My View
BY DON SORCHYCH | MAY 29, 2013
Racist inference
Bil Canfield has been our cartoonist for 18 years. Prior to that he was the cartoonist for Newark News until it folded in 1972, then the New Jersey Star Ledger until 1998. He retired and moved here. Bil served in the Navy and fought on a battleship in the European theatre, of course serving to defeat the Nazis. Below I will explain what happens when competitors (Yes the Arizona Republic has substantially less distribution in the six zip codes we cover) assume racism at every turn. Not only that, but Philip Haldiman is the mouthpiece for the slate, which recently elected three of four needed for a majority vote. Thomas McGuire, who came in second, earned the fourth seat.
Here is Haldiman’s request.
Don
I received Bil's explanation (below) of the swastika cartoon in Wednesdays newspaper.
Bil
I received your explanation (below) of the swastika cartoon in Wednesdays newspaper, and I'm not terribly clear on your intended meaning.
Were you speaking that the fear in leaving your house has only to do with bad traffic? And you used the swastika as a metaphor to show how scary driving in Cave Creek can be? I just want to be 100 percent clear as some residents have read the cartoon and taken it as anti-Semitic.
Please clarify, if need be.
Philip Haldiman
The Arizona Republic
Bil
Some residents have read the cartoon and taken it as anti-semetic (sic). I was wondering your thoughts when you first read it? Did you have concerns that some residents might take it as anti-semetic (sic)? Seeing it as anit-semetic (sic) was my initial response. What made you decide to run it in spite of possible racist implications?
Philip Haldiman
The Arizona Republic
(Canfield to Haldiman)
First of all you and they are not the first to not get the message--in most cases it’s not clear----my point is it is dangerous once on the highway or even back roads---the moment you or your loved ones leave the garage and turn in the street you are in enemy lands and I used the swastika as the worst metaphor I know and I am sure for many that they don't think of it as a metaphor----but very real and I also think one is safer if one lives with some fear--I just had a small fender bender.
That explanation suits me, especially when a low knowledge reporter asks a stupid question. Canfield is 92 years old and I have never met a more committed patriot than him. He doesn’t have a racist bone in his body and he certainly is not anti-Semitic.
I have had my own experience with an Arizona Republic reporter. I was once visited by Daniel Gonzales who is the full time illegal alien apologist. Perhaps he invented the Republic’s use of migrant to describe illegal aliens. He sat down and said, “Are you a racist?” I told him if that was where he was going he could leave right then.
He quickly apologized and told me he wasn’t Mexican and his parents were both from the Caribbean. He went on to explain that the “migrants” were really Indians, that they were short and not colored the same. I told him his whole spiel was racist.
The whole country has gone politically correct (PC). Racist is the favorite defence of Democrats. One reason Obama is getting away with issues like Benghazi, Fast and Furious and the IRS scandal is because he professes to be black. The fact is he is half white and half Arab, but it is politically expedient to claim he is black.
I am offended that after 18 years of unparalleled cartoons with us anyone would assume Canfield is a racist. He is well-known in the art community and still attends classes to polish his skills. I visited Dennis Doelle’s Dentistry the other day where they have a “Canfield Wall” of dozens of hilarious cartoons. The Cave Creek Barber Shop is also a lucky precipitant of his work.
What other publication has the good fortune to have a cartoonist of Canfield’s caliber? None!
Recently the sports world was in an uproar because Spanish Golfer Sergio Gracia said he would invite Tiger Woods to his home for fried chicken. Racist was all you heard about that incident. Sportswriters even dredged up Fuzzy Zoeller’s similar remark in the beginning of Woods’ career.
Woods said, “The comment that was made wasn’t silly. It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate...”
He could have said, “I prefer my chicken grilled” and laughed it off, but no, he has to whine. Had he made a less caustic comment it would have been over. As is usual in such cases, Garcia apologized.
When I was in school it was common that nationality was a common address. Italians were Dagos, Mexican’s and Spaniards were Spics, English were Johnny Bulls, German’s were Krauts, Polish were Pollacks, Chinese were Chinks and Japanese were Japs. I never saw a fight over the handles used.
