Artist who sparked outrage with his racist cartoon about Samoa's deadly measles epidemic apologises after initially defending his work



Garrick Tremain's cartoon, printed in the Otago Daily Times on Tuesday, depicts two middle-aged white women walking out of a travel agent.

The caption to the cartoon reads: 'I asked "What are the least popular spots at the moment?" She said "the ones people are picking up in Samoa".'

Many people thought it was racist and insensitive as Samoa has just declared a State of Emergency after a measles epidemic has caused 55 deaths across the country - of which 50 were children under five years old.

Mr Tremain apologised for offending people with his work on Wednesday morning after he was slammed online. He said it should not have been submitted to be published and blamed his own 'lack of judgement'.

However, earlier in the day he backed his work, claiming people missed the joke.

'I see nothing wrong with the cartoon. It's not causing any more deaths, it's not laughing about deaths, it's laughing about a stupid misunderstanding by a travel agent speaking to somebody,' he told Radio New Zealand.

'If you've read the cartoon, the basis is a travel agent taking the wrong end of the stick and making a stupid comment. 'It's not making light of the tragedy, in my opinion.'

Samoan health officials announced on Tuesday that 3,881 people have now caught the preventable disease in the deadly outbreak.

SOURCE  

What is racist about it?