The Official K Chronicles and (Th)ink Website

*(TH)INK RECENTLY BEGAN RUNNING IN THE C-VILLE WEEKLY IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA..
..and one of the strips they’re run is my classic “Cruel Joke to Play on a Black Jogger”. It’s a strip i did years ago, but I think because of the recent Danish/Mohammed cartoon controversy, people are super sensitive… Both the C-Ville Weekly and my old college newspaper have been getting a load of grief for running the Black Jogger strip…calling me a racist…

Here’s a sample:

I was traveling in another country experiencing the endless joys of cultural diversity the week that Keith Knight’s cartoon, “A cruel joke to play on a black jogger” [“Mailbag,” March 14], was sadly published in the C-VILLE. Fortunately, Laura Ramirez, of the Virginia Organizing Project, contributed a letter condemning Kenneth Knight’s cartoon as being “…poorly done and could easily be misunderstood… Racially based violence is not a joke.” Underneath her letter was a reprint of the cartoon, that of a white man pointing to and yelling “Thief!” at a passing black jogger, resulting in a Rodney King style pummeling by the police. The white joker slyly and innocently walks away from the beating with a smirk of self-satisfaction on his face—much like, “Mission accomplished” or, “I dun good.”

By submitting this letter I am probably gratifying Keith Knight’s child-like need for attention, and the aggrandizement that he seeks to feed himself with via acts of passive-aggression, as exemplified by his cartoon. But I must, it’s the socially responsible thing to do! I can only assume that his cartoon is really a projection of who and what he really is on the inside and, of course, the smirking white man is really himself in the starring role of his ”B” cartoon.

I feel sorry for someone like K(K). Knight, and hopefully he will one day realize that his flatulence of ink is an insult to and assault on all people. Until then, he will not be viewed as a creative artist, but most likely as someone with racist views posing as a cartoonist.

N.Young

Palmyra

The editor responds: Mr. Young may be correct that Keith Knight is casting himself as the character of the “smirking white man” in his cartoon, but in the interest of accuracy, I will point out that Knight is African-American.

I’ll post more of these as they come in…