Members of the African-American community on Grounds voiced their concern about racial insensitivity within The Cavalier Daily to staff members, including Editor-In-Chief Patrick Harvey, at a Black Student Alliance meeting Tuesday evening.
The meeting came about after public outcry over a comic strip by Dan Gantz ran Oct. 27 featuring Thomas Jefferson casting a slave off his plantation for stealing a bag of tobacco.
The meaning of the comic strip has been hotly debated by various organizations and individuals on Grounds. Some said they feel the strip is about the hypocrisy of the University's honor code, considering its racist history, but others say they feel that the artist singled out African-Americans as the cause of the honor code, according to Rhonda Humphries, Education Chair of the NAACP on Grounds.
"Many students felt [the comic suggests] that the reason why we have the honor code is because of this demonized black person," Humphries said.
At the meeting BSA President Aaron Blake introduced Harvey, who began by thanking everyone who responded to the comic.
"We appreciate all the feedback -- even when it's negative, it makes us a better paper," Harvey said.
He explained that he allowed the comic to run because he felt it was trying to criticize Jefferson and the racist history of the University, but he understands that the comic was open to other interpretations. This experience is a lesson learned, he added.
"Ultimately I am trying to protect the reputation of the paper, and we are better if the University trusts us," he said.
The meeting then was opened to the floor for comments and criticism. Issues of the newspaper's lack of staff diversity, Harvey's inadequate responses to complaints and the paper's insensitivity to minority students as a whole were voiced by the night's attendees.
Harvey apologized for the e-mail he sent to the comic strip's critics, saying that he understood how it could have sounded patronizing. He also agreed that the staff does lack diversity, which needs to be remedied.
"It's a vicious cycle," he said. "There are [few] black students on the staff, which discourages black students from joining, and even fewer then want to join."
Blake used the next portion of the meeting to display a PowerPoint presentation highlighting specific opinion columns from previous years that she felt held racist views. A number of the columns criticized minority organizations, such as the BSA, for their exclusivity and policies.
Humphries said the lack of opinions countering the columns contributed to African-American students' negative perception of the paper.
"These opinion columns are part of the reason why black students don't want to be a part of the paper," she said.
Harvey and Elliot Haspel, executive editor of The Cavalier Daily, said current standards of research and accountability for opinion columnists are higher than they were in previous years. Many past editorials would not be allowed to run if written today, they said.
One attendant questioned the paper's policy on coverage, noting that many stories important to African-American students were not covered on the front page or sometimes at all.
Harvey said the newspaper has a number of logistical issues because of the natural time restrictions of a daily paper, and many of the articles were further in the paper because their content and timeliness categorized them as Life articles, whereas the front page is only for news.
Many students said they felt the comic warranted an apology from The Cavalier Daily. Some expressed disapproval of the apparent trivialization of slavery in the comic, among other criticisms. They said the comic was especially problematic considering it was run not long after several serious racial incidents on Grounds.
"If you step on someone's shoe while walking down the street, you don't just justify your actions, you apologize," said Trevor, a Darden student who declined to provide his last name.
Harvey said the newspaper was not going to run an apology because of the comic's mixed response, and that while he was sympathetic to those offended, he added that newspapers cannot publish an apology every time someone is offended.
The final part of the meeting was used to introduce a joint commission between the BSA and The Cavalier Daily that would meet twice every month and issue recommendations to the paper with the goal of relieving tensions between the African-American community and the paper by improving the quality of The Cavalier Daily.
Editor's note: Neither Editor-in-Chief Patrick Harvey nor Executive Editor Elliot Haspel contributed to the editing of this article.
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