It's wrong on so many levels, but what really gets me is that the cartoon conflates the questionable safety of food from China with Chinese restaurants in America. The message, if it isn't obvious: when it comes to Chinese restaurant food, you might as well be eating out of the garbage.

here's the Asian American Journalists Assocation's response to this cartoon: AAJA Writes Letter to Universal Press Syndicate Opposing Pat Oliphant's Latest Racist Cartoon

Being a a Taiwanese China Basher all my life, things like this opens the door to all sorts of China-bashing. It's hard enough that it's generally considered fair game to make fun of Chinese, but if you read the news, it's practically considered fashionable. And in the United States, when it's "cool" to bash all things Chinese, you don't have to take too many leaps before some dumbass thinks it's "cool" to bash an Asian American guy in the head with a baseball bat. Dramatic, yes, but it's happened before, hasn't it?

UPDATE: here is another one.


Yes, another one. (Thanks, Mariana.)