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Jasmin Ramirez
Professor Holly Batty
English 113A
21 October 2014
Racist in Disguise
Throughout history we have seen many conflicts affecting different people. In most
conflicts they target a specific race or many races. When it comes to the infamous KKK which
stands for Ku klux klan an organization formed to cause harm to African Americans. In this
organization they are against the African American race which produces a lot of conflict and
deaths. The KKK brought physical harm to the African American society and to them it was seen
as a normal thing to do this is seen through a specific political cartoon which shows racism
playing a key role.
In the political cartoon the image is displayed as if we were looking at the action taking
place in front of us. There seems to be two actions taking place in just one cartoon. On one side
of the cartoon we see two people holding a drink in their hand. The people seem to be wearing
white attire since the image is in black and white their attire is white. Theyre fully covered from
head to toe. Their whole attire is white except for their shoes which are in a dark shade color.
Their faces are not recognized, they seem to be wearing a mask that covers their whole face that
only reveals their eyes for them to be able to see. The top of this white mask is pointing out
which sticks out from their whole attire. Knowing from background knowledge they are wearing
the attire a KKK member would. These two people imply a normal setting from their positons
one of them sitting on what seems to be a rock while the other leans on the same rock the person
is sitting with its legs crossed. They are just casually hanging out and drinking. Which implies
why it is captioned This has always been my favorite hangout. The caption font also goes

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along with the actions of the two KKK members. The font is normal and casual not a font you
would use for something serious. The reason for the causal font implies that during the time this
cartoon was made KKK activity was very common and not seen as something out of the
ordinary.Once we look in the background the image shifts from a calm setting to a more horrific
one. In the background there are three people hanging from a tree. Their heads looking down to
the ground and their hands behind their back and barefoot. Their skin color are in a darker shade
which lets you know theyre African Americans. You dont see any white person hung theyre all
African Americans, showing the KKK targeted people of color as their victims.There is not a
great space between the two people hanging out and the people hanging from a tree in the
background, which can imply the people are aware of the three people hanging in the back. The
three people who are hung from the tree have the same position, but they are adjusted differently
one of them has his back towards the two KKK members while the other one is sideways and the
last one facing the KKK members. The three males seem to be in a position of that makes them
seem shameful and weakness. They are not seen as worthy enough to be looked at by the KKK
and they make them feel shameful of not being white, but instead African American. The KKK
members are superior to them based on their positions, the KKK members have their head held
high and paying no attention to the surroundings in the back. They feel justified towards what
they did because theyre white and the people who are hung are colored. The tree and the grassy
hill give it a calm soothing setting in which you would not expect to see mens lives hanging
from a tree. Its two unexpected combinations put together.
This political cartoon of the KKK and the three African Americans who are hung from a
tree shows the physical harm they went through because of their race. Although we do not see a
lot of KKK activity like this being done today as it was commonly being done when the
organization was first started. African Americans are still being harmed in todays society maybe

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not physically, but emotionally. We see African Americans being looked down upon and making
them feel less of what they are in Brent Staples Black Men and Public Spaces reading. Where
people stereotype him in a way in which it emotionally has an effect on him. People before even
getting to meet Staples already had a perception of the type of person he was based on the color
of his skin and the stereotypes that went along with it. He knew this based on the responses he
got from people On less traveled streets after dark, I grew accustomed to but never comfortable
with people who crossed to the other side of the street rather than pass me (Staples, 183). These
actions people took towards him had an effect on him, it is seen when he starts changing his
ways just for people to not see him as a threat or something he isnt, I began to take precautions
to make myself less threatening (Staples 186). It is clear that the way people viewed Staples had
an emotional effect on him if it did not he would not have felt uncomfortable or have to change
his ways as he mentions. These people who stereotype him in a way are like the KKK members
in the political cartoon. People stereotype him and look down upon him making himself feel like
a threat rather than a regular person. In the same way KKK members in the political cartoon
physically harmed those three men hanging them and having their heads facing the grown and
their hands behind their back as if they werent regular people just like them.
Ultimately the political cartoon shows acts of racism which still happen in todays world.
Whether its people being stereotyped because of their race or being killed because of it. It
happens on a daily basis just take for an example all the innocent African American teens who
have recently been killed because the cops saw them as a threat and it was all based on the color
of their skin. The cops stereotyped mind lead them into believing these African Americans were
a danger to them and without thinking twice they ended their lives. Race should not be the cause
of peoples death. A skin color should not classify people into categories of either a dangerous
person or a good person, but sadly it is.

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Works Cited
"This Has Always Been My Favorite Hangout." Online Image Arcade. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct.
2014. <http://imgarcade.com/1/ku-klux-klan-1920s-cartoon/>.

Staples, Brent. "Black Men and Public Space." One Hundred Great Essays. Third ed. N.p.:
Joseph Opiela, 2008. 182-86. Print.

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Appendix