Political Cartoon 1

-Nick Anderson(middle)

This particular cartoon is divided into two parts. The first picture depicts a police officer, possibly from Arizona, asking a Mexican man to see his immigration papers because his activities are suspicious. when we slide to the right and experience the second picture, we realize that the Mexican is ironically mowing the police officer’s lawn. The mexican then spitefully states, “Before or after I finish your lawn?” This cartoon is discussing immigration policy as well as the importance of illegal/legal immigrant labor.In the second picture, the cop seems as if he swallowed his tongue. He now realizes that this Mexican man is not as expendable as he thought. I guess we can say that cheap labor transcends the law to certain degree.

This cartoon did not offend me, nor should it offend anyone; including Mexican. It is a harmless cartoon that presents us with many important conventions that we should either change or at-least recognize. The stereotyped Mexican mustache man is simply doing his job to accumulate some money, while the stereotyped fat sun glassed cop is simply doing his job as well. The artist is trying to say that Mexicans serve a great purpose in our society and that we should be a little more lenient with their inhabitance. Yes, the artist is right for depicting the image this way because it is not offensive and presents us with a real-life situation. It could have been improved if there was a third picture which would have showed us the outcome. I would have liked to see the cop say, “Wow, I am so sorry. Would you like a glass of lemonade? My Mexican maid just squeezed some!”

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