Cartoon: The Straight, Ablebodied, Rich, White Man’s Burden
| September 14th, 2007UPDATE: So I fixed a number of things about the drawing. The big thing is that I redrew the SARWM’s right arm and related areas, just because they were very badly drawn the first time.
But I also changed the shorts from having polkadots (which did make them look like boxer shorts, as Robert pointed out) to looking more like jeans. Then I added polkadots to the shirt of the woman in the foreground, because the sad truth is I just like drawing polkadots. Then I tried to make SARWM’s shoes look like shoes rather than socks, and I added glasses to a character, in response to Dianne’s comments. And I played around with a couple of other small details.
Am I responsive to reader comments or what? No, no, don’t thank me. A medal is enough.
So here is (I think) the final drawing. The original, pre-changes version is below the fold.
September 14th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
I totally love the guy with the bionic leg. I almost didn’t notice it at first, but it’s a really great detail :)
This comment was written by Sara no H..Report this comment to the moderators
September 14th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Niiice.
That’s the reality in America these days. A whole lot of us pulling the load (and there are many “colors” in that boat–some of us have it a little better than others of course) for a tiny ungrateful minority who moan like they have it just as bad as the rest of us if they don’t get what they want all the time.
This comment was written by Samuel John Klein.Report this comment to the moderators
September 15th, 2007 at 9:14 am
This is amazing. It’s so simple and yet so meaningful. Plus I love the expressions on all of their faces. Great job, Amp!
This comment was written by Madeline.Report this comment to the moderators
September 15th, 2007 at 10:11 am
That is really good.
This comment was written by Rachel S..Report this comment to the moderators
September 15th, 2007 at 10:42 am
It wouldn’t help with carrying the load, but maybe the guy with the artificial leg would be happier if his creator let him wear pants.
This comment was written by Robert.Report this comment to the moderators
September 15th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Those are shorts, dammit! :-P
This comment was written by Ampersand.Report this comment to the moderators
September 15th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Love this cartoon. Two specific thoughts: The straight, etc guy’s shoes look a bit like socks. And I wonder if one of the non-straight, etc people could be wearing glasses? Of course, glasses are such a minor prosthesis that I don’t think you lose any privilege points for wearing them, but out of five people shouldn’t one of them have bad eyesight?
This comment was written by Dianne.Report this comment to the moderators
September 15th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Thanks for all the compliments. :-D
Dianne, Robert: See the update in the post. :-)
This comment was written by Ampersand.Report this comment to the moderators
September 15th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Dance for us, puppet, dance!
This comment was written by Robert.Report this comment to the moderators
September 15th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
LOL — love it! This one is so going on my bulletin board. :-D
This comment was written by Michelle.Report this comment to the moderators
September 16th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Very funny! And true to life.. :D
This comment was written by Steve.Report this comment to the moderators
September 16th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I believe that hell has frozen over because I agree with Robert’s comments.
While we’re talking about suggestions, which I hate making, because after all I think the cartoon is pretty damn good. Rather than having all of the non-privileged people looking angry, I think it would be better to have a couple people looking perplexed–you know like, what the hell is this fool talking about? Or a look of surprise/ ironic shock…….
It may give the mis-impression that people only respond to these comments angrily, but you’ve done enough changes, so don’t change it. I just wanted to point that out.
This comment was written by Rachel S..Report this comment to the moderators
September 17th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I like that the guy with the prosthesis is managing to bear his heavy load just as well as everyone else. Including different kinds of bodies with different kinds of capabilities, without pity or patronizing! Good show :D
This comment was written by Holly.Report this comment to the moderators
September 19th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Are the other three people supposed to be poor white guys? I think you should have included a couple women.
This comment was written by fasd.Report this comment to the moderators
September 19th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I count three women & 1 man.
This comment was written by Mandolin.Report this comment to the moderators
September 19th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I see that too, Mandolin, and two of the women are people of color.
This comment was written by Myca.Report this comment to the moderators
February 14th, 2008 at 12:44 am
[...] different situation than this (maybe relations with Native Americans would be more analogous?). The Straight Ablebodied Rich White Man’s Burden might be closer to what seems (broadly) to be going on in Australia, only imagine that the speaker [...]
This comment was written by Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples 13 February 2008 « Errantry.Report this comment to the moderators