Editor explains paper’s reaction to Non Sequitur’s KKK cartoon
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If you’re a regular reader of the comments on this blog, you may have followed a discussion regarding a recent Non Sequitur cartoon depicting a hen wearing a KKK hood who only lays white eggs. The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran that cartoon and received a few complaints. Their columnist,Ted Diadiun, has taken the time to explain their paper’s position on a newspaper (at least theirs) should pull a cartoon from the paper.
A few money quotes:
I realize that as a white man, I’m in no position to be lecturing about what black people should or shouldn’t be offended by, though, so I asked several black colleagues what they thought of the strip. They had varying reactions, but all had three things in common: They didn’t laugh. They didn’t think the strip was racist. And they didn’t think it should have been censored.
But the most interesting reaction was from someone outside the newsroom — Stan Miller, executive director of the Cleveland branch of the NAACP.
He said he had gotten some questions about the strip also, and called trying to reach the syndicated artist. But he said his own reaction to the strip was different from some of his callers.
“I saw it as a shot at the Klan,” he said. “It indicated that here we are in 2007, and the Klan is still doing knuckle-headed things, and the rest of society’s looking on, shaking its head.”
From Debra Adams Simmons, managing editor:
“Generally, I think it’s appropriate for newspapers to let comic strips run as they are presented by the artists,” she said. “Clearly, if the artist provides work that we know is going to be highly offensive to our readers, we have to consider that, but I’d be far more likely to err on the side of letting the comic stand.
“But that doesn’t mean I’ve never lost sleep over what’s going to be in the paper after I’ve made the decision,” she said.
The columnist ends with a great statement.
In the end, I think we should pick the syndicated comics that do the best job of appealing to the wide range of ways people laugh at the world, and then let the artists do their jobs.
You can check out the cartoon over on Gocomics.com.
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