Political Cartoon Prompts Racist Accusations against Student Paper

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• Perhaps it is a racist word, even when black people use it. Obviously it's not as offensive, but what is racist? A broad definition might say that any term which brings attention to race without specific logical cause. For example, "asshole" isn't racist (although offensive) as it applies to everyone. But nigga is, as it only applies to blacks.

  It is a great misnomer that minorities can't be racist. The fact that they are minorities doesn't make some angelic, they're still people - just as everyone else is. I'm not sure I'm getting the nationality right, but I remember being stunned in high school when I heard a japanese girls parents were very, very, very upset their daughter was dating a korean guy. It seemed so weird! But I was told those two races dating was considered taboo back in the country their parents came from.

  Anyways, perhaps anything that infers race without sound logical reason (africans are almost all black isn't racist, it's purely factual) is racist?

  P.S. Glad to hear the paper is standing up for itself in front of all that grandstanding though. :-)

• There is a huge power issue here. Words hurt. There is a long line of history behind that word. People have died over that word. However, I do not believe that a cartoon can be taken that seriously--that what a cartoon says represents an entire community. Tastefull, no. But the cartoon was taken way out of context.

  I don't think it does anyone justice to try to understand why black icons, such as Kanye West, use the language that they do. They experienced much injustice and it's not just to tell them how to deal with it. The power issue comes when we try to say what the word should mean to a certain group.

  Whites try to keep black communities from using the word and try to rationalize this other use of power by saying: "Well, women don't go around calling each other 'slut' and gays don't call each other 'fag'." But what they fail to realize is that these are three completely different groups with three completely different experiences.

  On the other side, we have some black constituencies using the word to say what whites can and can't say, even when they use the word to make a statement that is meant to be positive. Some communities pulled "Huckelberry Finn" from required readings because of the dialect. Although words hurt, Huckelberry Finn made a powerful statement about the wrongs of the time.

  What confuses the issue even more is that not all people use words for good messages. We must, as people sift through the process (what words are being used) to reach the content (what the words are being used for) and address the ultimate message.

• When I was at UF (1987-1991), the Alligator had a campus office and had tables at the campus orientations. But that was long ago, and they may have changed...

• Bobby, the student paper in question is an unofficial paper. Students from the university work on it, but it's independent. I don't know enough about that paper to know whether it's given office space and access to meeting rooms on campus, can recruit at tables during orientation.

  This is a discussion about power -- who does, and who doesn't -- have the power to define when a word is offensive and when it is not.

• I always love it when Dennis finds things involving cartoons because then I read them and get to provide feedback on it. Unfortunately, I believe I am the only comic scholar that comments here. After reading the cartoons and background articles, UF (like all universities) does not promote racism or harm toward other people but are called hypocritical when it ran the political cartoon in question. A stance like that is understandable, except when we consider how the n-word is being used, in context.

  I remember Dr. Elizabeth Preston explaining in Intro to Black Authors (during my freshman year) that among black communities, the n-word is not considered negative when spoken by black people in that community. However, if a Caucasian uses the term, it takes on a negative connotation. As a community, then, blacks took a cultural term back from Caucasians and empowered it.