Students Upset Over Comic Strip Invoking Racism
By Rob Tornoe | September 29th, 2009 | PERMALINK
Students at Slippery Rock University are upset at a Keith Knight cartoon that appeared in last Friday’s school newspaper, The Rocket.
Click to view the entire comic strip.
“The K Chronicles” comic strip featured a black man hanging from a noose saying, “You’re doing this because I’m black, aren’t you?” while white characters accuse him of playing the race card.
“It certainly ripped at the hearts and souls of many many people on this campus, not just members of our minority groups,” Rita Abent, the Executive Director of Public Relations at Slippery Rock University, told WYTV.
One student who was quoted didn’t even care that Knight, the cartoon’s author, is African-American.
“We don’t care if it was a black, white, orange, purple, pink person who wrote this article,” Audrey Foreback, a sophomore, told WYTV. “They should not have been allowed to print it and publish it throughout the school. It’s just wrong,”
WYTV also reported that some students showed up with nooses around their necks.
Knight responded to critics of his strip on his blog, saying that campus uproars over his cartoons are “becoming a yearly ritual.”
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Comments
Comment from Ben Carlsen
Time September 29, 2009 at 10:53 am
I can’t believe how little people actually use their heads. All of this controversy can be explained by plain old emotional reaction and lack of thinking. Number one: Why should minority students be angry? The content of this comic involves a black man (Keith Knight) railing against a society that won’t own up to their own racism. Minority students ought to understand that this comic is speaking FOR them, not against them. At the very most, it’s racist against white people.
Secondly, have they read the whole thing? So the first panel may be confusing at first, but read the rest. It’s obvious, at least from the second and third panels, that Mr. Knight is angry and fed up about the rhetoric about race in this country.
If I was Mr. Knight, I’d be fuming right now (heh, I’m me, and I’m fuming right now 
). Not only did they miss the point, they missed a brilliant comic that they could have used to further their position.
Comment from al sullivan
Time September 29, 2009 at 11:11 am
The old saying is that in order to create an omlette you have to break the egg. Satire is meant to offend people to make a moral point. But extremest on the right and left have no sense of humor — which is required to be part of civilized life. and you have to be civilized to be shamed by satire. the problems is, whites who hate blacks, aren’t amused by such things, and blacks under the yolk for so long aren’t going to see the point.
The cartoon is an accurate protrayal of a racist society on both sides of the color divide.
Comment from Bonnie Timmons
Time September 29, 2009 at 11:17 am
I don\’t get the controversy, unless there is something more in the rest of the strip. What you show does not offend me at all. It\’s cogent. I disagree we have gotten past this point in history. Shoved it under some covers, maybe. And how does one learn from something if it is not revisited: \"It is not a thing to be revisted, it is to be learned from.\"
Humor is sometimes the best way the mind can revisit some horrors.
Comment from Beth Wellington
Time September 29, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I think the cartoon would be better if it were just that first block. It loses power as it goes on. But, this artist is talented–someone to watch. I’d argue that those who oppose the cartoon as racist lack a certain understanding of political cartoons.
Comment from Marnweeks
Time September 29, 2009 at 4:16 pm
What frightens me most is that such stupid comments and moronic knee-jerk reactions are happening in a place of higher learning. I\’d say the university IS on a Slippery Rock if its administrators and students cannot grasp simple satire. The campaign to dumb down America is flourishing.
Comment from hlaoroo
Time September 29, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Maybe Audrey should view some news reels from the 60’s and 70’s, and compare them to the bs still going on today. If she thinks that race is not an ongoing issue, she is either very stupid or very ignorant. GO KEITH! LOVE YA!
Comment from Joan Broadfield
Time September 29, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I wonder how young these guys are, and if their U.S. history courses even taught about the lynching of blacks by whites that was common well into the 20th century…. or about the post civil war responses to the ‘liberation’ of those enslaved. hmmm, I think I know the answer. That might explain this odd comment. How many of us white folk go around thinking we don’t experience our own racial selves every day….. In some ways, I could argue it IS racist, because it reflects on a factual, racist past - but that a cartoonist used a real past to expose a present day issue is not racist. Sadly, the student comments are themselves filled with the reality of the White racial experience….
Comment from Aaron
Time September 30, 2009 at 5:05 am
Hey Audrey, go read the Life book of cover photographs and learn about lynching…or if that’s too hard for you, try Wikipedia…
Comment from David
Time September 30, 2009 at 8:21 am
Nope. Definitely not racist. I also think it is one of the best Keith Knight strips I\’ve seen. He hits so many points in this cartoon. I especially love the last panel about socialists and Obama\’s health care plan. The accusations of Obama\’s socialist agenda are laughable to Marxists like myself. The \"sell you a newspaper\" line was hilarious. Good one, Keith!
Comment from Matt Waggoner
Time September 30, 2009 at 4:40 pm
It’s satire, duh. Audrey Foreback and the like usually respond to “offensive” stuff like this with typically meaningless replies like “It’s just wrong!” without ever actually explaining WHY it’s wrong. It just IS wrong, don’t you see?!
Comment from Dan
Time September 29, 2009 at 10:15 am
Looks like Audrey wants to stifle free thought and expression