This is in response to Ebuni N. Mosley’s letter “Jackson cartoon was degrading” (SN 1/26). I have to begin by saying that Mosley completely missed the point of Justin Bilicki’s cartoon in last Wednesday’s paper.

Bilicki’s cartoon in no way depicts black people in a negative manner. It does, however, suggest that because of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s recently publicized infidelities, his ideas and work will not be taken as seriously.

Temporarily, that may be the case. But just because a black man is the butt of a joke does not mean it’s racially motivated. What did that cartoon have to do with race? Absolutely nothing. I looked up some of Bilicki’s past cartoons and I found they depicted people of all different races. None of the cartoons I found seemed to stereotype blacks or any other race.

With regard to your statement that The State News turned Jackson’s work into a “silly, ignorant cartoon,” that’s ridiculous. One cartoon cannot erase what he has accomplished over the past thirty years.

The cartoon was a caricature of the thorny situation Jackson has put himself in, nothing more. Did anybody claim the thousands of jokes about former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal were racially motivated? I don’t think so. Jackson is a famous political figure. Criticism is going to come from all over, especially during a time like this. So I say to Mosley, please try and look upon future cartoons and articles more objectively, with less of a focus on race.

Michael Cykowski
computer science junior