Every day, black Americans can hold their head high knowing our history and struggle in this country and abroad. But, apparently in Belgium, they would rather picture black people as apes; and not just any people but President Obama and our first lady Michelle. There is no defending this racist picture as news or satire as some have stated. Instead, it shows the hatred of the black man internationally by those in power and attempts to make black people appear subhuman. The paper in question is called De Morgan and the picture was printed to coincide with the president’s visit to Belgium. Not only did the picture offend but also the article states, in a poor attempt at satire, that Obama was dealing marijuana.
Many people in Belgium were highly offended by the picture and post and called it a vile and disgusting. This forced the newspaper to issue a lackluster apology which stated in part, “When you consider the fragment apart from its context, which is a properly worked out satirical section, then you don’t see the joke but just a picture evoking sheer racism … We wrongly assumed that racism is no longer accepted, and that in this way it could be the subject of a joke.”
