On 19 September, cartoonist Henry Payne posted this cartoon on his blog and then shared it on Twitter. He titled it"Tlaib Pager Hamas".
Context
In the scene, US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (of Palestinian origin) looks at a pager smoking on her desk and thinks: "Odd. My pager just exploded".
The cartoon refers to the terrorist attacks against the Lebanese Hezbollah organisation for which thousands of beepers and walkie-talkies were modified to function as remotely triggered booby traps, leaving dozens dead and thousands of civilians injured. Lebanon blamed Israel for the attack and various media outlets pointed to Israeli responsibility, which remained silent on the matter.
Reactions
More than a few people accused the cartoonist of having drawn a "racist" cartoon that also insinuates that the MP (who openly criticises and denounces the genocide in Gaza) is a member of Hezbollah and also suggests that she belongs to Hamas.
The Democratic congresswoman's reaction came as a response/thank you to Abdullah H. Hammoud, mayor of Dearborn, who called the cartoon"garbage","Absolutely disgusting" and said that "Anti-Arab bigotry & Islamophobia have become normalized in our media".
Vermont Democratic Congresswoman Becca Balint called for the cartoon to be removed and for an apology to be offered to Tlaib and the American Muslim community.
"Implying that a member of Congress is affiliated with a terrorist organization because she's Palestinian is downright racist, Islamophobic, and puts people in danger. The cartoon must be retracted with an apology to Rep. Tlaib and Muslim Americans."
Rashida Tlaib, added:"Our community is already in so much pain right now. This racism will incite more hate + violence against our Arab & Muslim communities, and it makes everyone less safe. It’s disgraceful that the media continues to normalize this racism.".
At first, because of the e-mail address that accompanies the signature on the cartoon(hpayne@detroitnews.com), it was thought that it had been published in this newspaper, but this was not the case.
It was published on the website of the National Review, a landmark publication of US conservatism, which has not commented on the controversy.
No consequences
The Detroit News warned that the paper had no involvement in the creation of the cartoon and had not published it. In fact, Payne has not drawn for the paper since 2013, when he became editorial page editor after a series of cutbacks at the paper.
Payne was hired as a cartoonist by the paper in 1999 to replace Draper Hill (1935-2009), who retired that year.
The Detroit News is not contemplating firing Payne or disciplining him for the cartoon. However, they say he was asked to stop using and displaying the Detroit News email address in the cartoons when he works for other publications, to which the author agreed.(Source)
The author speaks
Henry Payne hit back at accusations of racism with a move that is as absurd as it is incoherent. Payne, who appears to be dim-witted, makes it even worse by linking the congresswoman to former Dearborn mayor, racist Republican Orville Hubbard.
"Metro Detroit has an unfortunate history of intolerant leadership from Orville Hubbard to Rashida Tlaib. And cartoonists' pens have long lampooned their demagoguery."(Source)
In the comments to the article in The Daily Cartoonist you can read these two comments
"This is a pretty lame justification from Payne. But then he is not particularly known for being all that sharp."(1)
"Payne’s cartoon is the work of a scoundrel. He claims to be slamming racists while drawing a racist cartoon for all to see".(2)
Orville Hubbard (1903-1982) was mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, from 1942 to 1978 and became nationally known as a fervent segregationist with derogatory views toward blacks, Arabs, Jews and others.
Hubbard's racial views were not limited to African-Americans. He was known to complain that 'the Jews own this country', that the Irish 'are even more corrupt than the Dagos' and, when Middle Easterners began to settle in Dearborn, that 'the Syrians are even worse than the Negroes'.
Hubbard once said: "I'm not a racist, but I hate those black bastards.
About Henry Payne
Henry Payne was born in 1962 in Charleston, West Virginia. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in history in 1984 and took his first steps as a cartoonist on several student newspapers.
He is a columnist for The Detroit News, a Car Radio host on WFDF Detroit, a former editorial cartoonist and opinion writer. He joined The News in 2000 from the Scripps Howard News Service in Washington D.C. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, National Review, New York Post and Washington Times, among others.
Payne writes for The News on vehicles, product trends and breaking news. He has won several awards for his car columns, including the SPJ Excellence in Journalism. Payne is also an active racing driver in a vintage Lola.
He has published three books, two of them children's books, with Random House. His first book, "Payne & Ink: The Cartoons and Commentary of Henry Payne, 2000-2001", was published in 2002. He has also illustrated two children's books for Random House: "Where Did Daddy's Hair Go?" (by Joe O'Connor) in 2006, and "The Book of Ears" by Dr. Seuss in 2007. He was also founder and editor of TheMichiganView.com, an influential opinion publication of the Detroit News, from 2010 to 2013.(From the author's website).
Humour in trouble, a collection of cases
Cases of cartoonists who have had problems of some importance because of their cartoons or satirical illustrations. There are also some stories of other people who, without being cartoonists, have got into trouble for sharing them.
