Forgive
me for sending 2 articles today for those with stuffed email boxes. Both just
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please just delete. – E-K.
From
Diverse Online
Current News
Cartoon in
By Associated Press
Oct 8, 2007, 20:22
An
editorial cartoon depicting a bare-chested Black student on an auction block
that ran in the
A group
of more than 100
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
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
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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