Here is my open letter to the Managing Editor of the Columbia Daily Tribune (MO) concerning the cartoon published in that newspaper. If you are similarly disgusted by such cartoons, feel free to send your own letter. Jim Robertson Managing Editor Columbia Daily Tribune As a writer and lifelong reader, I am an avid fan of the free press. One of the crowning achievements of American democracy is our Constitutions protection of a free press and the vigorous debate it ensures. In that spirit, I must share with you my revulsion at the blatantly racist cartoon published in your newspaper regarding the protestors in Ferguson, MO. In that cartoon, the protestors are depicted as buffoonish and bubble-lipped Amos & Andy-style Negroes carrying signs saying Steal to honor Michael and suggesting that their protests are aimed solely at obtaining free color TVs. As you are - or certainly should be - aware, the protests which have taken place in Ferguson and other American cities were prompted by the shooting and killing of an unarmed African American young man by a white police officer. Regardless of your or your newspapers views as to that officers guilt or innocence, the cartoon and the views it represents were (at best) uninformed and (at worst) racist. Of course, a cartoon is just that. It is a caricature or gross distortion to highlight what the cartoonist (or his editor) hopes to poke fun at or criticize. Nevertheless - just as it would be profoundly disgusting for you to publish Der Stürmer-style cartoons of beak-nosed and money-grubbing Jews - this cartoon is beneath you and (what I hope are) your papers editorial standards. I invite and urge you to issue a statement to the effect that your newspaper does not endorse the cartoonists racist views, and that you affirmatively renounce same. Alternatively, in the spirit of free & untrammeled debate, I am posting this letter on Facebook and other social media and inviting all readers of these words (who feel as I do) to boycott your paper and any business which advertises therein. Sincerely, Neil Siberblatt
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 21:50:21 +0000
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