What So Proudly We Hailed

     The New Yorker is well-known magazine, containing the news, commentary, and criticism on hot topics in America. Most notably, this magazine features some sort of cartoon on each of its covers that usually spreads some sort of message or commentary. One cover that stood out to me was, ¨What So Proudly We Hailed" by Carter Goodrich. This cover gives an amazing take on the aftermath of 9/11.

    In the cover, a man appears to be driving a taxi cab. The cab is shown from the side angle,
in order to get a good view of the man. Only his face and arms are visible, as it looks like the man is crouching in his seat, trying not to be seen. His hands are tightly gripping the steering wheel. His eyes are wide open with fear and eyebrows raised all the way up, as he stares right at the viewer of the picture. This man is visibly nervous and anxious. The man himself appears to be Middle-Eastern, who sports a beard and mustache, a turban, and a long sleeve blue shirt. The taxi cab is covered in American flags. There are about ten flags waving around on top of the taxi. The flags come in all sizes - some gigantic, and others more modest. The flags are attached to a variety of poles, some with a pointy top, and some with a rounded top. Another series of American flag stickers on the doors of the taxi. There are some uniformly lined up on one of the doors, and a couple that are randomly placed. There is also a sticker with the words “god bless america” on one of the doors. This cab can be described as overly patriotic. The cab itself is just an average cab. There is nothing out of the ordinary to it. It’s yellow with a mirror on the door, a sign with the “taxi fare”, and on top of the taxi there is a plate containing a short series of numbers and letters. After observing this image, it can be strongly noted of the repeating American flags, which is abnormal for a taxi cab to have an absurd amount.

    This cover was published on November 5, 2001 - about two months after the tragic event of 9/11. Almost every American was coping with the trauma of 9/11 during this time. Many were looking for answers, some were angry, and some were sad. They wanted to point the blame at someone. Thus, a stereotype arose towards Middle-Eastern Americans and Muslims. They were instantly branded a ¨terrorist¨ and thought of to be violent (this stereotype still being ingrained on many people's minds even today). Hate crimes even increased towards these groups of people during this time. I believe that this cover shows how Middle Eastern Americans and Muslims had to protect themselves during this time. In the taxi cab, the assumed Middle-Eastern man sits in fear, while there are American flags surrounding him. This is a defense, perhaps trying to show others that he is harmless and "one of them". In order for him to seem non-threatening, he had to put on an overly patriotic display. I think that Goodrich is trying to show a group that also suffered greatly from 9/11, that was often overlooked. Muslim-Americans and Middle-Eastern American weren't evil or bad, they were like every other American after 9/11 - sad, scared, or worried about what will come next for their country.