As a former Lobo managing editor who made his share of missteps, I’d like to commend you for facing this situation squarely. Your response is thoughtful and clearly heartfelt.

I’m sure you will hear many more perspectives now, which is part of what makes the Lobo such a great learning experience.

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Didn’t the media print endless cartoons of another President, George W. Bush, as “The Chimp” and still do? How many of you complained about that “racist depiction?” I bet you’d say, “But those were funny!”

There is also an institutional wide “racism and cultural insensitivity” concerning Jews and Israel including letters allowed to be printed by these same editors! Shall we search the archives for anti-Jewish cartoons? No letters and cartoons are allowed to paint Muslims in the same tone!

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This denial of “free speech” will only lead to censorship and denial of any comments pro’s or con’s as already is evident concerning “The celebration of justice” comments that are not being allowed!

I agree with Bush, liberal editors will apologize for muslims and blacks. Flotilla happy liberals will use the race card through 2012. Blacks should be more concerned with their own extinction through abortion than cartoons. I am sure UNM liberal instructors will also complain osama bin ladin should have been brought to trial in NYC. sic

Great letter Chris! I agree that the Afro-America community should not be so sensitive or undermine the First Amendment of the Constitution. Obviously the intent was not to be racist as the main theme of the cartoon is obvious: Osama’s severed head!! The cartoon was also accompanied by an article explaining the “hate begets hate” view that many people take. How can the Daily Lobo be racist while promoting peace? None of the people involved in this uproar mentioned that fact! I personally believe that the African-American students involved were just looking for a fight and jumped at this opportunity to accuse the Daily Lobo of being a racist paper. I attended the rally held by African-American Student Services yesterday and by the end I was rolling my eyes. I believe these people don’t want to be treated equally… They want to be treated better than equally and special treatment is not something I support. White people are sorry for the past and our younger generations no longer see black as inferior or even different. What these people don’t realize is their actions are not encouraging change. They are encouraging white people to view black people as black. In essence they encouraging exactly what they do not want! We will always have hate groups and racist people but the Daily Lobo is not one of them and it is unfair for the African-American community to shout lies to the press for attention! BUT, this is just my opinion… thank god for free speech!

Keep being apologists for racism, Bush, Jeff, et al. Your 1950’s insights into race relations are highly relevant and sure do paint you as esteemed and scholarly gentlemen!

Dear Supporter, very well writen and stated! I agree totally!

Students, your future is burdened with a personal Federal debt of $46,000; manufacturing in this country is disappearing faster than a leaf in a winter wind, the Constitution is being undermined and you are worried about a stupid cartoon.

Get a grip on reality, focus on what really matters. Your BA will get you a good job at Mickey D’s who just hired 40-50 or so thousand people if we do not stop the loss of manufacturing jobs. We need to build refineries and drill for gas and oil to provide the jobs for engineering & geology students; the blue collar jobs that need MBA grads to management them.

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OUTRAGEOUS!! Monkeys are caring intelligent creatures, and should demand an inmediate appology for depicting them with a lower life form.

I didn’t think it was racist either. But then I never saw The Lion King. Now I know the connection with the correspondents dinner it still seems like a bad idea. Even someone from the Netherlands should know better. Does De Reijer commonly paint swastikas on his cartoon Jews? Notice I said ‘a bad idea’ & not ‘racist’. But until words like ‘ignorant,’ ‘insenstive,’ ‘depraved’ once more refer to concepts that Americans find humiliating, then I’m afraid racist will have to do. And just for you guys hollering to ‘get over it’: Hey, we already knew you were white, no need to crow about it….

And these are the same people that voted for Obama only due to his skin color? That’s as racist as it gets unless you went to a church that taught Black Liberation Theology!

“Those who cry the most about racism, are usually the biggest racists since they want to do to others as they think others are doing to them even if they are not!” Martin Luther King

These groups and their members will then take a racist revenge against the Lobo editor and anyone who dares question them making them the real racists in this case!

I saw the cartoon and it never occured to me that anyone would be offended but here they are! Can’t they take a joke? They haven’t been to a Chris Rock comedy act where the n-word is every other word? Every black comedian I’ve ever heard uses it freely and so where are these groups denouncing the use of a word they want to ban from the English language? Whoopi freely said the word and it was Hasselbeck who was crying having to hear it so many times! Where’s the outrage from blacks? I recall an article from this year that a group here at UNM was trying to ban the word and yet the only ones saying it are blacks! This was a cartoon that had nothing to do with race equating monkeys to Obama! When the group ever stands up to the use of the n-word by blacks themselves, I will join them!

I highly, HIGHLY recommend everyone read “Losing the Race” by John H. McWhorter. It is highly informative and will give you a far better understanding of the racial divide.

ps- the image didn’t offend me.

You sadden me for tucking tail and apologizing for something that wasnt racist… unless you do your best to read something into it… nut up and stand your ground

@delijdewolfe – what tickles me is white people thinking they have any say about the African-American experience … except maybe ‘sorry, dude!’

We have a generation of young people who actually believe they have a right to not be offended. This is a perfect example of what happens when students view everything through the lens of what they perceive to be their victimization. We are all perfectly balkanized now. And then to have others bow to the alter of cultural sensitivity training in response is sickening. A university is supposed to make you uncomfortable. It is not supposed to be a sanitized bubble where nobody is offended and unicorns and glitter rule the day as opposed to a provocative challenge to whatever it is you believe. Every time something like this happens, it highlights the complete and utter failure of the postmodern university.

And to docsavage, your comment reflects perfectly the fallacy of the ad hominem attack. If fosters this result: “No one can be given credit for speaking from genuine moral or political conviction anymore; everyone can be dismissed or derided with a nod to their personal background. This may be the logical end of identity politics, where ultimately we’re each locked inside whatever little box we check, tiny caucuses of one, and common ground is impossible”.
(Adam Serwer). I can only hope that the era of identity politics that has been cultivated by the university for decades and that so many of you subscribe to will come to end soon.

THE CRY OF RACISM regarding the Obama cartoon It is totally ridiculous! Obama himself showed an excerpt from the movie the Lion King during a recent press conference. It is a sad but true fact that many will use the cry of racism when they seek to get attention. In my HUMBLE opinion the true racism lies in opening a column specifically for black students to write about their unique struggles. Will there also be a column for white students to cry aloud about their unique struggles? Oh of course not! And in THAT lies the true seed of racism. Now censorship is alive and well in the Daily Lobo and I for one may have to stop reading it. I agree with the daily lobo supporter who wrote, “believe these people don’t want to be treated equally… They want to be treated better than equally and special treatment is not something I support. White people are sorry for the past and our younger generations no longer see black as inferior or even different. What these people don’t realize is their actions are not encouraging change. They are encouraging white people to view black people as black. In essence they encouraging exactly what they do not want! “ Well said. I realize your appology may be an attempt to try and stop riots and racial crys of prejudice but in the long run these protesters are not truly seeking equal treatment but are seeking SPECIAL treatment alotted to no other racial or reigious group in our community. God bless them and God bless freedom of the press. It is a sad state of affairs when our local college paper can not be a free press.