I think it is short sighted that someone is going to pass judgment on you for the work of another.

On the other hand I totally can see these characters in a Saturday morning cartoon teaching kids how to make good financial decisions…. hmmmmm did I just give you your next career opportunity?

Congrats on being named a badass blog, perhaps you give us some advice on how to become so badass!? The secret must be that chopper, still haven’t figured how you have time to blog your riding that thing all over the country raisin’ hell… amazing!

You have built an incredible blog, thanks for helping so many people!

bgr

Sometimes if you see people as fitting into those boxes, it’s because you put them there, not because they actually belong there. If you see enemies in everyone around you, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

My take on the caricatures was pretty much in line with yours and I appreciate the very thoughtful way you articulated it in your comment. Thanks and keep up the great work.

LG

I must opine that in this case, I believe Rose and Cairsten’s opinions are likely based on personal gripes and issues, and are certainly over-looking the true value of your content.
(It is the contrast in these animations to reality that is the entertaining part and clearly they are NOT to be taken literally.)

As a psychology major I deal with many people who are sensitive to a diverse range of topics because of their own biases and experiences that frequently shaped and distorted their realities.

The fact they attempt to “threaten” to leave your site simply because of some drawing that you — the author — didn’t even design yourself seems fairly immature and almost entertaining within itself.

You are a truly valuable and irreplaceable asset to the Personal Finance blogging community, and there will always be those who don’t agree with what you do. Criticism is simply a natural part of life, and when it cannot be justified logically, it should be dismissed as unwarranted.

Congrats to JD and Adam.

Personally I love comparing Adam Baker’s real pic on his blog to his bada$$ one. Congrats to Adam for being the newest GRS writer!

@Brian – Thanks for the big ups.

@JMoney – George needed a bitta bling.

@MattJabbs – Love your work dude

Cairsten and Rose Fox have been valuable members of the GRS community for a long time. They’ve both contributed excellent comments to our discussions in the past. (And they’re doing so in this thread, even if I don’t agree with them.) I’ll be sorry if either (or both) decide that these caricatures warrant giving up the site for good, but that’s their call.

We are all of different colors, but we come here to learn about one color. The color that I am focusing on nowadays is green. Green as in saving more of it, earning more of it and doing more nice things for our planet so my kid can enjoy a better world. Green is gorgeous.

This discussion has been bugging me all day because I’ve studied visual rhetoric and I know the impact that even subtle messages can have on people over time. Rose and Cairsten raise interesting questions, and I don’t think people should be so quick to dismiss them.

I can’t say what’s right or wrong in this case, just that we need opposing voices in the dialogue.

The Pause for Applause
“Unlike all those other white people out there, I’m an anti-racist.” (…) “I do anti-racist work and I try to educate other people about anti-racism.” (…) “Wait, did you hear me?”

The Culture Appropriator
“Damn, bro! You know I’m down with the homies, I ain’t no wack racist cracker, shiznit.”

Turning the Tables
“You’re being just as racist against white people, you realize. You’re being racist against me right now, you reverse-racist hypocrites!”

The Remove the Right To Be Angry
“You’re too sensitive… if you weren’t so aggressive, vocal, hostile, angry, or upset, people would listen to you and you wouldn’t get in trouble!”

The Utopian Eye-Gouger
“I’m colorblind, personally… why can’t we all just ignore race, it’s not like it’s even real… it’s not like I tangibly benefit from being white every day or anything! Can’t we all just get along?”

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/03/06/sixteen-maneuvers-to-avoid-really-dealing-with-racism/

http://coffeeandink.livejournal.com/607897.html

2. Attack the person, not the argument.
Personal attacks end the discussion before it even starts! If you can accuse your opponent of “paranoia,” “white guilt,” “internalized racism,” “whining,” “overreacting,” “paternalism,” “condescension,” “being obsessed with race,” “bitching about racism at the drop of a hat,” or “taking things too personally,” you don’t need to bother addressing the content of their remarks. This will save you time and energy you can then devote to happier pursuits.

“It’s just a book/film/comic book/TV show!” (cartoon)
“Pointing out racism just makes it harder for us to achieve a colorblind society. You shouldn’t judge people based on their race.”
“Focusing so much on race just shows that you’re racist yourself.”
“Minorities can be racist too, you know!”

if you actually want a starting place on what not to do when someone points out that there’s a racist stereotype at play in something you just said/did/posted, these are good places to start.

In any case, I was waiting for a response. I now have that response, and it’s removed a bit of clutter from my life. I can get personal finance from sources that don’t glorify racist caricatures or condescend irritatingly while denying the racism’s there. I have now unsubscribed from the feed, and will do so from this post as well.

@Rose and Cairsten – I think you two have the most messed up minds around here. I am a fine black woman and when I saw the caricatures, I saw great relevance and I was even smiling. There was no racism here but because you are so stuck in it, you want to promote your -ism given any opportunity. Why can’t my white brothers be portrayed with some bling? They are doing some bad-a$$ stuff. Come one, why do you choose to see bad stuff all the time?

@Rose adn Cairsten, take your time to focus on your personal finance goals. Let the world live in happiness.

J.D, keep up the excellent work.

Congrats on being the most badass personal finance blogger!

Great follow up comment by JD. All in all, this made my week.

Turn down the sensitivity meter people, lighten up, and laugh a little.

‘Fo shizzle.

In general, your race and background will shade the lens (no pun intended) through which you perceive things. It’s the reason why when a black person says racism, a white person first thinks says “Why are we bringing up isms?” or when a woman says sexism, a man thinks the same thing etc. It’s just the way it is. The powerless person will often see something (that may or may not be oppresive) and deem it as oppresive while the empowered won’t see it that way.

The caricatures here show bling which is usually associated with black people prior to being associated with rappers etc. However even the [learned] black community is moving away from being associated with this i.e. bling, sagging pants etc.

That said, I do think that while these caricatures might initially appear racist, a thoughtful look at what they represent (swag) is representative of a mindset and not a race.

Thanks for the links.

Um, so on another note, I loved the links posted.

I used to compare myself to others constantly, and it never made me anything but miserable. Then coincidentally, a couple of people who I envied (yes, I’ll admit it) fell on some really hard times, and I realized how incredibly stupid I was to assume that just because that person made more money or had a flashy job that their life was perfect. I learned to be content with the great things in my own life, and to be truly happy for the good things in other peoples’ lives.

In my forty years, I’ve come to believe that discriminating based on stereotypes of any sort is wrong. I’ve taken classes on inter-cultural communication. I’ve organized seminars on racism and week-long programs about gender discrimination. Though I’m by no means perfect, I am very sensitive to this stuff. I go out of my way here at GRS to write in such a way that purposely avoids -isms.

That said, Rose and Cairsten are both correct. People can inadvertently do things that are offensive to other people. Sometimes this is due to ignorance. Sometimes this is due to deep-seated prejudices. And sometimes, yes, sometimes this is because the offended person’s response is itself racist. That is, the “recipient” of the offense harbors their own stereotypes and prejudices that cause them to be offended.

Which is the case here?

I find absolutely nothing offensive, nothing racist about these caricatures. If I thought there was even a remote possibility that they were offensive, I would not have posted them. But to my eyes, they’re not based on race in any way, and my first response is to think that those who believe they are based on race are making some racial judgments of their own.

When Kris and I read your complaints last night, we were baffled. Seriously. We spent a long time looking at the caricatures, trying to puzzle out the problem. We couldn’t find it. It didn’t make sense to us. Even after reading your follow-up comments, it makes little sense to me. These are not caricatures based on race. To me, they’re caricatures based on a segment of popular culture, a culture like “goth” or “redneck” or “jock”. In this case, it’s “rap” culture.

Even that is a little broad for what I see happening here. I cannot speak for the artist’s intent (I’ve had no communication with the site that produced these), but it seems to me that for an article about money writers, they looked for a culture that featured prominent displays of materialism as a way to be funny. It worked. These caricatures are funny because this is not who we (the financial writers) are. We don’t flash our wealth. We’re not “bad-ass”. We don’t possess those attitudes.

The artist might have made other choices, too. Maybe she could have portrayed us as bankers or investors. If I were doing this myself, I would have based the caricatures on rich comic-strip characters (Scrooge McDuck, Richie Rich, Daddy Warbucks, etc.). But choosing rap culture is not inherently racist. In fact, I find it a little racist to claim that “rap culture” is equivalent to “black culture”, which is the logical leap that’s being made here.

Are all rappers black? Are all African-Americans rappers? And Cairsten, why do you perceive these people as “thugs”, “thieves”, “foul-mouthed”, and “violent”? I don’t. But I do associate rappers with a sort of braggadacio, a swagger, a “tough-guy” act. And I associate them with flashy materialism. That’s what the caricaturist is going for here, and I think it works.

When I saw these caricatures, I didn’t think about skin color at all. Even after the two complaints, I still don’t perceive them as being related to skin color. Rose and Cairsten, I understand your concerns here, and I think they’re noble — I do — but I also think they’re misguided in this instance.