Eastern Michigan University forum addresses controversial Ku Klux Klan editorial cartoon

The intention of the “You Are Here” cartoon was to illustrate the hypocrisy of people who can show affection for one person but hate others enough to lynch them, the Echo editorial board explained in a statement. 

Black students and many others took offense.

A panel of four faculty and staff members spoke for five minutes each to an audience of several hundred at the forum, which was followed by student comments. Afterward, several black students said they thought the forum was a step in the right direction, but fell short of healing wounds.

Porsche Griffin, an EMU junior, said she was still irritated and felt the meeting didn’t go far enough in its discussion. The cartoonist, Jason Promo, should have been on the panel, she said.

Moments later, Griffin got to confront Promo. At the urging of Ron Woods, a professor in the African-American Studies Department, Promo and a group of Echo staff met with roughly 30 black students who had not yet left.

Panelists (left to right) Kevin Devine, Ron Woods, Mary Ann Watson and Martin Shichtman.

Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com

Although the two-hour impromptu meeting got heated at points, Kevin Devine, director of student media and the staff member most closely involved with the Echo, said he sensed students were beginning to move forward.

Devine said a student asked Promo what he had learned, to which Promo replied he had a lot to mull over. But Woods stopped that student and asked them all to consider what they learned from the discussion.

“(Dr. Woods) had a way of drawing a nice conclusion to the whole program,” Devine said. “The students left saying this has got to continue with more dialogue, more chances to educate and let’s build some bridges.”

Still, emotions ran high during the impromptu session. EMU student Blake Odum echoed the sentiments of many when he asked how Promo thought black students would take a cartoon with a noose.

“That’s the tree where we met? That’s the tree where they should have kicked your ass,” Odum said, further demanding to know how Promo could have found humor in a Ku Klux Klan hanging.

Promo told the students the purpose of the cartoon was to point out hypocrisy, not to make people laugh.

“There is nothing to find funny in it,” he said.

The cartoon ran on Sept. 28 and has since caught the attention of media around the region. In a statement, the Echo acknowledged it may have offended some readers.

“We apologize for the lack of sensitivity some felt we showed for publishing the cartoonist's work,” the statement read. “The cartoon points out the hypocrisy of hate-filled people. Its intent was to ask how can someone show affection for one person while at the same time hating someone else enough to commit such a heinous act as hanging.”

EMU Student Ivory Harris speaks at the forum.

Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com

The university also released a statement saying it does not “exercise any editorial control over the content of the newspaper." More recently, EMU President Susan Martin released a statement saying she was taking the opportunity to expand the campus discussion on race and social issues.

“While I fully support a free and independent press, appropriate care and concern about hate imagery and its impact must be a consideration in the editorial process,” she wrote. “I personally find the imagery (in the Sept. 28 Eastern Echo KKK comic) disturbing and distasteful, and do not believe it advances the cause of positive understanding of the wonderfully rich and diverse community in which we live.”

Devine, who was one of the four panelists, said during his comments at the forum’s outset that the Echo’s editorial staff meets to discuss what content to run. He said there had been internal debate over the cartoon. 

Devine has no control over the content but said the editorial process at the paper is under review.

Panelist Mary Ann Watson, a professor of communications, told students editorial cartoons are not meant to be funny like regular comics. She called it a “painfully naïve attempt” at a political cartoon, but said it was “an attempt to bruise the ego of bigots” and not race-baiting, as many understood it.

Watson explained editorial cartoons usually have some relevance to an issue in the news, and the KKK cartoon had none. For that reason, it wouldn’t have run if she was the editor-in-chief, she said.

“This is out simply because it’s not good — there’s no context,” Watson said. “There was no news peg to hang it on.”

Panelist Martin Shichtman, a professor of Jewish Studies, showed images of swastikas and a confederate flag with a noose in front of it while explaining the power of symbols. He said he was prepared to show images of lynchings, but decided against it.

Dr. Ron Woods holds up a book full of images of lynchings at the forum.

Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com

EMU graduate student Yolanda Brown-Spidell told Shichtman he should have showed the images so people know what happened and could understand what a noose represents.

“I would have preferred they have the vision,” she said. After the meeting, she called the forum a “whitewash” and said a “huge teaching moment” had been missed.

Woods said the use of a noose as “light fare” came out of “sheer ignorance.”

“We need to figure out how to lift the veil of ignorance and when issues like this come to the table so we understand them fully within their historical context,” Woods said.

Others echoed those sentiments, and several black students who stayed after the meeting said their race’s history isn't thoroughly taught in schools, which leads to incidents like this one.

“This is a product of not being educated,” EMU senior Orlando Bailey said. “Our job is to begin a process of healing and education. Let’s teach (Promo), let’s educate him.”

Tom Perkins is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.