The Wasp — 1894 — page 372: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon depicts two figures in Victorian dress engaged in conversation. The caption reads: "Rastus, yoh look so fine since de police close all de gamblin' games. You got no job no mo'ah!" The response: "Dat's jest it, Mees Letishia. When I worked I was a plain ordinary nigga potah in a crap game; but now I'm a Brigadeash-General in a colored regimen' of de unemployed Industrial Ahmy." **Context**: This appears to be racist satirical commentary on African American unemployment following gambling prohibition. The dialect and caricature reflect deeply offensive period conventions. The "joke" suggests that joblessness has elevated the man's self-perception from laborer to "general" of the unemployed—satire on both unemployment conditions and perceived pretense. The cartoon reflects the magazine's crude satirical approach to social issues through racial caricature, typical of late 19th-century American satirical publications.