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• Tuesday, February 24, 2009 08:17 AM

  thousands of monkeys on typewriters will eventually produce a decent apology...

  I saw that cartoon, and I didn't make the connection either. Like an earlier commenter, I thought of the chimp shooting and the monkeys and typewriters analogy, and I'm sure that this probably was what the Post cartoonist and editors were thinking.

  But that doesn't matter, and it doesn't make anyone who was offended "politically correct," crazy, or opportunistic (with the possible exception of Al Sharpton). Any editor or cartoonist worth his or her salt should realize that there is a long and appalling history in American journalism of caricaturing black Americans with simian features, and they should have realized that and exercised better judgment. As soon as I saw the association pointed out, it clicked into place for me, and I understood at once how hurtful it would be to so many people, intentionally or not. No one with even a smattering of American cultural literacy should be able to plead ignorance.

  I really deplore the practice, begun in the early 90s, of wearing so-called "political incorrectness" as a badge of honor and deriding people who advocate respect for others as an exercise in self-righteous sanctimony. It's not being politically correct to refrain from using images that have been historically deeply insulting and open old wounds and humiliations. It's an expression of good manners, true class, and civic responsibility. I suspect even Rupert Murdoch vaguely understands that, even if he can't bring himself to do the right thing.

  —Marianna Trench Read Marianna Trench's other letters
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