Cartoonist Explains Why Compares DeVos To Civil Rights Figure

The cartoonist who was under fire for depicting U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos as a young African-American girl in an iconic civil rights painting explained Wednesday about his controversial decision, reports Talking Points Memo.

From Talking Points Memo:

Glenn McCoy faced backlash Tuesday for drawing DeVos in the place of Ruby Bridges, the African-American girl in the Norman Rockwell painting “The Problem We All Live With,” which was a statement about the violence surrounding the desegregation of public schools. McCoy said in a statement emailed to TPM that he was surprised by the negative reaction to the cartoon.

“My cartoon was about how, in this day and age, decades beyond the civil rights protests, it’s sad that people are still being denied the right to speak freely or do their jobs or enter public buildings because others disagree with who they are or how they think,” he said in the statement. “I’m surprised that some readers see ‘hate’ in this cartoon when I thought I was speaking out against hate.”

Many Twitter users were offended by the cartoon, which they viewed as putting forward a false equivalency between DeVos, who faced questions about her qualifications for a Cabinet position, and a child facing violence for desegregating a school…McCoy apologized if “anyone was offended” by his visual metaphor, but said he wanted to open up a dialogue in what he characterized as a toxic political climate.

The political cartoon published Monday in Illinois outlet the Belleville News-Democrat inspired negative reactions from many Twitter users and public figures including Chelsea Clinton, reports The Huffington Post.

SOURCE: Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post