76% of Papers Had Strips Without Characters of Color
As the “Cartoonists of Color Sit-In” was about to take place this past Sunday, Karisue Wyson of the Washington Post Writers Group disclosed that a survey by the syndicate in June showed “that newspapers aren’t likely to run strips with minority characters and are even less likely to run more than one strip if they do.”
On Sunday, as Jerry Craft, creator of “Mama’s Boyz,” explained on his Web site, “about a dozen cartoonists of color (and a few who are not) united to help bring attention to the lack of diversity on newspaper comic pages. In order to show the world that our comics are not all interchangable, we all did our own version of a strip that was originally done by Cory Thomas.” Lalo Alcaraz, whose “La Cucaracha” runs in nearly 60 papers, joined on Monday.
Wyson, manager of marketing, licensing and sales at the Post Writers Group, wrote in her blog Friday:
“Using a professional clipping service, we surveyed 1,413 daily newspapers by collecting comics pages on a day in June 2007 to determine the play of 238 comics. The results are as striking as they are disappointing.
“The numbers show that newspapers aren’t likely to run strips with minority characters and are even less likely to run more than one strip if they do. In looking at strips that have minority characters or are drawn by minority cartoonists at the time (we surveyed Baldo, Candorville, Café con Leche, Clear Blue Water, Condorito, Curtis, Herb and Jamaal, Housebroken, Jump Start, La Cucaracha, Maintaining, Mama’s Boyz, The K Chronicles, Watch Your Head, Wee Pals and Working It Out) we found:
“Only 330 (24 percent) newspapers run at least one strip with minority characters/by a cartoonist of color. In other words, 76 percent of newspapers in this country do not have one of the 16 strips we searched for.
“Only 90 (6 percent) newspapers run two or more of these strips. And these 90 were spread over just 26 states.
“In seven states we did not find any of these strips: Arkansas, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and West Virginia. Also interesting to note: Only one paper in Oklahoma, two in Kansas and three in Minnesota run such strips.
“Only two papers published four: the Chicago Sun-Times and my own paper, The Washington Post.
“I keep going back to the lack of attention and lack of understanding. Our industry has worked diligently to make our newspapers and staffs more diverse. But these numbers are a strong indication that those efforts have not reached comics pages,” Wyson said.
“Editors’ attitudes have to change. If they see ‘black’ as the first and primary feature of a comic strip, rather than seeing it as a ‘family,’ ‘college’ or ‘animal’ strip, it’s unlikely to be added to their comics pages if the pages already have a strip with minority characters. They also need to embrace comics for what they are: the place in the paper that perhaps stirs the most passion among readers. Why try to ignore what readers love most?”
Creators Syndicate statement
Alan Gardner, Daily Cartoonist: Cartoonists of Color Sit-in appears today (Feb. 10)
Letters to Keith Knight of “The K Chronicles,” Salon.com
David Mills, Undercover Black Man blog: Cartoonists of color are fed up, dammit!
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Cartoonists Weigh Hopefuls’ Race, Gender — Or Not
If you’re an editorial cartoonist, are there any special guidelines or sensitivities when it comes to drawing Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama? “How do you use exaggeration and caricature with these candidates, who are shattering gender and race ceilings, without falling in to sexist or racist traps?” Pam Platt, public editor at the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, asked in her column on Sunday.
Platt said her question was partly prompted by a Pat Oliphant editorial cartoon spiked by a Courier-Journal editor who felt it was racially insensitive to Obama. She added, “For what it’s worth, I didn’t think the Oliphant cartoon was kind to Clinton, either. She was depicted as mannish-looking and big-bottomed.”
The editor who spiked the cartoon, Opinion Page Editor Keith Runyon, told Journal-isms that Obama was “bent over in what looked to us like a monkey’s stance, in what was clearly a cotton field. (He and Hillary were picking delegates, not cotton plants). I showed it to Betty Bayé, Bennie Ivory, David Hawpe and others. All agreed it wasn’t something that we would . . . use.” Bayé is an editorial writer and columnist, Ivory is executive editor and Hawpe is editorial director.
Platt said she contacted nine editorial cartoonists; “Gender and race were considerations (the stable of editorial cartoonists working in the U.S. is almost as male and white as this election’s GOP candidates, past and present), as were variations in political point of view and geography.
“The short answer to my initial question — do they approach their drawings of Clinton and Obama differently than they do with other candidates?— was a unanimous ‘no’ from all eight cartoonists” who responded.
Platt also asked, “What guidelines or philosophies are guiding you with your cartoons about them? Is one candidate dicier than the other for cartoonists? (For instance, can you do more caricature or exaggeration with gender than with race?) If so, why?”
And: “A number of cartoonists have drawn President Bush with ape-like physical attributes, and this newspaper has printed a number of those cartoons. Why is it OK for Bush, but not for a candidate of color?”
Here are three answers to her second question, about guidelines and philosophies:
Tim Jackson, a Chicago-based cartoonist: “My answer to that has always been: My caricature and exaggeration should be in the same style as my other art. For an artist who draws funny-looking people with big noses or small heads, or whatever, their ethnic characters shouldn’t look radically different. I’ve always been annoyed with cartoonists who use half a bottle of India ink and heavy, scribbly lines to depict African Americans.”
Jeff Parker, Florida Today in Melbourne, Fla.: “I think a cartoonist can more easily get away with exaggerating gender than they can exaggerating race. We’ve all seen some particularly wicked cartoons of Sen. Clinton over the years. Is there a double standard? Perhaps. That’s where the cartoonist’s personal, inner voice needs to kick in. Editorial cartoons are supposed to ridicule and exaggerate, and there’ll always be people who’ll be offended by them. I prefer to make sure that I get complaints for my stand on a particular issue and not the way I drew a candidate’s lips or fanny.”
Ann Telnaes, Washington, D.C.-based syndicated cartoonist: “I believe it’s much more problematic with race. In this day and age, we’re much more aware of racial bias than gender because gender bias can be so much more subtle, and has been a part of our culture for so long. During the 1992 election, I remember very well the depictions of Hillary Clinton in editorial cartoons and in the media as a whole. While I have no problem with ed cartoons attacking Hillary for her policy stance or political tactics (which I have done and will continue to do), a majority of them only made the point that she was an aggressive type of woman, a witch and a bitch . . . “
To Platt’s third question, Lisa Benson, a California-based syndicated cartoonist, replied, “I think Barack Obama’s Muslim background is a dicier issue than his race. Any cartoonist addressing Obama and the War on Terror (al-Qaida) risks being carted off to the nearest treatment center for Islamophobia.”
Benson made no mention that rumors of Obama ties to Islam, including one from Insight magazine that said he was educated at an Indonesian madrassa, have been proved false.
“All the questions and answers, and cartoonists’ bios, may be found in full online at courier-journal.com/platt.”
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NBC Offers Black History Month Classroom Materials
“In an effort to engage students in active learning, and transform classroom instruction into 21st-century ‘digital-learning’ centers using primary source digital media content,” NBC News said it has launched “an expansive African-American Studies curriculum resource to be used by schools during February, Black History Month, and throughout the school year.”
The African-American Studies curriculum includes more than 500 video pieces of two to five minutes spanning hundreds of years, pooled from more than 70 years of NBC News coverage “and supplemented with early history mini-documentaries created in collaboration with educators, historians, textbook authors and other experts,” according to a Feb. 1 news release.
“The subject matter includes the history of African-Americans from the slave trade through the modern civil rights movement; poignant features on and interviews with African-American leaders from politics, science, arts and literature, and business; and examinations of the African-American experience today including politics, health issues, education, the justice system, the economy, and the family.
The African-American Studies resource is available online at HotChalk.com/nbc.html. On March 1, to coincide with Women’s History Month, the network plans to release a similar collection on women’s studies.
AOL Black Voices: Making Black History 2008, Past, Present, Future
Lawrence Aaron, the Record, Hackensack, N.J: A civil rights pioneer remembers
Lawrence Aaron, the Record, Hackensack, N.J: Another side of Einstein
Betty Bayé, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal: Standing on broad shoulders to look back and find our way
Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star: Unveiling secrets of the brain in race relations
Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Didn’t police know what month it is?
Gregory Kane, Baltimore Sun: ‘White’ cities built on ugly past
Tonyaa Weathersbee, Florida Times-Union: The story of a white man who joined the ’60s sit-ins
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Texas, California Hispanics Differ, Columnist Says
Tim Chavez, the columnist out on disability from the Nashville Tennessean who found his job eliminated, writes in the Feb. 11 issue of Hispanic Link, “There may be more good news awaiting U.S. Sen. Barack Obama when the results — influenced by a large Hispanic vote — are announced following the March 4 Texas Democratic Party primary. Texas can be a whole different enchilada than California when it comes to Hispanic political and social thinking.”
He offers “a few tips for his campaign based on my family experiences:
“Fill your Texas support staff with Chicago, not Chicano, Hispanics who know the senator well . . . Texas Latinos have a lot of kin in Chicago. And hearing of Obama’s good work from relatives’ lips will go a long way toward convincing Lone Star Latinos.
“Hit the Hillary flip-flop. Senator Clinton staged an abrupt political retreat earlier this year when she deserted an effort by New York’s Gov. Eliot Spitzer to allow immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses without having to prove legal residency. To the governor, it was a public safety issue. Clinton deserted him when opinion polls flashed a political backlash against the proposal. Obama has consistently supported the license proposal.
“Stress jobs, jobs, jobs: . . . Obama should stress his work on the immigration reform bill that failed in Congress last year. Texas Latinos have shown themselves less aghast at reaching across the aisle to work with Republicans, even voting for them occasionally.
“Bring Latinos and blacks together. Obama can gain Hispanic support by encouraging healing in the rift between Latinos and African Americans in many parts of the South. It exists. Dallas public schools suffered greatly while whites kept fleeing to the suburbs. Latino families in Texas constantly preach the value of education. Alberto Gonzáles’ story is not just a once-in-a-lifetime tale. It happens. Black powerbrokers, still trying to cope with the unresolved needs of their own children, have been hesitant to embrace Hispanic needs and support a more balanced allocation of resources. Obama must preach to both groups how to work together so urban centers do not become educational wastelands.”
There were these other news stories and commentary:
Mary C. Curtis, Charlotte (N.C.) Observer: ‘Who am I?’ That is the question
Hamil Harris, Washington Post: Bill Clinton Stumps at Area Churches (With Video)
Clark Hoyt, New York Times: Fuzzy Election Math, Before and After
Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe: An education lesson for Obama and Clinton
Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Who’s behind prison walls affects us all
Deborah Mathis, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Worried About Whether Barack Obama’s Got His Eyes on the Prize? His Candidacy is the Prize
Les Payne, Newsday: Clinton’s much-touted experience is not an asset
Frank Rich, New York Times: Next Up for the Democrats: Civil War
Nikita Stewart and Avis Thomas-Lester, Washington Post: For Area Blacks, a House Divided; African American Leaders Who Support Clinton Find She’s a Tough Sell
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Detroit Mayor Says Free Press Committed a Crime
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has accused the Detroit Free Press of committing a crime in obtaining the romantic text messages that the married mayor sent to his chief of staff, which “showed the two lied under oath about having a sexual relationship” and about firing the deputy police chief, Ben Schmitt and Suzette Hackney reported Friday in the Free Press.
“Caesar Andrews, executive editor of the Free Press, denied the mayor’s allegations,” the story said.
“‘The Free Press did nothing illegal,’ he said. ‘We verified our coverage in numerous ways and reported only on the facts. No one, including the mayor, has challenged our factual reporting. And no one, including the mayor, has offered one iota of evidence that the Free Press engaged in anything criminal.'”
As the story noted, “it was the Free Press that first published text messages showing the mayor and his chief of staff lied while testifying at a police whistle-blower trial last summer.
In an interview with WMXD-FM, the mayor accused the newspaper of illegally obtaining the messages from the paging device of chief of staff Christine Beatty, who has since resigned. “I think the Free Press has committed a crime. I don’t want people to lose sight of this: The Free Press illegally obtained some very private phone conversations,” he said, according to the story.
“The mayor also said he and attorneys for the city were within their rights to sign a secret agreement last fall to keep the text messages private . . . “
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Independent Competitor Forces Tribal Paper to Fold
“The Fort Peck Tribes of Montana operated the Wotanin Wowapi continuously since 1968, making it one of the oldest tribal newspapers in the country,” according to Kevin Abourezk, writing in the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star.
“That was until Jan. 28, when the tribe shut it down, citing the newspaper’s inability to become self-sufficient.
“Tribal council member Tom Christian said the tribe gave $59,000 to the paper last year to keep it afloat.
“But the Wotanin Wowapi couldn’t compete with an independently owned paper on the tribe’s northeast Montana reservation. ‘It was costing the tribe a considerable amount of money,’ he said of the newspaper. ‘Nobody was reading it anymore.’
“Christian said the independent Fort Peck Journal — started in April 2006 by former Wotanin Wowapi editor Bonnie Red Elk — proved more effective at covering tribal government in a balanced way,” he said.
As reported two years ago, Red Elk, (Dakota/Lakota) was fired from Wotanin Wowapi, she maintained, because the tribal chairman, Joseph Morales, believed she had “written some articles that he doesn’t agree with.” Morales countered that Red Elk tested positive for marijuana use and the tribal council had imposed a “zero tolerance” policy.
The Native American Journalists Association framed the firing as a free-press issue. A statement encouraged officials on Fort Peck “to resolve the issue in a way that protects the freedom of the press and preserves the integrity of the Wotanin Wowapi, which is among the most respected newspapers in Indian Country.”
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Rapper’s Antics Challenge Descriptive Skills
How to explain the way the rapper Nas showed up at the Grammy awards on Sunday night? Most news outlets seemed to decide to ignore him.
“Nas wore a red ball cap and a T-shirt with a word that shocks, appalls and is the title of his latest album,” Sharon Eberson wrote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The New York Post was more straightforward, “Best-rap-album nominee Nas, of Long Island City, Queens, turned heads on the red carpet with his black T-shirt emblazoned with the n-word — which also is the title of his upcoming album.”
On allhiphop.com, Houston Williams began, “Rapper Nas isn’t shying away from the controversy surrounding his new album.
“The rapper walked the red carpet in a black t-shirt that boldly said ‘N****r’ on it. His wife Kelis and a bevy of women who were dressed in similar garb accompanied the rapper.”
“The rapper explained his fashion choice to a reporter for CNN.
“‘It’s all the experiences we go through every day, of all ethnicities, Black, White, indifferent. We’ve all at some point felt discriminated on, whether it’s in Dominican Republic, whether it’s in China, whether it’s in Iraq with soldiers getting their heads blown off for reasons we don’t know why,’ he reasoned. ‘The meaning of the word is supposed to be ignorant.’
“‘So no longer are Black people still n****rs, it’s also me and you,’ Nas said to the White CNN correspondent. ‘I want people to think about what I’m thinking about today.'”
Some readers on the allhiphop.com Web site applauded Nas for cleverly hyping his upcoming album.
But one who signed himself J. Johnson said, “Nas didnt break no barrier down, he making himself and others look stupid. I do understand the message, but it will hurt more people than it will help. Actually, what does it help? Dont give me the whole ‘conversation’ piece and people are talking about it. Since when did people not talk about the word ‘nigger’. This is buffoonery in its newest state.”
Another, signed “odeisel,” said, “he should have completed the look and wore a pacifier and dropped his pants to his thighs.”
Nas lost out to Grammy winner Kanye West.
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Paul Taylor, “Face the Nation” Director, Dies at 66
“Paul Louis Taylor, 66, a director of CBS news programs, including ‘Face the Nation,’ died of cardiac arrest Jan. 31 at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring,” Md., Joe Holley reported Friday in the Washington Post.
“In his 38-year career with CBS, Mr. Taylor directed a number of news programs, including ‘Nightwatch with Charlie Rose‘ and Washington news items for the CBS Evening News. One of the first African American directors at CBS, he became senior director of ‘Face the Nation’ in the late 1970s. A New Yorker, Taylor joined CBS after he was discharged from the Army in 1962, working briefly in New York before being transferred to the network’s Washington bureau. He perfected his craft at a time when TV news programs were making the changeover from film to videotape. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of the District of Columbia in 1981.
“He retired in 1999, which gave him more time to pursue his interests in music, painting, photography, gardening and cooking.”
Taylor even made news himself. “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer said on the air on Sept. 8, 1996:
“This morning, our director, Paul Taylor, the man who sets up all our electronic links to here and there, gets our cameras in position and picks the pictures you see on the air, was on the way to the office when he saw a car parked zigzag in the road and a woman beside it screaming.
“He stopped, discovered a woman inside the car in the process of having a baby. He delivered the child, unwrapped the umbilical cord from around its neck, waited until the rescue squad arrived, sent mother and child on the way, came on to work, apologized for being a few minutes late and he’s back in the control room right now getting this program on the air. Thanks, Paul, for making us a full-service public service broadcast.”??MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to send an e-mail about this column.
Short Takes
CNN, Univision Communications Inc. and the Texas Democratic Party, in conjunction with the Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation, will host a Democratic presidential primary debate on Thursday, Feb. 21, CNN announced on Monday. The program airs live from the University of Texas in Austin on CNN and on CNN International from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (Eastern time)/7p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Central time) and will air in Spanish on the Univision Network beginning at 11:30 p.m. (ET)/10:30 p.m. (CT). It will also stream live on CNN.com and will later be available on demand on both on Univision.com and CNN.com. It will also re-air on CNN and CNN en Español. The CNN and Univision journalists who will pose the questions have not been chosen, a spokeswoman said, but a CNN anchor will be the moderator.
“At 9:14 a.m. on Jan. 14, about two hours after finishing her 5 to 7 a.m. shift co-anchoring ‘WBTV News This Morning,’ Lenise Ligon got an e-mail at her desk. Come meet with the news manager and the human resources director, it said,” Mark Washburn reported Saturday in the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. “Channel 3 was ‘moving in a different direction,’ she was told. And she wouldn’t be a part of it. Her three-year contract, which was up that week, would not be renewed. ‘Then I was quickly ushered out. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to my colleagues or the viewers . . . I was flabbergasted.'”
Gregory L. Moore, editor of the Denver Post, and Cynthia A. Tucker, editor of the editorial page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will be part of the journalism advisory board of ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom producing journalism in the public interest, Paul E. Steiger, editor-in-chief, announced on Monday. “ProPublica, when fully staffed later this year, will have the largest news staff in American journalism devoted solely to investigative reporting, with roughly 25 full time reporters and editors,” a news release said.
Frank Washington, the automotive journalist who underwent facial reconstruction after a Jan. 29 mugging near his Detroit home, has been released from the hospital, his colleague Greg Morrison told the National Association of Black Journalists. He can be reached at this e-mail address
The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation announced Friday the distribution of $1.14 million in grants to 23 journalism organizations, some devoted to diversity issues.
“Fox News Watch,” one of two weekly television shows that assess the conduct of the national news media, has fired its longtime moderator and let go one of its more liberal panelists, Brian Stelter reported Monday in the New York Times. “‘The show will now focus more on the evolving new media, and we didn’t feel the current talent would be capable of handling the new direction,’ Dana Klinghoffer, a Fox spokeswoman, said in an e-mail message,” Stelter reported.
“A Manchester-based journalist who fled to Britain after exposing corruption in Pakistan has won a six-year fight to escape deportation,” Neal Keeling reported on Thursday in England’s Manchester Evening News. “Mansoor Hassan, 43, and his wife Aqila, 42, and their four children, came to the UK in 2002 seeking asylum after their house was burned down and he was warned he would be killed.”
“A senior editor at a Chinese newspaper has been released from prison after serving four years on corruption charges that journalists said were trumped up by local officials to retaliate for aggressive reporting,” Edward P. Cody reported Sunday in the Washington Post. “Yu Huafeng, general manager and deputy editor of the Southern Metropolis Daily in the southern city of Guangzhou, walked out of prison in the Guangzhou suburbs early Friday in good health and good spirits, his colleagues at the newspaper said Saturday.”
The Discovery Channel has dropped plans to air the critically acclaimed “Taxi to the Dark Side,” a documentary about an innocent Afghan taxi driver tortured to death by U.S. officials at Bagram Air Base, because the film is too controversial, the Web site ThinkProgress.org reported.
Albert C. Jones, editor and publisher of the Diversity Times newspaper in Salt Lake City, is one of six recipients of the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable’s 2008 Interfaith Award.
