Keith Knight responds to race card cartoon
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The K Chronicle’s creator, Keith Knight, has responded to the protests at the Slippery Rock University (PA) regarding a cartoon he drew depicting an African-American with a noose around his neck while white characters accused him of playing the race card. Students complained to the paper and are organizing a peace march and protest.
On his blog, Keith writes,
A comic strip can be about more than cats eating lasagna or how stupid your boss is. Some of the best comic strips point out truths not only though humor, but through satire.
Many of my best strips involve real issues: Racism, suicide, war, disease. I mix those in with more humorous, less serious issues.
In the first panel of this specific comic strip, white people accuse a black man, who is about to be lynched, of pulling the race card. This is an exaggerated, satirical version of what we often see and hear in mainstream media: the victim gets accused of pulling the race card, which is an easy way to dismiss the real issues involved.
Students talk about experiencing real-life incidents of racism on campus, yet it is my satirical comic strip they’re protesting over. I’d like to hear what the students are going through. If this uproar causes the school to address those issues, then my comic has done its job.
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