The men depicted in the cartoon were identified as Ethiopians, not African-Americans. People should have a higher threshold when it comes to what they become offended by.

“African” isn’t so specific in America. Owing largely to the fact that most people of African descent have been forcibly stripped of their tribal and “national” (inasmuch as the African nations are “real” and not largely European colonial constructs) identities, most blacks outside of Africa tend to adopt the entire continent as a very general sense of where we came from.

That, and the fact that “Africa” is generally dismissed in the West and has been for hundreds and hundreds of years as an amorphous/homogeneous/monolithic entity, further dehumanizing all African peoples by creating this all-purpose black hole (no pun intended, of course).

Or simply: since Western culture does not care about Africa, Africa has become a catch-all idea to most Westerners.

It’s like assuming the people depicted in the cartoon are left-handed and as a left-handed-American, I am offended greatly by any cartoon that depicts left-handed people engaging in an activity that robs them of their dignity.

Interesting. His cartoon was not received the way he intended. Now that everyone knows what he intended, they still demanded that Woolard be fired. Thus, they have “opened a dialogue” with the newspaper by bullying it. This shows great immaturity on Maurice Apprey’s part. On another note, what role does a dean of African-American Affairs play on the campus? Is this the same as a dean of African-American Studies?

It’s sad that someone can be fired over something as stupid as this. The fact that someone would actually pretend to be offended over this cartoon is embarrassing. I guess the only safe cartoon is one that shows an over weight cat that likes to eat lasagna. Cartoon anything else and you risk offending someone and getting fired.

What gets me the most about this is the message it sends. I guess its okay to offend Christians, but not Ethiopians. It should either be acceptable to offend everyone or no one at all.

In the link, scroll down until you see an Ethiopian food fight.

It does what editorial cartoons should, bring attention to a situation through humor. What is the problem here, pointing out that starving people are starving? Whats the problem?

Granted you can’t tell someone else what to not be offended by, but I don’t see the brouhaha here.

The parabola should cross the x-axis at approximately 1.732 and -1.732 (the square roots of 3), not 3 and -3.

That said, I still have no idea what the point of the cartoon is supposed to be.