Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ Charlie (and lagniappe)

January 14, 2015 • 6:30 am

Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “Small,” is about as serious as this cartoon gets The artist is clearly still upset by the Charlie Hebdo massacre:2015-01-14

I’ve about run my course with the Charlie Hebdo affair, which is pretty much over—until the next extremist Muslim attacks a journalist. There’s one more post about l’affaire Charlie on tap—by Greg—which will appear later today, and I’ll add here a link provided by Matthew Cobb to a site called “Understanding Charlie Hebdo cartoons.” It takes a few of the more “inflammatory” cartoons published by CH and shows what they really mean in context.  Here, for example, is one that really got the Keyboard Warriors in a lather as a supposed example of CH’s “racism,” for the cartoon it depicted a black person as a monkey. But read further:

Screen Shot 2015-01-14 at 6.01.30 AM

Here’s the analysis on the “Understanding Charlie Hebdo” site:

Symbols

  • The font chosen (serif) is reminiscent of traditional right-wing political posters. Left-wing and communist posters in France usually use a sans-serif font. This is the first hint that the cartoon is mocking a right-wing element.
  • The blue and red flame logo on the bottom-left is the logo of the Front National, a far-right political party in France.
  • The person depicted is Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, drawn as a monkey. This is referencing various occasions of far-right activists depicting Taubira as a monkey (online sharing of photoshops, sound imitations, calling out, etc.).
  • The title is a play on words of Marine Le Pen’s slogan “Rassemblement Bleu Marine” (Navy blue Union).

Satire

The cartoon was published after a National Front politician Facebook-shared a photoshop of Justice Taubira, drawn as a monkey, and then said on French television the she should be “in a tree swinging from the branches rather than in government” [Le Monde] (she was later sentenced to 9 months of prison). The cartoon is styled as a political poster, calling on all far-right “Marine” racists to unify, under this racist imagery they have chosen. Ultimately, the cartoon is criticising the far-right’s appeal to racism to gain supporters.

The cartoon was drawn by Charb. He participated in anti-racism activities, and notably illustrated the poster (below) for MRAP (Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples), an anti-racist NGO.

mrap-discriminations

Translation:
Let’s break the silence!
[speech-bubble] I would hire you, but I don’t like the colour of … euh … your tie!

About ten other cartoons are analyzed in this way. I put this up only because atheist bloggers continue to indict the magazine for racism and bigotry, sometimes almost explaining why someone who published such cartoons would be reviled and their artists attacked. (Is that “Charliesplaining”?)

Those accusations are ignorant, reflecting a knee-jerk reaction to images as well as a laziness about finding out what those images really mean. I myself wouldn’t have known without this doing a bit of investigation, and without astute guidance by the Francophone and Charlie-reader Dr. Cobb. Regardless, those atheist bloggers with such hair-trigger opinions are not only making themselves look foolish and hyper-emotional, but are in fact themselves acting like offended Muslims, constantly scanning their environment for things that they find offensive. I doubt that trend will stop, as there’s a class of readers that eat up that kind of drama, but some of those bloggers would do well to remember Salman Rushdie’s quote, “Nobody has the right not to be offended.“

80 thoughts on “Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ Charlie (and lagniappe)”

  2. Some call themselves atheists. But they are only on a transition to another sect: bio food, anti ogm, whatever. I have learned that most people declare themselves atheists in the christian sense that they do not care much about the christian 3-in-1 shampoo god.

    1. “He praised that attack, saying it was revenge for Charlie Hebdo’s depictions of the Prophet Mohammed.”

      The fool. Everyone knows that it was because of Western imperialism.

      /@

    2. I see too the French government have arrested 54 people for hate speech. “Round up the usual suspects.” Obama is called out for not attending the protests. You’re right. It is winding down.

      1. Next week’s CH cover cartoon will show (I predict) Obama (perhaps with Hollande, Merckel and other international hypocrits)in a disrespectful pose holding a “Nous sommes Charlie” sign with a page heading reading “Tout est Pardonné”.
        That was my first thought, but I expect CH will do much better.

  5. Re: “until the next extremist Muslim attacks a journalist.”

    The Saudi extremists will be attacking Raif Badawi at the rate of 50 lashes/day for the next 19 Fridays…
    If I could draw, I’d create a cartoon showing Raif Badawi holding a “Je suis Charlie” sign while he is being ignominiously flogged.

  6. Somewhere I read (can’t recall the source now) that anti-CH bloggers were circulating old Charlie cartoons that used the word ‘nigger’, presumably taken out-of-context in the same fashion as above.

  7. This is a great explanation of CH’s use of satire. A couple of examples I’ve used to help explain the concept to people here are the Spike Lee movie “Bamboozled” where a minstrel show becomes a hit tv series and several sketches by Dave Chappelle discussing racism, reparations, and language.

    Both examples use language and images that are unacceptable to make the point about why they are unacceptable while being humourous. Some have used Colbert to do the same, but I’ve found that many find Colbert to be “safe” and can’t make the leap from his work to CH, while the examples above require a shorter mental leap.

  8. I saw one victim-blaming blogger actually use the term “Free Speech Fundamentalist” to describe people who disagreed with him.

          7. I am tall, 6′-4″ (~ 10cm shy of 2m), which has unpleasant effects on my spine as I age but negligible effects on the speed of objects falling from my head.

          8. “I am tall, 6′-4″ (~ 10cm shy of 2m), which has unpleasant effects on my spine as I age”

            … specially when you walk through low doorways without ducking? 😉

  9. All I will add is that it would have been a whole lot harder if they had not got as many weapons available in France, which is another reason to be thankful we have such strict gun control in the UK. Nutters with knives are not as dangerous as nutters with guns.

    1. …and you never see a news report that ends “he then turned the cricket bat on himself”.

          1. From Blakes 7:

            (Avon and Dayna find a guard with a knife in his back)
            Avon: It is a difficult way to commit suicide.
            Dayna: Maybe he was cleaning it and it went off.

    2. There are of course other very pleasant nutters, who care deeply about society & would never wish to cause harm… ! (???!)

  10. On the subject of victim blaming there is a curious insight into why the Guardian sometimes comes adrift from its moorings on topics of this kind in a statement by Joseph Harker, described as a comment editor in his byline. His reaction to the new issue of Charlie Hebdo in the Guardian’s Comment is Free section yesterday contains much intellectual confusion. I mention this not because his being wrong is noteworthy, but because the thought process that leads an intelligent and presumably decent person to such bizarre conclusions may be of interest.

  11. Can’t really understand why the proclaimed atheist would be the first to the keyboard pounding with accusations of racism.

    Anyway, direct or in your face discussions of racism simply is not done by any mainstream media in the U.S. Yes we have a problem is about as far as it goes. They would hardly admit the voter registration laws are racist.

    1. Can’t really understand why the proclaimed atheist would be the first to the keyboard pounding with accusations of racism.

      Atheists tend to be more liberal and extreme political correctness is a left-wing problem rather than a right-wing one. So it’s not anything to do with atheism per se, its just due to a common correlation.

      1. I would agree up to a point the political right does not whine about being insulted, other than to counterattack. But the religious right (much overlap) is offended by anything that diminishes public recognition of Christianity.

        But in general, political correctness and the concept of micro-aggression is a social disease.

  12. a spokesman for the Muslim Council of GB (i think that was the organisation’s title)was interviewed on BBC TV this morning. He gave the obligatory statement of disapproval of the CH killings and then proceeded to criticize the cover of the new issue which he claimed “rubbed salt in the wounds”! Whose wounds for crying out loud? His learned opinion was that a completely blank page would have been appropriate!
    Fortunately, a muslim woman was interviewed at the same time and she rubbished his position and said there was nothing for Muslims to be offended at.

  14. One thing that bugs me is the handwringing over whether the cartoons are left or right (sheesh down to analyzing the font) . Censorship is censorship, I don’t care about the politics being censored, it’s still a big problem.

    Besides a really good satire site would find plenty to satirize across the spectrum. There is more than enough stupidity to go around

    1. Accuracy is important. The “but they are racist” complaints we’ve been hearing are wrong and deserve to be called out.

      And there is nothing wrong with people learning more about Charlie Hebdo. It helps reduce the number of stupid statements on the subject.

    2. You are missing the point, Jay. Charlie Hebdo has been accused of being racist and this cartoon was cited in evidence. Analysing the font and pointing up the other allusions to Front National propaganda was necessary to demonstrate that the cartoon was actually satirising the racism of the FN and others rather than making a racist statement itself.
      The point being debated is not left wing good – right wing bad but is Charlie Hebdo racist? Clearly the evidence provided by these cartoons is that it is not.

      1. I remember re-tw**ting some NZ tw**ts at the time we passed the same-sex marriage legislation here. I thought they were hilarious. Many from other countries thought they were homophobic because they weren’t viewing them through the eyes of our culture.

        Lucky for me, they gave me the benefit of the doubt.

  15. Apparently the American thinks certain groups of people (Tea Party excluded) have the right not to be offended. We in the white house are most definitely not Charlie.

    The sick comedy in this is that Obama is asking journalists to back off from offending jihadists because they might attack American troops! While he’s spending sixteen thousand dollars a second bombing them from drones. Obscure song reference.

    The lesson is that if you are nonviolent, you are fair game, but if you are irrational and violent, your opinions are untouchable. What lession does that teach?

  16. I wonder why Free Speech is always first on the chopping block when something like this happens, amid calls for willingly limiting it. When a bad congressmen gets elected, I don’t hear nearly so many calls for limiting the electorate and maybe we should rethink this whole democracy thing. (Except among the Republicans back in 2012. There were far, far too many right-wingers mentioning how Romney won the white vote, and it was only the incidental fact that he lost everyone else that kept him from assuming his birthright as president, as if that meant he was eligible for some sort of consolation prize.)

  17. Based on the explanation of the cartoons and covers here, I get the impression that non-French people freaking out about them being “racist” is analogous to a naive person watching Stephen Colbert and claiming he is an ignorant, racist, jingoistic conservative. Context people!

        1. I have no idea. When Colbert pretends to be “Ching Chong Ding Dong” that is “punching up”, but when CH does something similar, it is ” punching down” because someone somewhere might be offended.

  18. Romney may have won the white vote but not mine.

    On CNN this morning they report that the White House has decided to stop using the term “radical Islam”. It tends to upset the non radical and we sure don’t want that.

    1. Euphemism creep. What’ll they be called next, and what hitherto harmless words will be tainted?

  19. Learning the wrong lessons.

    “PARIS (AP) — France ordered prosecutors around the country Wednesday to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism, announcing that 54 people had been arrested for those offenses since the Paris terror attacks.

    The order came as Charlie Hebdo’s defiant new issue sold out before dawn around Paris, with scuffles at kiosks over dwindling copies of the satirical newspaper fronting the Prophet Muhammad.

    Like many European countries, France has strong laws against hate speech and especially anti-Semitism in the wake of the Holocaust. In a message distributed to all French prosecutors and judges, the Justice Ministry laid out the legal basis for rounding up those who defend the Paris terror attacks as well as those responsible for racist or anti-Semitic words or acts.

    Among those detained was Dieudonne, a controversial, popular comic with repeated convictions for racism and anti-Semitism.”

  20. Here is an idea for a new CH cartoon:

    Mohammed is kept in a prison camp, is fed food until he is fattened, then has his neck slashed with a knife while fully conscious. Then, he is gutted, sliced into portions, is cooked over a fire and is eaten by his killers.

    This is what every Hindu sees when a Muslim eats beef.

    The Charlie Hebdo massacre is not about racism, or free speech, or provocation, or automatic weapons. It is about the insanely egotistical practice of religious privilege of Islam, which demands respect of Muslim religious icons by people outside of their faith.

  21. Curiously, it’s typically the faction that complains about western imperialism that is using their american-centric views on virtually everything that goes on in the world, including what french cartoons “really” mean.

  22. Its only a small minority of atheists, a minority that most probably support the terrorists, and that other enemy of free speech the BDS movement!

    They wanted to shut up Charlie Hebdo too!

  23. Speaking of atheist bloggers making themselves look foolish…in a recent blog post at Pharyngula, someone with the nym “Kolnnauzer” started posting comments consisting entirely of past quotes from PZ himself. They appear to be taken from his reaction to the Dutch newspaper cartoon fiasco from a few years ago as they all have to do with Muslims’ violent overreactions to published cartoons featuring Mo. The Horde attacks him for being a racist Islamophobe based on these comments. Kolnnauzer then “outs himself” and explains what he (she?) has done. It’s brilliant. Here’s the link: http://www.freezepage.com/1420845597DUPGYCZPOB

    There are about 400 comments so you probably want to search for the first Kolnnauzer comment (in the high 200’s) and begin reading there.

    1. I am glad that someone did that. PZ has also said something ridiculous about Ayaan Hirsi Ali today — that she is a ‘right winger’ b/c she works for a right wing think tank.
      Words fail me.

      1. Guilt by association. Michael Nugent has found out the hard way that if PZ Myers recognizes a SlymePit name in the comment section of a blog post, you will be slandered/libled as ‘providing a haven for misogynists, rape-apologists and rapists.’

        Which he later upgraded to straight-up ‘haven for rapists.’

        Nugent’s most recent blog post on the ordeal:

        http://www.michaelnugent.com/2015/01/13/second-email-freethought-blogs-complaints-procedure-pz-myers/

        By extension of that unwarranted slander, it pretty much means every atheist blogger who allows comments on his blog and doesn’t religiously monitor the SlymePit and immediately ban any similar name is doing the same.

        So, you name the comment-allowing, non-FTB blogger, and you’ve named (undoubtedly) yet another atheist haven for ‘rapists.’

    2. This Pharyngula thread needs to be posted far and wide by someone who uses social media (which excludes me). I keep hoping that PZ will find some way to get his clown car back on the tracks, but have no hope that it will ever happen for his increasingly reactionary followers.

        1. As a general rule, I consider them members of a quasi-cult. Much like Scientology members, only without the formal structures of Scientology.

          And it’s not just ‘labeling.’ It’s how they behave. All the way down to refusing to acknowledge reality and use of ‘othering’ jargon and concepts that are eerily similar, if not exactly the same, as that used by Scientologists.

    3. That was epic. I got a huge laugh out of that.

      The posts have all been deleted, btw. No lessons were learned by anyone on the ‘inside’ and the troll was ‘invalidated’ by the Horde because ‘reasons.’

  25. I just wanted to say: Thanks for posting the article about understanding Charlie Hebdo. It was very helpful to me and I reposted it on my FB page.

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