CavDaily pundit: Lazy editors to blame
Contrary to the tacit claim of over 100 sit-in student protesters, it wasn't racism that generated the now-infamous "Ethopian Food Fight" cartoon, says a columnist this morning in the beleaguered Cavalier Daily. While a September 5 letter to the editor of the paper accuses the editors of "demonstrating ignorance and intolerance," UVA law student Alec Solotorovsky suggests a more mundane motive.
"Editors approve the publication of sloppy work in order to save time, fill space, and spare the feelings of incompetent subordinates," says Solotorovsky in today's column. "When you combine the shaky judgment of youthful editors with an excess of democratic feeling, the result is a paper that will print just about anything."
In this case, the editors printed a cartoon on September 4 by a student named
Grant Woolard showing a group of loincloth-clad black men bashing each other with crude household objects. Solotorovsky says Cavalier Daily editors should ask themselves one question when considering potentially offensive work: is the message "sufficiently important" to justify the potential offense? Indeed, today's Washington Post quotes a cartoon expert from the New Yorker magazine who lambastes the cartoon's lack of sophistication.
In a letter circulated the day after the cartoon appeared, UVA NAACP officer Solome Paulos and eight other student leaders– while not explicitly using the "R" word– did call the cartoon "ignorant and inconsiderate," and demanded an apology as well as the ouster of the cartoonist. They got their wishes.
The cartoon was quickly yanked from the website (but a helpful faculty member sent the Hook a copy of it and some other potentially offensive work from the same artist). And two days after the cartoon appeared, the CavDaily's lead editorial, while decrying the sit-in, apologized. Then came the cartoonist's ouster.
This "endless cycle of offense and atonement" follows each time the Cavalier Daily publishes one of its "careless columns and comic strips that take cheap shots," Solotorovsky writes. "But before we reeducate the Cavalier Daily in the traditions of political correctness, I suggest that the editors simply stiffen their spines and start editing."
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10 comments
This guy shouldn't be fired for being contraversial. He should be fired for being pathetic as a humorist.
What an odd and not-at-all-amusing cartoon. Wonder what makes a 20 year old kid scribbling in his room think that that provokes thought or laughter?
What happen to freedom of speech? Damn people take stuff way to serious. If it had been a cartoon about whites or mexicans or gays getting robbed or raped or punched in the face by "GANG MEMBERS" then nothing gets said. Why do white people today have to continue to pay for the sins of our ancestors? We can't say anything unless someone wants to cause a stink and get them fired or what ever.....Has anyone ever heard of reverse descrimination?? Guess what, today we have to call it what it is, now its just descrimination, no reverse about it. I love everyone, why don't we practice love and stop thinking there getting picked on....please, get a sense of humor....
So-called political comics today rarely make any claim to be "humorous," just vicious and mean-spirited. But, who says that comics must be humorous? Should he be fired? Not because of that cartoon. Those who do not appreciate his work can counter with enough derogatory statements about him along the lines of a roast that his feelings will be hurt. People who seem to be constantly offending others with their tongues should be given a continuous tongue-lashing. Public censorship and ostracism has been successfully used in other ages to improve public manners. Write his name thousands of times weekly on the free speech monument in front of city hall Friday afternoon. Insufferable bore!
Donna you just don't get it, you racist cow! Hahahahahaha!
Donna is not too far off base. Certain people walk up and down the street every day calling each other the derogative N word all day long. But let another race use the word in speech or cartoons and it's insulting all of a sudden.
Calling Donna a racist cow has offended me. I think Looky Lou should be fired, his/her relatives issue an apology for his/her behavoir, and provide Donna with $500,000, 10 acres of land and a nice new home as reparation for the sin.
Donna writes, "If it had been a cartoon about whites or mexicans or gays getting robbed or raped or punched in the face by ¢Ã¢â??¬Ã?â??GANG MEMBERS¢Ã¢â??¬ then nothing gets said."
What the hell? She really thinks that a cartoon about gays getting punched in the face by "gang members" wouldn't provoke an outcry? Any of those scenarios would result in an outcry.
Racist cow or not, Donna has no credibility on this topic--she clearly doesn't know what the hell she's talking about, and her whole post is an ax to grind about how oppressed she is as a white woman.
The Ethiopian food fight is not racist...
In my opinion it actually just depicts starvation...there is no food!
Kind of like an Mexican snowball fight, there is no snow.
Hey Lucky Lou, I agree with Captain Obvious. You had to go there and called me a name. You angry person you... An "OUTCRY" please. All the "WHITE" people that have been assaulted on the down town mall and I have heard no more about it. Was that a hate crime or just a bunch of punks having themselves some fun at the pain or others. Give me a break and get your head out of the sand....don't be stupid and stop thinking Oh my God if I say this I will hurt someones feelings. Well what about my feelings. I can't keep getting kicked in the face for crap that happen a 100 yrs ago. Don't you get it??? The more this happens, our young white kids get more and more angry and then there are problems. Screw the political view on this lets listen to the streets and try to understand that for the most part the younger generation get along (all races), its stuff like this that cause racial tension. Get a clue and step out your door and talk to the young people and listen to what they have to say about all of this. Peace to you all, even you Looky Lou, I still love ya....
Oh, one other thing....I am Native American. Should we go there?? I dont hate anyone for what the native american people suffered. Any if you egg heads (no offense) know that history you would see that what my ancestors went through has made life possible for us in a better way. I hate what happen, but I'm not going to hate any race over it. And I know their life and death would have meant nothing if I didn't learn everything I could about it and make sure that I could speak on it with pride and respect, not hate and wanting get even just because I can.....Unless we can laugh at ourself, we lose! Life is to short...