Case Studies
Media outlets are constantly offending and are constantly making missteps in terms of judgment. Headlines, photos, photo manipulation and cartoons are the source of criticism for newspapers and media outlets all over the country.
DOOR-TO-DOOR AT MONTCLAIR
In its very own "teachable moment," The Montclairion - student newspaper at Montclair State in New Jersey - printed a cartoon that used the "N" word in reference to presidential candidate Barack Obama.
The cartoon, printed in the Oct. 23, 2008 edition, was drawn by syndicated professional (non-student) cartoonist Keith Knight. This cartoon was also printed in the Arizona Daily Wildcat. However, the Wildcat was the only other paper to print this cartoon. According to The Monclarion, "The cartoon is part of the The K Chronicles written by Keith Knight, a Black cartoonist. It 'is a weekly, semi-autobiographical comic strip based on the life of cartoonist/rapper/ne'er-do-well Keith Knight,' according to his official website."
The K Chronicals are provided to The Montclairion by MCT Campus, a service that provides cartoons, graphics and crossword puzzles to campus newspapers nationwide. Editor-in-chief Bobby Melok said that the staff of The Montclairion relied on the judgement of editors at MCT Campus, rather than exercising their own judgment.
"It is never The Montclarion's intention to offend its readership, and we sincerely apologize to all who were upset with this comic. The Montclarion recognizes and appreciates the campus community's diversity and strives to provide a newspaper that respects and honors all viewpoints. Action has been taken to ensure that all content from this point forward will be sensitive to the diversity of The Montclarion's readership."
On Oct. 30 and 31, 2008, the Organization of Students for African Unity held a forum for students to discuss the cartoon. The event was host to 15 students, who were addressed by the director of the Center for Student Involvement and the community director of Bohn Hall.
Production Editor Eric Strickland was responsible for placing the cartoon on the page. He told his own newspaper that he didn't take time to review the cartoon because it was from a trusted source that had been syndicated before by The Montclarion. "Students said they were shocked and confused by the comic that 'everyone was offended by,' remarked one student. Students learned of the comic from a third person source or through Facebook the Monday following the Oct. 23 issue."
The editor in chief of The Montclairion offered an apology on Oct. 28 - which was e-mailed to every student at Montclair State. "Action has been taken to ensure that all content from this point forward will be sensitive to the diversity of The Montclarion's readership."
According to The Montclairion, students on campus have been the victims of hate crimes. These crimes have included, but are not limited to, swastikas and the "N" word written on the dorm-room doors of Black students. The Newman Catholic Center also found a condom on a doorknob after a discussion was conducted on site. According to Montclair State University, the undergraduate population consists of 20 percent Hispanic, 10 percent African-American and 6 percent Asian. There are more than 13,000 undergraduate students at MSU, as of Nov. 2, 2007.
This seemingly simple mistake, of not reviewing the cartoon before it went to press, is a common example of how media organizations cause offense without intention. The production editor grabbed a cartoon off of a wire service and placed in on the newspaper page. Training a staff member may not prepare a newspaper or media entity to fix these types of mistakes. Instead, tired and busy student journalists must be warned to take their time and review the material that is printed in their paper. The inappropriate use of the "N" word in this cartoon may not have been prevented, even if the production editor had read it. This is where training and understanding of systems of oppression come in.
View the cartoon here.
ASIAN ACCEPTANCE AT PRINCETON
Even Ivy League schools can have their share of controversy. The Daily Princetonian, the newspaper of Princeton University, printed a "joke issue" on Jan. 17, 2007. One column in particular sparked campus discussion as well as an apology from Daily Princetonian editors. The column, titled "Princeton University is racist against me, I mean, non-whites," was a parody of real student Jian Li, who had entered his first year at Yale. Li had applied to Princeton but was denied. Li has issued a federal civil rights complaint against Princeton.
The column used broken English and Asian stereotypes to poke fun at this student. For example: "Hi Princeton! Remember me? I so good at math and science. Perfect 2400 SAT score. Ring bells?" The column continued, "Just in cases, let me refresh your memories. I the super smart Asian. Princeton the super dumb college, not accept me. I get angry and file a federal civil rights complaint against Princeton for rejecting my application for admission. They rejected me because I'm not blond or blue eyed and my name doesn't end with Ockefeller IV or Osworth."
On Jan. 19, The Princetonian issued a statement that explained the column was written to examine racism. The editor wrote that the paper was trying to "lampoon racism by showing it at its most outrageous. We embraced racist language in order to strangle it."
The editorial board was troubled by the accusation of racism. "The column in question was penned by a diverse group of students - including several Asians on our senior editorial staff - who had no malicious intent. Given our purpose, we are deeply troubled by and reject the allegation of racism."
The editorial board invited the Princeton community to comment on the joke piece as well as participate in constructive debate on the topic. Asian-American Student Association Co-President Katherine Chiang was quoted as saying, "The article was completely distasteful. Even in the context of a joke, it made reference to so many stereotypes such as yellow fever or eating dogs. What really pushed us over the edge is that we don't speak like that, and we don't write like that."
The AASA and the Chinese Student Association made it clear that the behavior of The Daily Princetonian was unacceptable and would not be tolerated in the future. The vice president of the Taiwanese-American Student Association felt differently. He "could see how students could be offended, but the authors' intent wasn't clear." If they had sent it through the Triangle Club before publishing [it], it might have been funnier ... but it seemed to be more of a stereotype of stereotypes."
Letters to the editor poured in. Princeton alumnus Andre Liu called the mockery a "Real bad call." They continued, "What puzzles me the most is, why would you guys risk the reputation of The 'Prince' for some kind of sad attempt at humor? ... Anyways, thanks for making me feel a little less proud to be a Princetonian."
The editorial board of The Daily Princetonian and two students representing the Asian-American Student Association met to organize a forum that would allow community members to discuss the op-ed in question. The Princetonian staff expressed appreciation that members of the community would come together to discuss the concerns. This incident, among many other controversial issues at America's Ivy League universities, has been written up at Ivygate.com. Blogger Chris Beam had this to say: "The best part is, the people responsible for running it - the outgoing board, [Chanakya] Sethi included - won't even have to deal with the (still hypothetical) fallout. The hate mail, the meetings with deans, the sensitivity training seminars - all will fall squarely on the shoulders of their successors. Thanks, fellas. It's been fun. Don't let the picketers hit you in the ass on the way out."
As of March 2009, there are still more than 300 members in a group called "Dear Daily Prince, This Isn't Funny, It's Racist" on Facebook.com. At Princeton, 35 percent of the 2009 graduating class is described as "minority." "Reflecting the University's efforts to attract a broader pool of applicants, the number of minority students in the class of 2009 rose to a record 433, or 35 percent of the class, from 321, or 27 percent, in the class of 2008," according to university data from 2005.
Writing April Fool's Day and joke articles are frequently the cause of stress for student newspapers across the country. The Daily Princetonian took a newsworthy issue and attempted to make a mockery of an Asian-American student at Yale. Because of the use of predominate Asian stereotypes, this article hit a nerve. The Daily Princetonian attempted to brush off its mistake, saying that members of the editorial board are Asian-American and that they had been accepting of the article. However, even though one Asian-American student is accepting of the joke, the mistake made by Princetonian editors was the liberal use of mocking stereotypes to poke fun at an Asian-American man.
Read the joke column here.
NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENTS SEEK EQUALITY AT DARTMOUTH
The Dartmouth Review - a conservative, non-daily campus publication at Dartmouth University in Boston - was the center of controversy in 2006 when the editorial board chose to illustrate tensions among Native American students with a drawing of an Indian scalper.
The illustration was described as an "Indian warrior brandishing a scalp." The words "The Natives are Getting Restless" accompanied the image. On Nov. 29, the Dartmouth community gathered to rally support for the Native American population at the college. According to The Associated Press, The paper is not affiliated with the college and has "had an adversarial history with minorities."
The Dartmouth Review's cover "spurred an impromptu meeting Tuesday [Nov. 29] night of about 200 students to plan the rally. Students said the event was also a response to other offensive acts against Native American students and a Nov. 27 episode in which three non-students drove through campus shouting racial slurs at black undergraduates." More than 600 students, faculty and staff attended the rally. According to CampusProgress, "When asked if he had any regrets about the issue, [Review editor-in-chief Daniel] Linsalata stood by the content, but said 'I would try to contextualize [the cover] so that fewer people would be taking it literally... The cover was an ironic tongue-in-cheek comment on the reaction from the [Native Americans of Dartmouth group]. The important thing that people missed is that this wasn't an attack on Native Americans as a whole, just the leadership. I really don't think that NADs is the voice of every Native at Dartmouth. I've had a lot of Natives [e-mail] me, and say, 'I hear what you're saying and the NADs are not a group I believe in.'"
In context, the image of an Indian warrior holding a scalp is yet another issue at Dartmouth University - the former home of the Indians. In a Nov. 29 story, the Associated Press said that Dartmouth graduated less than 20 Native-Americans during its first 200 years. "The same time its catalog of Indian mascots - featured on canes, sports uniforms, even songs and art depicting natives lapping rum - increased."
Dartmouth's history as a college founded to educate the youth of northeastern Native American tribes makes these recent representations and actions towards Native Americans particularly contentious. Students and alumni continue to be divided on how to reconcile the message of Dartmouth's founding with the unofficial Native American mascot still in use by some today. The mascot's detractors see the symbol as a stereotypical misappropriation of Native American culture that engenders inaccurate understanding of an insensitive behavior. Supporters of the old mascot argue that tradition should not be overshadowed by an attempt to placate the modern-day feelings of a small minority. Most recently, a fraternity printed T-shirts showing the College of the Holy Cross mascot performing sex acts on an Indian, meant to represent Dartmouth. On Columbus Day, a group of fraternity pledges disrupted a Native drumming event. The Dartmouth Review front page was created in response to the Nov. 20 edition of The Dartmouth - the school-sponsored student newspaper - the Native American Council created a two-page spread that asked "the perpetrators to meet in open dialogue..." regarding the events listed above. That same day, University President James Wright also issued a statement that explained Dartmouth's troubled history of mascots as well as apologized for racist acts committed against students. The review illustration was printed on Nov. 28.
All of these events, including a hockey game against the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux, occurred during a term where two diversity-related dean positions were left vacant. The two empty positions were the dean of the Office of Pluralism and Leadership and the special assistant to the president for institutional diversity and equity. On Dec. 3, Linsalata offered an explanatory statement regarding the actions of the editorial board. Linsalata explains that the text and image in the Nov. 28 edition of The Dartmouth Review was meant to criticize the behavior and actions of the NAD group regarding the previous incidents on campus, rather than Native Americans at large. "The accusation, then, that this cover was maliciously designed as a wantonly racist attack on upon Native Americans is patently false. All the same, I regret that it could have been construed as such, to the detriment of discussion of the content of the issue," Linsalata continued. On Dec. 7, the editors of The Dartmouth Review offered an attempt at an apology. They said that they regretted people were offended. A few days after publication (Nov. 28) other editors of The Dartmouth Review offered an "outright apology" for the cover. According to The Dartmouth, they stated that it "distracted from the serious journalism The Dartmouth Review has been publishing, not least in the articles that came after the cover." On Monday, Jan. 5, 2007, The Dartmouth Review President Kevin Hudack - class of '07 - announced that he would resign from his post. According to sources close the the Review, the resignation came as a result of the Nov. 28 cover.
On Oct. 31, 2007, the University of North Dakota (Fighting Sioux) and the National Collegiate Athletics Association struck a deal for UND to either secure permission for or stop using the Sioux as a mascot. UND was given three years to solicit permission from the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux Tribes.
The use of this cartoon-like image of an Indian Scalper was in poor taste because of the very negative connotations and associations associated. The NAD, by using this image, was suddenly compared to a proud, cartoon-like scalper. This image played on stereotype of Native Americans from the days of The Oregon Trail. A student group, the NAD, does not deserve to be compared to the early stereotype of Native Americans - a vicious, violent group that was characterized as uncivilized.
View The Dartmouth Review cover.