"I think the whole thing is racist. I don't even understand why they would print this...", says a Slippery Rock University student after reading the comics.
A cartoon has caused quite a controversy on the campus of Slippery Rock University. "The K Chronicles" comic strip ran in Friday's edition of the school's student-run newspaper, "The Rocket".
There's a drawing of a black man hanging from a noose saying, "You're doing this because I'm black, aren't you?" while white characters accuse him of playing the race card.
"It certainly ripped at the hearts and souls of many many people on this campus, not just members of our minority groups," says Rita Abent, Executive Director of Public Relations at Slippery Rock University.
The cartoon even led some students to show up to the Union with nooses around their own necks. Terrell Foster, an SRU student from Harrisburg says, "They put this in the paper thinking it would be funny. How funny is it when it's real? When you see someone walking around with a noose on their neck, it's not as funny no more."
The editor and academic advisor of "The Rocket" have no comment on the situation, telling us only that the cartoon is a nationally syndicated comic, something they've put in their pages for the past three years.
But that, and the fact that the cartoon's author, Keith Knight, is an African-American man apparently making a political satire comment on the state of race relations in America, does little to comfort students who say they've been hurt by recurring racism at Slippery Rock.
"We don't care if it was a black, white, orange, purple, pink person who wrote this article. They should not have been allowed to print it and publish it throughout the school. It's just wrong," says Audrey Foreback, a SRU sophomore from Warren.
Members of the campus NAACP chapter and Black Action Society have scheduled a meeting Monday night with "The Rocket" staff and a peaceful march and protest through campus Thursday afternoon.
