Robyn RepyaMinnesota Daily University of Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS?Amid protests from University of Minnesota students outraged by a cartoon in the spring humor issue, The Minnesota Daily issued a rare apology this month and is considering eliminating the semester-end lampoon issue altogether.
More than 30 students crowded the entryway to the Daily on May 17, voicing anger and disappointment over the cartoon, titled “Thuggish Ruggish,” which appeared on the last page of the sports section in the spring finals issue.
The cartoon showed a black man, Laron, talking to his friend in urban slang about having sex with a black woman named Trina. When Trina discovers she’s pregnant, she calls Laron, who accuses her of being promiscuous, calls her a bitch and slams down the phone.
Critics said the cartoon perpetuated stereotypes that blacks are ignorant, irresponsible and promiscuous.
“People at the Daily and the powers that be were so insensitive,” said Hollies J. Winston, a second-year law student.
The Daily’s then-editor in chief, Mike Wereschagin, who has since completed his one-year term, issued an apology on the Daily’s Web site. He said the cartoon was not meant to be malicious or racist.
“I didn’t think enough when I saw it,” he said. “Basically, I didn’t do my job.”
The group of students?which included members of the New Black Panther Party and Africana?requested the formal apology and asked that the Daily terminate the illustrator and implement procedures to make the Daily staff more culturally aware.
Winston said a larger multicultural presence in the Daily’s newsroom could help increase racial sensitivity.
“The paper should reflect the diversity at the university,” he said. “It certainly isn’t being reflected.”
Pre-medical junior Ezekiel Ashamu said he is frustrated with negative portrayals of blacks in the media.
Ashamu said the Daily has been racially insensitive in the past, citing a political cartoon by a different artist that appeared on the Daily’s editorial page in 2000.
The cartoon ran after the University of Wisconsin-Madison digitally added a black student to a promotional photo to make the school appear more diverse. The Daily editorial cartoon depicted University President Mark Yudof applying black face paint. Pete Wagner, the cartoonist, said at the time that the satire was aimed at critiquing the facade of diversity on college campuses.
U Wire