A Coincidence or a Bit of Imitation?

Today the NYT had an essay on the Obama New Yorker cover. It was well written and thought provoking. There was such a similarity to a post I made yesterday, it seemed strange. Especially since it came up the day after I posted...

it could just be a coincidence... or a bit of imitation...

dreamacttexas post:

"It is ever ok to say stupid Mexicans?" July 19, 2008

Maybe (I am hoping) someone else would probably handle this type of situation differently - with a drawing of the boys playing ball while two kids and their mother (who are Latino) walk by. A bubble with a few words would be next to the boys, depicting what they actually said twenty years ago.

Each image would present an entirely different story. Which would be more accurate? If you draw Mexicans then all you see are three people walking down a sidewalk - if you want to present them as "stupid" there are many ways to depict this, but they all focus on the negative evaluation of the two kids and their mother. If you draw little boys screaming nasty things as the Mexican kids walk by, then you depict an interaction starts in the mouths of the boys playing - it is the boy's nasty language - there is no connection with anyone around them, except for their own imagination.

NY Times essay:

"We're Not Laughing at You, or With You," July 20, 2008

But if that very same New Yorker cover had been drawn in a balloon over the head of a deranged citizen — or a ruthless political operative — it would have appeared as plausible only in the mind of that person. The image would have come across as absurd and unjust — a version of reality exaggerated to the point of madness.