Maybe we've had too much coffee or read too much forwarded invective from a certain political party, but we really were offended by The Aegis editorial cartoon in today's paper.
In it, two people are talking. One white, one African-American. The white man is enthusing, wide-eyed, about how it's only a few people in Edgewood who are giving it a bad reputation. "Together we can take back the community." While the other person replies, "That shouldn't be too hard...'cept the guns and no respect for the law."
Our problem with this is twofold. The first is that it has nothing to do with anything else in the paper. The Bel Air police blotter is just as long as Edgewood in today's paper.
The second, is why does the African-American woman have to say, "'cept the guns.." Because she's African-American and assumably living in Edgewood does she have to speak in slang?
Edgewood is not perfect and that's not what we're saying. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the fact that there are so many stereotypes in this one small political cartoon it is mind-numbing. People who talk about the liberal media bias need just to look at this cartoon. There is no such thing in Harford County.