On being anti-racist: How to tell if your meme is racist
Recently, a cartoon was shared with me by a friend. This cartoon depicts two dogs labeled as ancient China and modern China. It represented ancient China as a photoshopped, standing, muscular Shiba Inu with a superimposed yellow flag with a dragon and the caption: "hey honey so today I invented four revolutionary inventions, it's a step down from yesterday's 7 but still alright." Next to that, a depiction of modern China with a dopey-looking, sitting Shiba Inu with the People's Republic of China's flag and the caption: "today I arrested someone for being mean to me."
Memes are a modern manifestation of the political cartoon. Just like political cartoons, they are a mostly pictorial method to convey broader concepts about the world. They may use words for clarification or emphasis and are often intended to be witty, funny, or satirical.
Comedy and satire can be used to de-escalate discussions of racism and racial discourse, highlighting aspects of our society that we wish to ignore and bridge understanding between groups. In today's more socially conscious era, however, perpetuating historical stereotypes, even in comedic form and particularly by people from dominant social groups, has become somewhat of a social taboo.
"Punching down" is a term used when a member of a privileged social group makes a joke at the expense of a less privileged group. It's easy to shrug one's metaphorical shoulders and suggest that everyone should be able to take a joke (though we should all think long and hard about a time when a joke levied at us, or our "in-group," didn't land well). However, making fun of a group that is already disadvantaged in society risks perpetuating those systems of inequality; it's impossible in our society to eliminate the social and cultural cues that concur with them. Not all jokes about disadvantaged groups fall into this trap. Jokes that highlight manifestations of inequality at the expense of those in power, "punching up," don't hold the same inappropriate connotation, though even in these cases, it's best when the harshness of the criticism remains civil at its core.
Keeping up with new considerations about social justice and conscientious behavior can feel overwhelming and confusing, especially if the group under discussion is foreign to us or distant from our everyday experience. Still, there are easy ways to assess a meme or political cartoon you might share.
Questions to ask yourself before publishing a meme or political cartoon online
The Library of Congress provides an academic methodology for understanding political memes and cartoons. Probing questions like:
What is this cartoon about?
Is the author sharing an opinion or bias?
Is the cartoon persuasive?
What the Library leaves out are questions about how cartoons fit into societal context in the past and today.
Political cartoons have long been a form of satirical social commentary, often probing race-related issues, and sometimes falling flat as a result. The former NYTimes Opinion Editor, James Bennet, recently resigned. The conflict arose from a controversy over a Senator's opinion piece that attempted to galvanize the public around the idea that military force should be deployed against protesters of racial injustice. Benett was previously involved in controversy over the insensitivity of a political cartoon in 2019 in an issue of the Times International Edition, Bennet permitted an anti-semitic cartoon to grace the pages of the Opinion section. The Times later apologized for the picture. In another instance in 2018, The Herald Sun, an Australian paper, published a cartoonist depicted Serena Williams after the U.S. Open throwing her racket on the ground with "clear graphic resemblance to dehumanizing and painful Jim Crow imagery."
Social questions that need to be asked before memes and cartoons are shared are:
Does this meme/cartoon present a caricatured image race?
Does the cartoon generalize certain features of a race or ethnicity as a larger social commentary about a group or country as a whole?
Does the depiction of a minority group draw on historical injustice or prejudices?
Does the cartoon depict real events?
Analyzing racism in memes
Disclaimer: Below is a racist meme. I do not support or condone the imagery or text in the meme and have included a watermark so that further dissemination of this meme will be labeled racist. This analysis is meant as a guide.
Scroll down for meme and analysis.
The meme shared by my friend
Does this meme/cartoon present a caricatured image of another race?
Yes.
It depicts a Japanese breed of dog to represent China; this is problematic. For much of history, China and Japan have maintained a tense relationship. A history of brutal conflict has left relations between the nations tenuous, and people of both countries are highly sensitive to their cultural differences.
Depicting China as a Japanese dog breed intentionally disrespectfully draws upon that history or is ignorant of the disrespect caused.
Does the cartoon generalize certain features of an individual race or ethnicity as a more significant social commentary about a group or country as a whole?
Yes.
The underlying ethnic stereotype here is that modern China (and Chinese people) are weak and punitive.
The depiction of ancient China with a six-pack standing tall and modern China as weak and cowering suggest a reality whereby modern China has little power except in punishment and that the contemporary Chinese person is weak. As the second-largest economy in the world, and growing, it is a country that has lifted 850 million people out of poverty made possible by increased economic output. (See below for additional information on China's imprisoned population). It also implemented strong social programs like a rural pension and city housing subsidy. The total of global debt owed to China is around 5 trillion dollars, approximately 6 percent of the world's economic output. China's ability to build a better life for its citizens and spread financial prosperity is an indication of strength by any measure.
Does the depiction of a minority group draw on historical injustice or prejudices?
Yes.
The United States has a long history critiquing non-American styles of governance and of prejudice against China and other Asian Americans, proving this cartoon does not exist in a vacuum. The Chinese exclusion act of 1882 suspended immigration from China for ten years; the law stayed on the books until 1943. This era produced countless racist cartoon depictions of people of Chinese descent.
In the 1950s, the Red Scare —which vilified all non-capitalist regimes— pushed the United States to intervene in Korea (to maintain a democratic capitalist ally in Asia). Today, a new red scare has caused Europe and the United States to debate whether to expand the powers of NATO to protect western democracies against China and Russia.
Does the cartoon depict real events?
No.
The indication presented by this cartoon is that China was strong and innovative in the past, and in the present, it is weak and punitive.
Regarding inventiveness, modern China competes head-to-head and, in some cases, will surpass the United States and other post-industrialized nations in developing supercomputers, in electric car purchases, in innovative infrastructure, including at tourist sites. The fantastic and world-transforming inventions of China's past are likely to be mirrored by innovation today.
Regarding imprisoned populations, per capita prison population in the United States (how many prisoners a country has for every 100,000 people) is 655, so for every 100,000 people in the United States, 655 are imprisoned. The United States ranks #1 in the world for per capita imprisonment. China ranks 131, with only 120 people incarcerated for every 100,000. Again, the cartoon indicates that China imprisons citizens for only the slightest insult ("being mean to me"), which represents an inaccurate caricature of China's interactions with its citizens.
It is undeniable that China's harsh and condemnable treatment of dissidents and minorities is wrong, and their treatment of minorities, in particular, is racist. However, it must also be stated that China allows widespread and vocal dissent of the CCP's policies. You can go to art villages in Shanghai and see artists depicting Chinese leaders as baby tyrants; they allow dissent from individuals. Only when groups start to organize their dissent that China cracks down. This is also not okay using standards of western liberal democracies, but it makes the implication of this cartoon even more of a lie.
This guide provides an additional list (though not exhaustive) of questions that scholars and citizens can use to evaluate pictorial media for racism. If there is one thing we can all learn from the contemporary anti-racism movement, it is that most of us need to update many, if not all, of our previous assumptions about how racism manifests in daily lives. The in-between-the-lines communication is that platitudes or verbal commitments are not enough to truly make the change to a post-racist society.
