A student coalition at Brown University has become so incensed by The Brown Daily Herald, the school's student newspaper, that it has demanded the paper cease distribution on campus and remove the word "Brown" from its title.
These demands, the newest added to a growing list, were sparked by the publication of a controversial advertisement denouncing the payment of reparations for slavery.
"It is not the place of the editorial board to choose which opinions can run" in the paper, Herald Editor-in-Chief Patrick Moos said.
Written and paid for by conservative author David Horowitz, the full-page ad is headlined "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery Is a Bad Idea - and Racist Too."
Among the reasons the ad lists, "Reparations to African Americans have already been paid ... in the form of welfare benefits and racial preferences."
The ad also states, "The reparations claim is a separatist idea that sets African Americans against the nation that gave them freedom," and "there is no single group clearly responsible for the crime of slavery."
Many of the 47 school newspapers that received the ad rejected it, including The Cavalier Daily, The Harvard Crimson and The Columbia Daily Spectator.
Three other newspapers, including those at Arizona State, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California-Davis ran the advertisement but later published apologies.
"We decided to run the advertisement because [it was] a business decision," Moos said.
The ad ran in the Herald last Tuesday. But before distribution Friday, a coalition of mostly minority student groups seized nearly 4,000 copies of the paper to prevent its release in demonstration of their anger.
"I doubt that would be our first course of action" in a similar situation, said Mike Costa, president of the University's Black Student Alliance, which serves as a leading voice at the University for the concerns of black students.
If facing a situation like the one at Brown, "we would probably want to contact the newspaper or write an opinion piece ... we have a pretty decent relationship with the Cav Daily," Costa said.
The coalition also demanded the Herald not keep the $580 paid by Horowitz and instead donate the funds to the Third World community, a campus minority fund, and it demanded a free full-page ad for response to Horowitz's ad.
The Herald has refused to fulfill any of the coalition's expressed demands. It also reprinted 1,000 copies of its Friday edition and redistributed them on campus Saturday.
"Gentlemen like [Horowitz] are entitled to their opinions," Costa said, acknowledging the First Amendment right to free speech. But "there are issues you have to be more sensitive to," and student newspapers should "have the foresight to know an ad like that could cause problems," he said.
Horowitz issued several statements on Frontpage magazine's Web site in response to the controversy spurred by his advertisements.
In a statement, Horowitz said the controversy remains very one-sided and said that "the critics' characterizations of my motives and perspectives are so hysterical and absurd that I have not even bothered to answer them."
The Herald receives no financial support from Brown University and is completely independent from the school.
As a result, the paper relies on advertisements for all its funding, Moos said. "We run every ad we get every day ... [but] we will not print ads that are illegal or obscene," he said.
Read More
Professors speak about leading productive dialogue on Israel-Hamas war
By Lexie Stadler | 4 hours agoThe event was hosted by the University’s Task Force on Religious Diversity and Belonging, which is designed to ensure that the University is welcoming to community members from all religions and cultures.
Honor Committee considers formal ban of AI detectors as evidence in trials
By Lexie Stadler | YesterdayThe Committee also addressed balancing student perspectives with those of Committee representatives during panel discussions.
Pro-Palestinian protesters form encampment near University Chapel
By CD News Staff | YesterdayThe encampment overlapped with a separate “May Day” protest on the Lawn, which was hosted by student activist group U.Va. Dissenters and the U.Va. Apartheid Divest Coalition.
