Yes We Did?

[samuellajsupercool]

Paul Zanetti, Australia,11/7/08

In the illustration above you see Obama entering the White House and at the entrance is 'Uncle Sam" holding a broom. In the bubble besides Uncle Sam's head it says "Your Job is to Clean up After the White Folks." On the top left corner of the cartoon the words written say "The more things change..."

The argument in this cartoon is that there really isn't a change in America just because a man of mixed race have been elected into the White House.The only real change in Obama being elected for president is that now instead of the black guy cleaning the "white folk" toilet he gets to become the president of the United States. The message of this cartoon is disturbing, but it does hold some truth. George Bush destroys America's economy and that's when the first African American gets elected into the White House. The people of America has such high expectation for Obama because he looks different than the man who caused our economy to plummet in the first place so they expect Obama to be better. This cartoon also suggest that America's stand on race has not change because we have a Black president, that that because Obama is a black man he is expected to clean up the mess that George Bush made. I agree that just because we have a mixed race president doesn't change the views that Americans have on race, I do hope that this would help people become less narrow minded and that America can finally make the statement "all man are created equally" a reality.

[daniellek]

My take on this political cartoon is not so much that there is no change to come, but that as in the racially tumultuous days when African Americans had to clean up after white folks things have not changed, at least for Barack Obama. Due to the fact that Bush has in a sense made a financial mess of the economy, it is now Obama's job to clean it up. The rhetorical argument of this political cartoon seems to be that times have not really changed, and once again it is the African American's job to clean up after the white man.

[sijunlisrad]

This cartoon is definitely refering to race; it goes back to the times of slavery where blacks would have to clean up after whites. I find it disturbing as well because it does hold truth to it, like you said. Obama, a black man, is going to have to clean up the mess that Bush, a white man, made. It's kind of mocking the fact that Obama broke a major racial barrier in politics, one that has a historical impact.

[joshuak]

Honestly I think Obama should be honored to be elected president during a time of need. I don't think he was elected just to clean up the mess that bush created, anybody with half a brain could do that. I think the American people elected him because they want "change". The American people voted for him because they want Obama to make us the country we were nine years ago. I agree that the United States is still somewhat racist, but racism is everywhere. No matter what some race somewhere is going to be disliked for some ignorant reason. The road to making the U.S. great again will be no easy task for Obama, but he can do it. He's a smart man and he has a great future planned for the people of the United States.

[mikhails77]

Well, my perspective on this cartoon isn’t really that there won’t be any change since Obama was elected president; I believe, that him just being an African-American is one major step, opening the door for more improvement in America, but this cartoon does hold some truth about Obama cleaning up major mess that Bush left, that doesn’t mean that everything is going to change in the blink of an eye, just because he is of a different race; certain things take time to get done.

[ruthlanden92]

After 8 years of trouble and destruction, Barrack Obama is left with the difficult task in cleaning up the mess that was left behind by president George Bush. Centuries ago ,the only job black people had was to clean up after the white folks as slaves. But now a black man is the president of the United States but still has to clean up after the white folk. Barrack Obama made a plethora of promises to change this country and make it better. But the real question is, will Obama be able to live up to those promises? Will the changes he promised come true or will the mess the country is already in expand even more.

[Mr. Wells]

Good work, Samuella, but remember that your analysis of the cartoon is ONLY to be found in the first paragraph, and ONLY your argument should be in the second paragraph.

48/50