Normally, the comics aren’t an epicentre of controversy. Most days, they’re a leafy oasis of humour.
That’s the plan, anyway. But things can go wrong on the comics page, as happens anywhere else in a daily paper made by humans.
Consider Pardon My Planet, a popular U.S. comic strip by Vic Lee that runs in 130 papers, including the Star.
According to its Web site, the comic is “a visual record of the nincompoopities of the human spirit.” Lee “peeks under the veil of the taboo and paints a smiley face on the shroud.”
(Who writes this stuff?)
Anyway, the June 9 panel (see below) was a colour drawing of a school admissions officer (race: white), showing two parents (black) an orange jumpsuit similar to those worn by high-security U.S. prisoners.
He tells the couple that some folks believe school uniforms curtail individuality, “but we think it helps kids prepare for the future.”
“This is outright, blatant racism,” observed Star reader Alyson Barnett-Cowan. “It doesn’t belong in your paper especially when you are, rightly, reporting on racial profiling in our community.”
The comic made me wince. On the surface, it seemed two black parents were being told their child was destined for a life behind bars.
Ted Cowan, syndicate sales rep for Torstar Syndication Services, asked cartoonist Lee for an explanation, which he quickly supplied.
“The panel was about crime in the schools and a school system that is breeding criminals. Not about black kids growing up and going to prison,” the cartoonist said.
“The panel didn’t call for a black or white couple it called for a couple with a school-age child. It just so happens that my only recurring characters with a school-age child (Nico) are Dennis and Chloe, who happen to be black.
Lee said the race angle “never dawned on me. I’ve become so involved with the characters, personalities and relationships that I no longer see skin colour.
“The situation was one of complete racial blinders (something I’m sure we all strive for in modern society) and definitely not one of blatant racism. That’s never been my style.”
To me, there is no doubting Lee’s sincerity or motives. Indeed, reader Barnett-Cowan was impressed by an “obviously genuine” explanation.
Two points are in order.
First, cartoonists need to be wary of unintended racial signals in their work. Second, a U.S. cartoon about a school system breeding criminals (in orange jumpsuits, yet) has little resonance in Toronto.
