By now we have probably all seen the cover of the current New Yorker magazine, portraying Barack and Michelle Obama living up to all of the slurs that have been bandied about by the right-wing media. The point of the cover, which has nothing to do with any article in the issue, is to point out the absurdity of the way they are portrayed by the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.
Alas, not everyone has seen it this way. The Obama camp has called it offensive, as has John McCain. The intent of the picture was not to be racially insensitive, but this is the trouble one runs into when trying to be humerous or satirical in matters of race. The point that I make regarding this picture is that me, as a white man, cannot know completely what will be offensive to a minority. Even if I feel something is innocent, if a person is offended by it, then it is offensive. The irony of this is that the New Yorker is marketed as an intellectual magazine, and though it does not call itself a liberal magazine, it is. Of course, if The Weekly Standard had published this, they would have a higher hurdle to jump in claiming satire.
