A Belgian newspaper is under fire for an image it printed showing President Barack Obama and the First Lady as apes.
The progressive newspaper De Morgen is being accused of racism for the image along with an article it published just prior to Obama’s visit to the Netherlands Monday morning.
The image clearly depicts the couple as two apes– an editorial decision that has been slammed as “stale racist drivel.”
Nigerian-born author Chika Unigwe tweeted a photo of the spread:
The article was reportedly a satirical piece that also joked about Obama selling marijuana. The newspaper packaged the photos as if they had been submitted by Russian president Vladimir Putin, Metro said Sunday.
The picture was joined by a message reading, “Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia. He sent us this attachment at our request, and chose to send pictures instead of text ‘because he doesn’t have a lot of time’,” the Independent said.
While the article has many readers outraged, there are also readers who have come to the newspapers defense. “It was a joke,” one Reddit user said.
“In their defense, there are tons upon tons of pictures and t-shirts with Bush drawn as an ape,” another user wrote.
Source: Black Voices
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