{"id":3639,"date":"2007-09-15T10:10:39","date_gmt":"2007-09-15T17:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/09\/15\/central-connecticut-state-university-student-paper-prints-cartoon-about-urinating-and-holding-captive-a-14-year-old-latina\/"},"modified":"2007-09-15T10:10:39","modified_gmt":"2007-09-15T17:30:27","slug":"central-connecticut-state-university-student-paper-prints-cartoon-about-urinating-and-holding-captive-a-14-year-old-latina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3639","title":{"rendered":"Central Connecticut State University Student Paper Prints Cartoon About Urinating and Holding Captive a 14 Year Old Latina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update: Some students at CCSU have started their own blog–Take Back the Recorder<\/a>— in opposition to the paper’s editorial staff. Go show them your support. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Last February we heard the story of a college newspaper in Connecticut that printed an article saying “rape is a magical experience” and “rape only hurts if you fight back.”<\/a> The author claims he was trying to satirize rape, which he clearly did not achieve. ((If you want to see real rape satire, go here to Marcella’s site<\/a>.)) Well it looks like this bunch is at it again and more emboldened than ever since they managed to survive their last go round. This time, among other offensive diatribes, the Central Connecticut State University newspaper has published a cartoon about urinating on a 14 year old Latina, who is locked in a closet. ((The writers and editors clearly haven’t learned their lesson. While scrolling through the electronic copy of the paper I found an article written by Justin Kloczko. The primary purpose of the article is to taunt a local reporter who is leaving the New Britain Herald<\/em> to write for the Hartford Business Journal.<\/em> The taunts and insults are directed at this reporter because he was one of the people who brought the February rape article to light. The article appears next to a picture that says “Crotch Shots, Nipple Slips, Cellulite Legs! The Recorder is not looking for the above, but is looking for dedicated photographers to cover local and campus events. Contact us at ccsurecorder@gmail.com and make us forget that Britney picture.” ))<\/p>\n

I found out about this debacle from a comment left in the thread on the West Virginia rape and torture case over at Feministing.<\/a> A commenter named prof\/activist provided a link to the PDF copy of the paper<\/a>. The offending cartoon can be found in its original context if you scroll to page 16, the final page of the PDF file. The cartoon consists of two figures one triangular and the other square. The triangle says that his urine smells like honey after he eats certain cereals, and the square asks if it tastes like urine. Then the triangle says, he doesn’t know he’ll have to ask the Latina girl tied up in the closet. Then, it jumps to the final frame where the square says, “Tell Juanita I said Hola.” The cartoon also has a sentence printed under it that says, “The Recorder Does Not Support the Kidnapping of (and Subsequent Urinating on) Children of Any Age.” I was going to repost the cartoon here, but it’s not worth the bandwidth. You can open the PDF file above to read it.<\/p>\n

Students and faculty members, disgusted by the paper’s racist and sexist reputation, protested the cartoon on Friday. The story was covered in the local paper<\/a> and it received national attention. Here’s a quote from the AP article in the New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The university\u2019s president vowed on Friday to cut off advertising in the paper, and its critics have planned a protest on Monday on campus to push for reforms, including the ouster of the paper\u2019s editor, Mark Rowan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe the climate here at Central is one that fosters this kind of behavior,\u201d said Francisco Donis, a psychology professor and president of the university\u2019s Latin American Association, \u201cso we want more systematic changes to create a welcoming environment for everyone to feel safe and secure.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 5 percent of the 9,600 undergraduates are Hispanic, according to university figures. The campus is in New Britain, a racially diverse city of 71,000 about 12 miles southwest of Hartford.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rowan, 21, was the editor in February, when the newspaper was criticized for publishing a satirical opinion piece titled \u201cRape Only Hurts if You Fight It.\u201d The satire called sexual assault a \u201cmagical experience\u201d that benefits \u201cugly women.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author of the article lost his position at the paper and apologized, but Mr. Rowan was allowed to retain his post.<\/p>\n

The university created a task force that recommended providing more training for its student journalists, buying libel insurance and creating a student-run alternative paper or Web site.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rowan, who is set to graduate in December, said lingering anger over that controversy was adding to outrage over the cartoon. He said he did not know if he would be asked to resign.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rowan and his cronies have caused enough trouble for the University, ushering the school into the national spotlight on two separate occasions. It seems clear that Rowan lacks the ability to judge the quality and appropriateness of the paper’s content. Both pieces in question were not only offensive, but they also were of poor quality. Petroski’s rape article didn’t succeed at being satire, and this cartoon didn’t succeed at being funny. In fact, only a person like Ted Bundy would find either of these articles amusing, which makes me wonder if there are some sociopaths running this paper.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rowan has shown poor judgment, and has allowed the student newspaper become a bottom feeder with little journalistic integrity. Right now Mr. Rowan holds two journalism related positions. He’s an editor of the CCSU student paper, and he has an internship with the Hartford Advocate, but at the rate he’s going he may never have another position in journalism. How is he going to explain these gaffes to potential employers? Who would want to hire someone, who routinely brings negative attention to their publication? He hasn’t learned his lesson, and that’s going to come back to haunt him in the future. A good editor thinks about getting the story, and getting quality material, not just pushing his political agenda and publishing anything that comes across the desk.<\/p>\n

I know the retorts that the student editors will have–We have free speech. We didn’t mean to offend. Lighten up, it’s just a cartoon. You’re being too sensitive. I hear these arguments every time someone engages in offensive behavior like this. Rather than taking responsibility, they try to deflect the criticism by condemning the condemners. At this point, it’s pretty clear, that the University needs to step in and revamp the paper. If the student editors are unwilling to do this themselves, it is incumbent upon the University administration and the majority of students to oust the paper’s editors. This surely doesn’t represent the school, its administrators, and the vast majority of its students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: Some students at CCSU have started their own blog–Take Back the Recorder— in opposition to the paper’s editorial staff. Go show them your support. Last February we heard the story of a college newspaper in Connecticut that printed an … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,17,31,91,93,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-feminists-and-their-pals","category-cartooning-comics","category-feminism-sexism-etc","category-free-speech-censorship-copyright-law-etc","category-race-racism-and-related-issues","category-rape-intimate-violence-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}