Offensive Cartoon Has No Point

I have been a faithful reader of the Crimson for almost 2 years now, and during that time I have been a steady follower of the comics and editorial cartoons. I have read with amusement and appreciation, despite my different ideological leanings, Sebastian Conley's contributions to those sections.

Reading today's [April 3] editorial cartoon, however, I was finally moved to comment on Conley's by-now familiar pattern. His "Monkey King" cartoon epitomizes the worst of both his editorial and strip cartoons: it is insulting, aesthetically unpleasing, but above all, unhumorous, uninsightful, and downright immature.

Although I have never been a member of the Asian-American Association and do not consider myself a "militant Asian," I am nonetheless insulted by his portrayal of the AAA in today's paper. Regardless of his personal relationships with Asians, he does not have the license to use stereotypes in this malicious manner. It would be comparable to my using the word "nigger" to a complete stranger because my African-American friends use that term.

Worst of all, Conley, as usual, doesn't even make a clear point in this cartoon. If he is going to create something incendiary for the purpose of being inflammatory, he at least owes his reader some form of insight. Of course, knowing that Conley prefers to rabble-rouse and "martyr" himself to the conservative cause without any substance behind his claims, I am sure that he is pleased beyond words that his name appears as the target of yet another complaint to the Crimson (although never written as large as his ego demands it to be signed on his comic strip). Gene Koo'97