KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – In a whole new spin on the corporate standby apology to “anybody we may have offended,” Frank Magazine apologizes to its readers for a racist cartoon it published “because racists may have liked it.”
The cartoon shows poet and activist El Jones with a jutting chin and sloped forehead, reminiscent of racist cartoons beloved by white supremacists that show Barack Obama as a gorilla, or Nazi Germany’s Der Stürmer cartoons that showed Jewish people with big noses and bags of money.
“We’d hate to think we’re going to attract the wrong elements by them believing we are racist,” managing editor Andrew Douglas tells Michael Tutton of the Canadian Press.
That’s not an apology, that’s just a bunch of weasel words inspired by the realization that if enough people complain it may cost Frank Magazine its cherished spot at Sobeys, Lawtons and Superstore checkouts.
Frank now says it will modify the cartoon. It has a long history of similarly hateful posts that can’t be modified though.
A petition written by Erin Wunker calls for the immediate removal of the magazine from stores and responds to Frank’s argument that it is merely engaging in satire.
“We know what satire means. It is an effort to critique ideas or public figures on substantive grounds, not banal racist depictions,” the petition states.
You can find the petition here.
If you can, please support the Nova Scotia Advocate so that it can continue to cover issues such as poverty, racism, exclusion, workers’ rights and the environment in Nova Scotia. A pay wall is not an option, since it would exclude many readers who don’t have any disposable income at all. We rely entirely on one-time donations and a tiny but mighty group of dedicated monthly sustainers.
