Political cartoon was racist and sexist

To the editor,

On Feb. 26, Greenwich Time and other Hearst publications printed a racist and sexist caricature depicting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The cartoon is of a woman of color looking at a television screen showing “Green Book” winning the Oscar for best film. She is quoted saying she’s happy a movie about “conservation” has won best picture.

Beyond the physical caricature that is shocking in any publication in 2019, the woman is portrayed as ignorant and stupid, the familiar insult by white racists toward people of color and often women. Worse, cartoonist Dana Summers included the title “Green Book” in his cartoon.

The “Green Book” was a listing of restaurants, gas stations, stores, and private homes in the South where blacks could be served or sleep without fear of being rejected, or even lynched, while traveling. The very existence of the Green Book during the Jim Crow era was evidence of the brutality and fear a racist system engendered in black people.

The cartoon is published after the sexist writings of Dan Haar, who claims the recommendation to name women and women of color to top jobs in the Lamont administration is “demeaning” and referred to Ms. OcasioCortez and others as “shrill.”

We ask that Hearst make more of an effort to ensure they are not using or propagating race and gender stereotypes in Greenwich Time and other Hearst publications.