By: Dexter Hill The Montclarion, the newspaper serving Montclair State University in New Jersey, has apologized for running a cartoon that used the 'N' word in its Oct. 23 issue.
The cartoon was based on a post on the election-projection Web site
FiveThirtyEight.com : "So a canvasser goes to a woman's door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she's planning to vote for. She isn't sure, has to ask her husband who she's voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, "We're votin' for the n***er!"
Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: ?We're voting for the n***er.?"
The comic, drawn by syndicated cartoonist Keith Knight, illustrates the anecdote, and like the baffled canvasser, many students at Montclair State were taken aback by the use of the slur, according to the Star-Ledger of Newark.
Montclarion Editor-in-Chief Bobby Melok issued a statement on behalf of the newspaper apologizing to those displeased by the cartoon. Melok faults the MCT Campus syndication service -- which provides comics, pictures, and other content for the newspaper -- for making the cartoon available for the college paper to use.
"In this event, The Montclarion relied on others to judge content appropriateness, rather than making this choice as a staff decision," Melok?s
statement read. The editorial assured readers the newspaper would "be more sensitive to the diversity of The Montclarion's readership" in the future.
On his
blog, Knight defends his cartoon, citing that "the strip is based on a real incident," and that, so far, the New Jersey newspaper has been the only one to criticize the strip, despite its being syndicated among college newspapers. Knight also wrote that he will respond to the controversy in a statement within the next few days.
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