A cartoon that ran in Friday’s (August 17) edition of The Florida Times-Union criticizing rap music and rappers caused controversy in the local community, prompting the newspaper’s editor to issue an apology.
The cartoon, which was drawn by longtime Times-Union cartoonist Ed Gamble, ran in the Metro section of the paper.
The graphic black & white drawing depicts a black man holding a smoking gun, wearing a backwards baseball cap and a “Stop Snitching” t-shirt, standing over a gunshot victim.
Two children, one, a female with short dreadlocks who is also wearing a “Stop Snitchin'” T-shirt says “I didn’t see nuttin’,” and the gunman responds “Now that’s a good little hoe.”
A caption at the bottom reads “the new rule of law!”
A billboard is featured in the background featuring a rapper brandishing a gun, with the words “rap your life away,” while underneath, BET and Warner Music are singled out.
“I think it’s very offensive,” local NAACP president Isaiah Rumlin said. “It stereotypes a certain segment of the community but certainly when you start using the words w#### and w#####… that will not be tolerated.”
“I was making a point that rappers are demeaning to women,” Gamble told The Florida Times-Union on Sunday (August 19).
“Using the word ‘ho’ was bad judgment, and I regret that I did not edit it out,” Mike Clark, editorial page editor wrote in the The Florida Times Union on Sunday. “The object of the cartoon was to comment on the rise of a no-snitching culture, something that is widely in the news today.”
To view the cartoon, click here: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/opgamble/archive/081707.shtml