MELBOURNE (Reuters) – A comic strip story in Australia’s largest national newspaper on Friday drew condemnation as racist for portraying US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden who described his new running mate, Kamala Harris, as “this little brown girl “.
PHILO PHOTO: U.S. Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris listens as presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event, her first joint appearance since Biden appointed Harris as his running mate, at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Delaware, FS, August 12, 2020. REUTERS / Carlos Barria / File Photo
The comic strip by John Leak in the Australian newspaper Rupert Murdoch, known for its conservative views, painted a radiant Biden who said that Harris, the first Black woman on a national ticket of a major party, would help “heal a nation. divided by racism “while going” For a lie. ”
“It is insulting and racist,” Andrew Giles, an Australian Labor politician and shadow cabinet minister, said on Twitter.
Former Attorney General Mark Dreyfus tweeted, “If the Australian has any respect for decency and standards, he should apologize immediately, and never publish cartoons like this again.”
But the editor-in-chief of the Australian, Christopher Dore, stood by the comic strip, saying that Leak mocked Biden’s own words.
The words ‘little black and brown girls’ belong to Joe Biden, not John, and were uttered by the presidential candidate when he mentioned Kamala Harris as his running mate yesterday; he repeated them shortly thereafter, “Dore said in a note to the newspaper’s staff, provided to Reuters by Murdoch’s News Corp.
Biden had tweeted on Thursday, regarding Harris’ choice as his candidate for vice-presidency: “This morning little girls were woken up by this nation – especially Black and brown girls who are so often overlooked and underestimated in society. can feel – potentially seeing themselves in a new way: As the game of presidents and vice-presidents. ”
Dore said, “The intent of John’s comments was to ridicule identity politics and to demean racism, not to perpetuate it.”
Leak did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another publication by Murdoch in Australia was condemned in 2018 for condemning a comic strip by tennis star Serena Williams who has a temper at the US Open.
Fans, celebrities and civil rights groups called the cartoon racist, but Australia’s media watchdog last year ruled that the comic was not racist.
Report by Sonali Paul; Edited by William Mallard
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