FLORIDA The Independent Florida Alligator last week ran an editorial cartoon that sparked an outcry from students and administrators alike at the University of Florida about the use of racial epithets.
The cartoon, which ran in the student newspaper Sept. 13, depicted rapper Kayne West holding a playing card with "The Race Card" written on it standing next to Condoleezza Rice, who is saying "Nigga Please!" Two weeks ago West said President George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people at a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina victims.
In the days following the cartoon’s publication Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president of student affairs at the University of Florida, sent out a campus-wide e-mail saying, "This is unacceptable. The message conveyed by the cartoon and the editorial comment are inconsistent with the university values of respecting others and valuing diversity."
In a letter published in the Alligator yesterday, university president Bernie Machen criticized the cartoon as reinforcing hurtful and damaging stereotypes.
"Although it should have happened earlier, the Alligator can still acknowledge it erred with an apology to its readers," he wrote.
The newspaper refused to issue an apology in an editorial responding to the president that ran yesterday. Mike Gimignani, editor of the student paper, said the editorial board, which represents different races, discussed at length how they would respond to the criticism.
"Everybody wanted to go full force and not apologize," he said.
In the days after the cartoon ran, several campus groups protested, students wrote letters to the editor and the newspaper’s message board was inundated with a variety of opinions about the cartoon.
The unsigned editorial said the newspaper would not apologize because the university invites speakers and musicians to campus who regularly use the term, and many of the students protesting the cartoon regularly use the word, some belonging to a group called “Niggas that Pledge” on Facebook.com, an online networking Web site. The editorial board argued that people asking for the paper to retract the word were being hypocritical.
"Protesting The Alligator for printing a cartoon that depicts an existing cultural norm does not rid the world of that flaw," he wrote.
Gimignani said that the controversy has sparked a lot of discussion about race around the campus.
"Especially this week, we’re having people discuss the content of the cartoon…any sort of discussion of this is good. It’s all been one big free speech exercise," he said.
Despite the criticism from university officials and students, there has been no attempt to censor the paper thus far, and no indication that officials plan to do so, Gimignani said.
—by Kim Peterson, SPLC staff writer
