In our Summer Registration Issue 2008, The Daily Cardinal ran a comic under the title The Graph Giraffe"" that some readers found offensive and racist. The Daily Cardinal received questions regarding the message of the comic, especially since it ran in the issue that served to welcome family and friends of incoming students. Although the artist's message was meant to neither harm nor demean, it was poorly conveyed and was overlooked by Cardinal management because of deadline complications and concerns.
Although comic strips are often open to interpretation, the artist has explained to the editors of the Cardinal the intent and the message he wanted to convey to the audience. In his own words, the comic's artist, Yosef Lerner, explained:
""I was not attempting to make some grand political statement ... I simply pictured a situation where my friend is not Hispanic, but his name sounds like it is. So he hypothetically applies for a scholarship that is designated for Hispanics only. I was simply trying to show how easily someone could pretend they are foreign when they are not.""
Whether his point is factually supported or not, we believe Yosef had no malicious or racist intent. We also believe he was not trying to imply that minorities are granted scholarships they don't deserve but rather that he was mocking a possible loophole in which non-minorities could take these scholarships away from those for whom they are actually intended.
As the editor, I defend Yosef's right to publish his views given the correct time and venue, and I believe he simply conveyed them poorly in this publication. We, at The Daily Cardinal, apologize for any discomfort or anger the comic inflicted to our readers.
We also apologize for the confusion we instilled by including ""SOAR"" on the front of our issue, which led many to believe that the university played a role in the issue. The Daily Cardinal is an independent paper, therefore, the university has no control, oversight or direct affiliation to the paper. We titled this issue ""SOAR"" because it aimed to provide information to SOAR participants that we at the newspaper believe to be of value to them. The publication of this comic - in its current state - owas inappropriate for this issue.
As an independent student newspaper that emphasizes hands-on education and learning, mistakes are apt to happen. Deadlines are inherent to journalism, and time crunches occasionally lead to poor outcomes. The editors at The Daily Cardinal decided to place the comic on the page having only seen it moments before the paper due at the printer. While that is not meant to justify the outcome, it exposed a potential problem in how we approach our deadlines, one that we are working to correct to prevent similar breakdowns in the future.
Sincerely,
Alex Morrell
