by Sara Russo

Syracuse University's daily student newspaper, the Daily Orange, banned two of its cartoonists from drawing for the paper for one year after one of their cartoons was denounced as racist. The cartoon featured a man with a black face crawling through a broken window into the home of a character with a white face. Some on campus interpreted the black-faced character as a black man, though the cartoonists have insisted that it is merely a person wearing a black ski mask.

"There was never any thought in our minds that it could be anything other than a ski mask," said Devin Tanchum, who along with fellow cartoonist, Matthew Cohen, created the cartoon. "If anything, it's a stereotype of criminals."

"The man was supposed to be wearing a ski mask, and we had no intention of him being interpreted as a black man," Cohen confirmed in a statement to Campus Report. "However, we can see how it could be misconstrued as such, given that the cartoon was very poorly drawn. Devin and I are in no way racists and are sorry to everyone involved in the controversy for accidentally causing it."

The cartoon generated heated discussion on campus and self-effacing recriminations from the editors of the Daily Orange who insisted that they had not seen the cartoon prior to its publication.

"It happened because we violated our own policies. We don't deserve any slack," stated Tito Bottitta, editor-in-chief of the Daily Orange. "We need to stop that mentality in this house and on campus. Racism is wrong and we do not endorse it."

"I think that [the cartoonists] were really sorry that it was interpreted that way, they really did mean it to be a ski mask," Bottitta told Campus Report. "Unfortunately, it's sort of a crudely drawn comic, so it's sort of easy to interpret it that way. And I think more people were upset not because it looked like a black person, but because it could be construed as a Sambo image, which is more offensive."

Even before the controversial cartoon ran, Bottitta and the paper's managing editor Ashleigh Graf had been planning a racial sensitivity training program for the staff. The program, when it is held, will be made mandatory for all Daily Orange staff members. The editors had also implemented a policy of requiring all comic strips to be approved by them before being placed in the paper. But because Cohen and Tanchum's cartoon was a last minute replacement for another sketch that had been deemed offensive, neither top editor saw it before the paper went to press.

Daily Orange art director Jeff Passetti approved the cartoon to be placed in the paper, but now regrets that decision. "First time I looked at it, I didn't see anything," he said. "As I look at it [now] you can interpret [the robber] as a black guy."

Since the cartoon's printing, the Daily Orange has printed an apology for running the cartoon, and has required all its comic artists to attend a meeting and sign a contract stating that they will not draw racist or sexist material.

The paper has also attempted to educate its staff via public displays. "One of the things we did was we put up a board, like a cork-board, in one of our main hallways that shows a lot of the bad history that we have and a lot of the propaganda and stuff that the Student African American Association has handed out," Bottitta told Campus Report.

Campus demonstrators distributed flyers lambasting "The Daily Oppressor," a nickname given the Daily Orange after it printed a separate cartoon in April of 1999 depicting the then Student Association president in an exaggerated, and some charged, stereotypical fashion.

A forum entitled, "It's Time to Take a Stand Against the Racism and Sexism in the Daily Orange" was held at which students were shown clips from movies and comics with racial caricatures and were asked to witness the similarities between such films and the Daily Orange cartoon. "The publication of this comic was painful and offensive to me and the entire campus," said Thea Montanez, one of the organizers of the forum and the president of Fashion's Conscience, a student organization that advocates for diversity in the fashion industry.

Not content with the apologies issued by the paper's editors, several members of the Syracuse University Student Association have sponsored a resolution asking that University chancellor Kenneth Shaw ban the distribution of the Daily Orange on campus.

"I am troubled by the tone being set by certain sections of the Daily Orange," Shaw responded to the students at a meeting of the University senate. "I believe that it is time that we, as a university, begin to think about the implications of what can be perceived as occasionally sexist and/or racist cartoons."

Bottitta denied that free speech was at issue in the current controversy. "We can print whatever we want, but we think there's a certain responsibility," he told Campus Report.

"It's not a free speech issue, I think. It's a matter of civic responsibility."

Following the revision of policy by the Daily Orange, and numerous apologies, members of the student association have apparently backed down on their plan to ban the paper's distribution on campus. "I've heard that there's a committee right now that's reviewing the proposal and they're recommending not to ban the D.O., and basically taking us out of the whole thing, because the title of the resolution is basically 'End Racism' and 'End Racism by banning the D.O.,'" Bottitta told Campus Report. "I think obviously that's pretty ridiculous," he added. "You're not going to end racism by banning the student newspaper. You need to do it through education of the students."