9,000 in credit card debt. We might as well have flying telepathic products that reach into our pockets and grab our credit cards, the way we're surrounded by advertising and flooded with deceptive and manipulative marketing and pitches and credit card offers.

Why do we want to make it so easy for retailers to take our money in exchange for useless crap that clogs up our lives? Features like "one-click shopping" and magical cell phones are not conveniences--they're tickets to a life as an overspent American.

Masheka and I keep our debit cards (and the one credit card that we haven't shredded) in a neat little "Wallet Buddy" sleeve that I downloaded as a PDF from the Center for a New American Dream. The sleeve has a list of things to stop and think about before you buy anything, and makes you pause before buying.

P.S. The cartoon title is a Dead Kennedys reference, for all you 80s political punk rock fans out there.

The Mommy Job, Children's Book Edition

Remember my cartoon about surgical so-called Mommy Makeovers? Enter My Beautiful Mommy, a children's book by a plastic surgeon... in which Mommy explains to her daughter why Mommy needs bigger boobs, a perkier nose and a tummy tuck to be prettier.

Found via the fabulous women of Feministing.

Why draw cartoons: A letter

My pal Warren Bernard had this very kind thing to say regarding my "Why Draw Alternative Political Cartoons?" post:

MR,

Hey, well, I was disappointed in your list of reasons to keep doing cartoons. You missed three reasons that should be at the top of the list:

1. Disappointing all your fans if you stop.
2. You would cause my moral compass to point to supporting McCain, listening to Limbaugh and joining the American Enterprise Institute.
3. If you stop, it would mean The Man has gotten to you. You cannot let the sexist barriers he has set up to prevent women from becoming political cartoonists stop you.

Oh, please spare me that dastardly Right Wing fate and continue cranking out those cartoons. I really do not wanna be a Republican...

Here is virtual hug of lefty support,

Me

Toon: A Few Reasons Why (We Need a Transgender Rights Bill)

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We need it NOW. Or yesterday, preferably.

Toon: The Joys of Tax Time!

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As you may recall, Masheka and I got married last year. So, as a married male/female couple, we had the experience of filing our taxes jointly this year, which made it much easier to account for our cartooning deductions and calculate everything and definitely saved us a heap of change.

But of course our bigoted laws don't allow same-sex couples (or domestic partners of any gender) to file joint returns or get all the benefits and protections that come with that legal status--even for couples married in Masschuestts who get those protections and benefits at the state level.

As a side note, I just felt like randomly drawing a really tiny kitten into this cartoon because kittens are fun to draw, much more fun to draw than politicians.

Toon: More Nasty Text Messages (from the mayor of Detroit)

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This is a local Detroit cartoon about embattled mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick refuses to step down even after he's been criminally charged conspiracy, obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct. 14,000 text messages revealed that he didn't just have an affair with his chief of staff Christine Beatty--he paid his friends overtime as bodyguards to help him cover up said affair, and when whistleblowers tried to stop the madness, he had them demoted/fired and lied about it and they sued for $9 million...

Seriously, just go Google it or check out this excellent and very balanced editorial in the Metro Times or see this timeline. Trust me, it's messed up. And he WAS very fond of LOL LOL talk, as his messages reveal.

Busy Painting Billie, or Mikhaela and Masheka Mural Madness, Pt. 2

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Here's another peak at our little collaboration piece (again, full details to be revealed later). I'm terrified of heights and working on a scaffold caused me to cry in terror a few times. But getting to paint Billie Holiday with a big flower in her hair made up for it, sort of.

You might wonder whose drawing/cartoon style that is--it's both. I did some of the caricature sketches and Masheka did some (well, most) but then we both played with inking them so it was one consistent Mashekaela style.

Masheka and Mikhaela Mural madness, pt. 1

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I can't show you the whole mural or explain what it's for yet, but here's Masheka painting Will Rogers...

Why draw alternative political cartoons?

No, really: why draw alternative political cartoons?

Dear readers, forgive your cartoonist for having an existential crisis, but I've been asking myself this question a lot lately, and you may have noticed this blog and the email list have been relatively quiet as a result. I've been drawing the cartoons as usual, but have been slow to post or email them due to aforesaid existential cartooning funk.

Some arguments FOR drawing weekly political cartoons:

• To make a difference. I don't have any illusions that political cartoons will change the world or end the war or have a huge mind-blowing impact, but I really love the awesome fan mail, especially in regards to my cartoons on LGBT issues and transgender issues. Clearly my cartoons are making a lot of people happy. I'm just not sure how happy they're making me!
• To vent my personal anger and outrage and to have an outlet for my views/voice. This was the main reason I started drawing The Boiling Point, as the name implies. It's still a pretty good damn reason, as I'm a pretty damn angry cartoonist. I'm a passionate person and I need an outlet.
• Because drawing is cool/fun. Well, sometimes it is. Still, I could draw a lot of more fun things than George W. Bush. Like really adorable kittens.
• Because being a cartoonist and hanging out with other cartoonists is awesome. This is a really, really good reason. I love hanging out with my fellow Cartoonists With Attitude, and I've made some of my best friends in the world via cartooning.
• To make money. Just kidding! If I drew a sci-fi webcomic featuring snarky hipster video game romance in space*, maybe I could sell some T-shirts and figurines and live off that. But there's little to no money in alt-weekly cartoons unless you've got a slew of papers. Many papers pay as little as $5/week. NOT JOKING. (See this depressing comments thread on the Daily Cartoonist for more on this topic--the basic conclusion is that there's no money in online editorial cartooning).
• It builds an audience... that could later support me should I pursue other projects I care about, like a graphic novel or children's book or what-have-you.

Some arguments AGAINST drawing weekly political cartoons:

• It's a lot of work for very little pay/reward. This is my main beef. I'm a big believer in the "less work, less stuff, more of what matters" philosophy espoused by Juliet Schor and Your Money or Your Life. I believe Americans work too much and have too little quality leisure time. I believe Americans spend too much, save too little and own too much stuff. And I believe in fair wages.

  SO WHY DO I SPEND SO MANY HOURS SITTING ALONE BEHIND A DRAWING BOARD OR AT THE COMPUTER FOR WHAT AMOUNTS TO LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE WHEN I COULD BE OUT RIDING MY BIKE OR SPENDING TIME WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY OR DOING ACTIVIST WORK? (I work an awesome full-time job in addition to cartooning, in case you're wondering). Where's the light at the end of the tunnel? Sorry for E-shouting, but I ask myself that question a lot. I feel like such a hypocrite sometimes--my life philosophy is in direct opposition to my life reality.

• It's damned depressing. War, genocide, injustice, bigotry, hatred, bombings, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, power struggles, Dick Cheney, repeat, repeat, repeat. Following the news so closely and being engaged with it so deeply while feeling I'm having so little practical impact is incredibly demoralizing.
• It has no future and nothing to look forward to. Newspapers are in trouble and slashing budgets left and right, and editorial cartoons and editorial cartoonists get no respect. Graphic novels and animation seem to be where it's at right now.

OK, end whiny rant. And no, I'm not quitting, just venting. But I sure could use some supportive comments! I promise to have a bunch of cartoons and other cool stuff up for you all soon.

*This is not a slur on sci-fi webcomics. Science fiction is my favorite genre (I love you Octavia Butler and Battlestar Galactica). I'm only bummed because it seems like pretty much everything is more "monetizable" than political cartoons. Also, I hate the word "monetizable."