The Wasp — 1890 — page 417: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

The illustrated section titled "Persons and Pictures" features a cartoon attacking *The Sentinel*, a San Francisco newspaper serving the city's Black community. The cartoon depicts a caricatured Black figure in exaggerated, dehumanizing style. The accompanying text criticizes *The Sentinel's* editor for running what *The Wasp* calls a "humorous" sketch attacking colored people, while claiming to oppose such racism. *The Wasp* sarcastically defends the cartoon as legitimate satire. This is a racist publication attacking another publication for racism—using that criticism hypocritically to justify its own racial caricatures. The piece reveals *The Wasp's* contradictory stance on racial representation in 1890s San Francisco journalism.