Forgive me for sending 2 articles today for those with stuffed email
boxes.  Both just seemed of great importance to us, especially this one.
If not interested please just delete.  - E-K. 

From Diverse Online

Current News
Cartoon in UK's College Newspaper Spurs Controversy
By Associated Press
Oct 8, 2007, 20:22

LEXINGTON, Ky. 

An editorial cartoon depicting a bare-chested Black student on an
auction block that ran in the University of Kentucky's student newspaper
on Friday has sparked student protest. 

 

A group of more than 100 UK students held a peaceful demonstration on
Friday protesting the cartoon, which ran in the day's edition of the
Kentucky Kernel. The newspaper's editor, and the cartoonist have
apologized for the cartoon. 

 

The editorial cartoon depicted a shirtless Black student standing on an
auction block with his left leg chained. Meanwhile, a White auctioneer
in the cartoon calls the student a "young buck" and gets bids from three
fictional fraternities: Aryan Omega, Kappa Kappa Kappa and Alpha
Caucasian. 

 

Editor in chief Keith Smiley said the cartoon shouldn't have been
published and "it wasn't discussed like it should have been." Smiley
said in a telephone interview that the cartoon was attempting to comment
on recent campus news. 

 

"It doesn't matter what it was trying to say because it didn't say it,"
Smiley said. "Anything it was trying to say was lost." 

 

Students at the protest said they were hurt by the cartoon and said it
had affected racial tension on campus. 

 

Wesley Robinson, a Kernel reporter who is Black, participated in the
protest. Robinson had covered campus discussions of segregated
fraternity and sorority life at the school.

 

Robinson, from Louisville, said the cartoon gives "the sense that there
is a Black slave being bid on by White Greek masters." 

 

Bradley Fletcher, the cartoon's artist, apologized in a statement posted
on the newspaper's Web site. Fletcher said he did not realize how the
images would be so offensive. 

 

"In attempting to encourage discussion and change in this area, I have
ignorantly and inadvertently added to the problem," Fletcher said in the
statement. "And for that I sincerely apologize."

 

Students passed out copies of the newspaper and protested in front of
the building that houses the newspaper and UK's journalism program
before moving to the campus' free speech area. 

 

Aria Higgins, a 22-year-old student, wore a sticker that read, "Hello my
name is Outraged." She said students wanted an apology and an
explanation. 

 

"Yeah, it's free speech, but some stuff doesn't need to be drawn or
said," Higgins, who is president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.,
said.

 

Smiley, a senior journalism major, posted an apology on the newspaper's
Web site, and it was also to run on Monday's front page. The 17,000
circulation newspaper publishes Monday through Friday and is independent
of the university.

 

In his apology posted on the Kernel's Web site, Smiley said he did not
review the cartoon before it was printed, and other editors did not
bring it to his attention before publication.

 

"There is absolutely no excuse for that neglect," Smiley said.

 

--Associated Press

 

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