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Pranks parading as debate

By ERIC DEGGANS
Published September 25, 2005

We may be missing a real teaching moment here.

In one week, we've seen college journalists in two communities earn national attention with heavy-handed commentary on race.

First, former St. Petersburg Times correspondent Jillian Bandes was fired from a columnist job Sept. 14 at the Daily Tar Heel newspaper at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill after writing a piece that said, "I want all Arabs to be stripped naked and cavity-searched" during airport screenings.

Next, the Independent Florida Alligator, the student-run newspaper at the University of Florida in Gainesville, published a cartoon Sept. 16 featuring Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice turning to rapper Kanye West and saying "N---a, please" as he hands her a huge playing card titled "the race card."

The Alligator's inspiration was clearly West's outburst during a telethon for Hurricane Katrina victims in which he said "George Bush doesn't care about black people." The inference seemed to be that West's work, in which he liberally uses the n-word, is as harmful to black people as Bush's slow response to help the largely black, largely poor population displaced by the disaster.

Predictably, the Alligator was drowned in protests. About 350 students gathered at a forum Thursday night to oppose the use of such a racially charged word by a white cartoonist working at a white-run newspaper.

But cartoonist Andy Marlette (nephew to Kudzu creator and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette) and his editors have refused to back down, decrying the double standard of criticizing them for using a word West employs with impunity.

"We're not trying to normalize the word. We used it once to make a point," said Alligator editor Mike Gimignani, noting he has already received two death threats since the controversy began. "Andy put these issues out there to make people deal with the issues of race."

Unfortunately, in a column last Monday, Alligator editors used the n-word another seven times while defending their decisions. They suggested critical school officials also condemn an upcoming appearance at the university by nice-guy entertainer Wayne Brady, calling him "a black comedian who uses n---- (deletion mine) repeatedly in his stand up." But Brady isn't a comedian; he's an actor and singer whose image is so wholesome, he parodied it in a sketch for comic Dave Chappelle's TV show in which he revealed his "true" gangsta side.

The inaccuracy suggests more than a careless mistake. Could it be possible that these student journalists don't fully understand the performers they are criticizing - or the cultural forces they are trying to challenge?

I told Gimignani I wish I had been their professional adviser when Marlette's cartoon surfaced. I would have told them that, like it or not, there is a double standard when it comes to black folks using the n-word versus white people and white institutions.

I would have told them it's the classic difference between the powerful and the powerless; the same reason women, gay people and family members can use words to describe each other that would start a serious fight coming from an outsider. I would have shown him a few newspapers from the turn of the century that used the n-word to demean and devalue black people a century before his birth.

Every time black people deal with a white institution, they must decide how much trust to extend. Every time they pick up a newspaper, they must decide: Does this publication respect me and my culture? Or is it another in a long line who just don't get it?

I would wager that displaying the word the way they did - despite printing the same cartoon with new dialogue replacing the n-word a few days later - cost the Alligator some serious credibility with black readers who must constantly evaluate how much they trust this institution.

And for what? To make a point about the impact of the n-word in rap music that has already been made many times before.

Gimignani said we'd have to agree to disagree, certain that the current controversy is mostly the result of political correctness gone wild. It's the same feeling I got during a conversation with Bandes, who defended writing her outrageously insulting column while admitting her one regret is that the three Arabs quoted in the story were personally offended by it.

I'm concerned that these young journalists, who are learning the craft in a conflict-oriented media culture, have confused cutting-edge controversy with meaning, and angry reaction with debate. Both have said they wanted to spark discussion with their work; but it's harder to have a constructive conversation on race if the dialogue starts with an insult.

As they advance in this industry, they will learn: Pushing buttons is easy. Having tough conversations in a way that respects everyone involved - now that's hard.

Eric Deggans can be reached at 727 893-8521 or deggans@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 23, 2005, 19:41:02]