Many Daily Tar Heel readers were upset with a Jan. 29 editorial cartoon that depicted an African American in overalls and straw hat, on his knees, toting buckets of water. Harmless rendition of a farmer or a harmful depiction of an African American in servile, sharecropping circumstances?
I viewed the cartoon as unintentionally implying the latter and agreed it should not have run as drawn. The "leading a horse to water versus making it drink" maxim could have been used to convey the difficulties Student Body President Justin Young faced in marshalling student support against tuition increases without invoking this painful imagery.
After the cartoon's publication, DTH representatives, interested students and faculty members, a student activities adviser and leaders from student government, the Black Student Movement and the Chancellor's Committee for the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration gathered on a Friday afternoon to discuss perceived bias in the DTH's coverage.
As expressed at the Feb. 1 meeting, the student leaders who requested the gathering viewed the DTH as ignoring events of special interest to or involving the University's African-American community, such as activities honoring Martin Luther King Jr., a sold-out Homecoming step show at Memorial Hall and a Sept. 11 relief effort organized by the 2001 Homecoming queen. Inappropriate selectivity was also perceived in publication of letters to the editor and use of photos of African-American criminal suspects. Many of the meeting's participants saw the cartoon as just another example of the DTH's irresponsible portrayal of, if not hostility toward, African Americans.
Editor Katie Hunter told the group that the paper strives to be even-handed in its selection of stories and news coverage and that the perception of the DTH put forth at the meeting was not the editors' view of or goal for the paper. Although she reviewed the cartoon before it ran, Hunter said she was not aware of the stereotype depicted in the drawing, nor was the cartoonist.
Chuck Stone, Walter Spearman professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said last week that the Feb. 1 meeting was not the first expression of concern about racial insensitivity at the DTH during his 11-year UNC career. Stone, who attended the meeting, said such complaints also arose during the tenure of African-American editors at the paper.
Female leadership at the DTH has not prevented charges of gender bias from being directed against the paper during the last several weeks. In addition to viewing the DTH's election news coverage as pro-Will McKinney, readers criticized a Feb. 13 article, saying it incorrectly and stereotypically portrayed Jen Daum as "immediately beginning to cry" when the first election results were announced while her opponent McKinney "listened intently, showing little emotion." Hunter and University Desk Editor Lizzie Breyer said the DTH article accurately reflected what the reporters observed. Other readers questioned the intent of the "beauty queen" caricature of the student body president-elect contained in the Feb. 20 editorial cartoon.
The DTH editors are committed to offering readers opportunities to express concerns about news coverage and offer suggestions. The paper sponsors an Association of Student Leaders program that provides campus groups with an opportunity to notify DTH editors of upcoming events. The paper is actively seeking volunteers for its Community Feedback Board and the committee that will choose the paper's next editor. The success of these items depends on vigorous and diverse student participation.
The editors also are planning to incorporate sensitivity training into the paper's ongoing orientation and considering a program allowing reader participation in the daily meeting used to discuss the selection and placement of stories. Each Friday, letters to the editor unpublished for space reasons will be placed online. Participants at the Feb. 1 meeting suggested several of these items.
