The Fed, the edgier campus paper at Columbia University, is under fire for running a controversial cartoon. NY1 reports:
The cartoon, which claims to be in honor of Black History Month, shows a slave being whipped, and says, Black people were invented in the 1700s as a form of cheap labor. The next box shows a black basketball player. The next mocks funk music. Next, two rappers. Lastly, it says, Black people do even more crazy crap, but don't worry about it until next February and til then, remember, kill whitey!
Oy. It seems that most students find it distressing, even though the newspaper listed various warnings that it might be found offensive. Students told NY1 that apologies were posted around campus, though one student dismissively describes them as "We apologize for what may have been misconstrued as racism, but yada, yada, yada. It was in poor taste and we promise never to do this again. We promise to continue the fight against racism at Columbia. Which is exactly what you have to say when something like this blows up in your face." Notice how it's always the school papers' cartoons that get criticized, not bad writing or stupid stories.
Updated: Above is the cartoon, for you to read and determine how you feel about it. (Click to enlarge.) [Via reader Andrew - thanks]
Columbia's main daily newspaper: The Columbia Spectator
