Thomas Nast was a product of his time

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1. Mike Peterson

   Two points: One is that, while anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiments were common, Irish Catholics weren’t just sitting back feeling they deserved it. They hated Nast and Harpers Weekly, just as African-Americans protested the movie version of “Gone With The Wind” when it opened.

   Just because someone is being ignored doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

   The other point is that Nast was specifically a shaper of opinion, and so his opinions need to be considered at a different level than the average. Granted, there are lazy, sloppy cartoonists in any era who simply reflect what they hear on the street rather than coming up with their own take on things — but they shouldn’t be going into any halls of fame for simply illustrating common prejudices.

   (To repeat, I’d put him in the Hall, but with a large asterisk)

2. Scott Bieser

   Somewhat ironically, the wave of German immigrants in the 1840s, of which Nast was a part, were likewise reviled by the ethnic-Britons and Dutch who established the country. I even recall reproductions of some editorial cartoons from that time caricaturing them quite insultingly.

   I guess this puts “paying if forward” in a different light, eh?