Statement on Alligator
Cartoon
September 22, 2005
The University of Florida’s Center for the Study
of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR) is committed to de-stigmatizing
race. To this end, one of our primary goals is to foster
communities of dialogue. Safe spaces have to be created
to engender cross-racial dialogue on heated, racially-charged
issues. Only then can honest, thoughtful, intelligent, and
respectful discussion take place.
Last week, the Independent Florida Alligator, published
an editorial cartoon by Andy Marlette, a UF student. It
depicts rapper Kanye West, holding up a “race card”
to Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. She responds, “Nigga
Please!” Many members of the UF community—students,
staff, and faculty—as well as members of the Gainesville
community, believe the cartoon is offensive and racially
derogatory.
The cartoon raises many troublesome issues. The cartoon
suggests that raising issues of race (in this case the government’s
response to the hurricane Katrina disaster) is nonsensical,
irrational, and somehow self-serving on the part of African
Americans. In the cartoon, “the race card” is
depicted as an African American joker. The cartoon sends
the message that race is not a legitimate subject for debate,
rather one to be ridiculed.
Most of the outcry against the cartoon has centered on
its use of the “N word.”
The “N word” has a sad history in the United
States, particularly in the South. In the not-so-distant
past this epithet was widely and regularly used by Whites
to refer to African Americans. This slur was buttressed
by a system of segregation that relegated African Americans
to second-class status. The use of the term was regularly
accompanied by violence – both physical and psychological.
Today the resulting wounds are part of the African American
collective conscious. The fact that some African Americans
publicly embrace the “N word” does not negate
this history. Large numbers of African Americans still consider
the “N word” a racist, derogatory term of hate,
regardless of the speaker’s intent, especially when
uttered by a White person. The use of the “N word”
by Whites to refer to Blacks is never trivial and never
appropriate.
The cartoon’s “humor” is on the backs
of African Americans. Marlette, the Alligator’s Art
Director, and others state that they had no intention of
offending anyone. However, many were offended. In response
to claims that the cartoon was racially insensitive, hurtful
and degrading, the Alligator has responded by denying that
any harm has occurred. In fact, a few days following the
publication of the first cartoon, it ran the same cartoon
again. This one uses “politically correct” language
to negate the criticism of the first cartoon. Adding insult
to injury, the cartoonist has dismissed all criticism, opining
that “[T]here are a lot more rational and reasonable
people who like the cartoon and understand that it’s
not racist.” He goes on to state, “I can picture
a Black woman saying that to a Black man.”
The University of Florida has a long history of racial
discrimination. It has only been since the 1950s that African
Americans were legally permitted to attend this flagship
campus. Today, African American students account for 7.2
percent of all students. Cartoons such as Marlette’s—and
the Alligator has a track record of publishing racially-charged
ones—serve to alienate and stigmatize Black students
and impede racial dialogue.
The Race Center respects and acknowledges the First Amendment
right of free speech. It does an injustice to the notion
of free speech, however, when the parties involved do not
have an equal voice. UF students have no viable alternative
to the Alligator for campus news. It is the de facto campus
newspaper. This results in giving the Alligator the only
and consequently the loudest voice.
