We erred in publishing cartoon [View all]

[hoosierlib]

Source: Indianapolis Star

On Friday, we posted a Gary Varvel cartoon at indystar.com that offended a wide group of readers.

Many of them labeled it as racist. Gary did not intend to be racially insensitive in his attempt to express his strong views about President Barack Obama's decision to temporarily prevent the deportation of millions of immigrants living and working illegally in the United States.

But we erred in publishing it.

The cartoon depicted an immigrant family climbing through a window of a white family's home as Thanksgiving dinner was served. I was uncomfortable with the depiction when I saw it after it was posted. We initially decided to leave the cartoon posted to allow readers to comment and because material can never truly be eliminated once it is circulating on the web. But we are removing the cartoon from the opinion section of our website, as well as an earlier version posted on Facebook that showed one character with a mustache.

This action is not a comment on the issue of illegal immigration or a statement about Gary's right to express his opinions strongly. We encourage and support diverse opinion. But the depictions in this case were inappropriate; his point could have been expressed in other ways.



Read more: http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/2014/11/22/jeff-taylor-gary-varvel-thanksgiving-cartoon-immigration-opinion/19408509/

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To see the obviously racist cartoon, check out this link...http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2014/11/varvel-taken-to-woodshed-over-extra.html?m=1

Credit to advanceindiana for saving this for everyone to see.