‘Little Brown Girl’: Australian Biden-Harris Cartoon Sparks Furore

A cartoon in Australia’s biggest national newspaper drew condemnation on Friday as being racist for portraying U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden describing his new running mate, Kamala Harris, as “this little brown girl”.

The cartoon by Johannes Leak in Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper, known for its conservative views, depicted a beaming Biden saying Harris, the first Black woman on a major-party national ticket, would help “heal a nation divided by racism” while he went “for a lie-down.”

“It’s offensive and racist,” Andrew Giles, an Australian Labor politician and shadow cabinet minister, said on Twitter.

Former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus tweeted, “If The Australian has any respect for decency and standards it must apologise immediately, and never again publish cartoons like this.”

But The Australian’s editor-in-chief, Christopher Dore, stood by the cartoon, saying Leak was mocking Biden’s own words.

“The words ‘little black and brown girls’ belong to Joe Biden, not Johannes, and were uttered by the presidential candidate when he named Kamala Harris as his running mate yesterday; he repeated them in a tweet soon after,” Dore said in a note to the newspaper’s staff, provided to Reuters by Murdoch’s News Corp.

Biden had tweeted on Thursday, regarding his choice of Harris as his vice-presidential candidate: “This morning, little girls woke up across this nation — especially Black and Brown girls who so often may feel overlooked and undervalued in our society — potentially seeing themselves in a new way: As the stuff of Presidents and Vice Presidents.”

Dore said, “The intention of Johannes’s commentary was to ridicule identity politics and demean racism, not perpetuate it.”

Leak did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

Another Murdoch publication in Australia faced condemnation in 2018 over a cartoon of tennis star Serena Williams having a temper tantrum at the U.S. Open.

Fans, celebrities and civil rights groups called the caricature racist, but Australia’s media watchdog last year ruled that cartoon was not racist.

Recent Posts

  • Featured

PM Modi Is Scared, He May Even Shed Tears On Stage: Rahul Gandhi

On Friday, April 26, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi retaliated against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his attack on the grand…

15 hours ago
  • Featured

Climate Change Poses Dire Health And Human Rights Risks

Climate change has not traditionally been seen as a health and human rights concern — but that may be changing…

16 hours ago
  • Featured

Tech To Decrease Food Loss & Increase Farmer Incomes

Food loss after harvest has economic implications for the farmer and also impacts the environment due to loss of agricultural…

19 hours ago
  • Featured

E-Bikes Could Cut Smog, Congestion & Energy Use — But Will They?

The global market for e-bikes is surging. These bicycles, usually equipped with pedals and an electric motor assist, are popular…

2 days ago
  • Featured

Difference In Environmental Footprints Between Economic Strata

A new study that analysed consumption data in India found stark differences in the water, particulate matter and carbon footprints…

2 days ago
  • Featured

How Climate Change Is Killing Us, In More Ways Than One

We’ve all heard about climate change’s effect on our planet — but do you know about the many ways it…

4 days ago

This website uses cookies.