David may just need laid though.

Reading the comic as one white kid's progression--from learning that non-white people can be smart and successful and funny from Cosby, to learning that they can accomplish amazing feats from Jordan, to realizing that a non-white president would be an awesome idea--is perfectly non-offensive.

But reading it as an equation where Bill Cosby plus Michael Jordan equals Obama makes my skin crawl.

But seriously, this is why the cartoon is wrong: because it implies that the only notable thing about Obama, the only thing white voters care about and the reason for his success, is that he is a black man.

Obama has superficially at least little or nothing in common with either Cosby or Jordan, except for his color. To compare them in a visual medium, without an explanation...is to imply that a white fascination with a black man is the main - indeed only - reason for Obama's popularity.

there are no mathematic signifiers in the comic. your reading is flawed.

The idea that support for Obama is the natural outcome of a (white) nation brought up on Bill Cosby and Michael Jordan is exactly what made me use the word bullshit.

And the idea that Obama's widespread popularity is the result of a surfeit of affection for Cosby and Jordan is grosser.

I hate that guy.

It's the progression of the kid, not of black people in the media.

The fact of the matter is that his race does matter in this election. Of course he's a brilliant guy with great ideas and an inspirational speaker to boot. But if he wasn't black we wouldn't be feeling this historic opportunity to make such a monumental leap. It doesn't have to be the only reason, but it sure as hell is one of the reasons and you're kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

"Bill Cosby's a doctor
a lawyer's his wife
and as all blacks know
it's the average life."

OK, it doesn't add anything to the thread, but I always laugh a little when I think of it.

In other words, in the 80s and 90s, the only mainstream black role models were TV stars and athletes. In the 00s, we have this amazing person that is Obama. And, isn't that awesome....

it's just a comic, so it choose a couple of big moments that fit with the main character's time line. we've grown up in a world where people who were black were visible, heroes, part of the community, you name it.

it's certainly not funny, nor insightful. but it did generate conversation. and did those moments lead to the moment of today, or were those moments just part of the fluid progression?

==== CHANGE ===== OBAMA HAS A GOOD CHANCE

So... for those in their 20s who are supporting Obama so strongly now, those icons are appropriate.

My frame of reference being that I lived in a town with virtually no African-Americans (there were exactly 2 black kids in my high school), and that Cosby and Jordan really were the biggest mainstream African-American figures when I was a kid.

Maybe The Stranger could contact Horsey and ask him what he was thinking before slamming him. It's possible he just missed his mark; it happens.

Get out of my head fresh prince!!!

In part because of these men, young white Americans (unlike their parents or grandparents) are comfortable with the idea of black authority -- they welcome it. These guys paved the way for Obama. It's a natural progression.

He was a good ballplayer. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not exactly Nobel material.

TLjr, so call Jordan a role model, then. You get my point, yes? White kids idolized him. His posters were all over their bedroom walls. And this is significant. My parents sure didn't grow up with any black role models.

Like I said, I'm not familiar with the cartoonist, but taken on its own, the comic contains a grain of truth that I don't find particularly offensive.

Plus, you are old. :)