An Indiana newspaper was forced this weekend to pull a political cartoon from its website and issue an apology following claims that it depicted insensitive and racially-charged themes.
The Indianapolis Star website featured a cartoon that showed a family of immigrants climbing through a window and into the home of U.S. citizens for Thanksgiving dinner.
“Thanks to the president’s immigration order, we’ll be having extra guests this Thanksgiving,” one of the characters in the cartoon said, a clear reference to President Obama’s recent executive action on immigration.
Here’s the cartoon (with before and after alterations):
The Star then edited out the mustache of the man climbing through the window, an apparent attempt to placate people upset by the images depicted in the cartoon. This didn’t last too long and the Star eventually pulled the cartoon altogether.
Later, after online users complained loudly about the cartoon, the Indianapolis Star posted a statement Saturday to its website.
“We are removing the cartoon from the opinion section of our website, as well as an earlier version posted on Facebook that showed one character with a mustache,” a statement by Jeff Taylor, executive editor of the Star, read.
“This action is not a comment on the issue of illegal immigration or a statement about [cartoonist Gary Varvel] right to express his opinions strongly. We encourage and support diverse opinion. But the depictions in this case were inappropriate; his point could have been expressed in other ways,” the statement added.
Online news sites, including the Huffington Post and Vox, characterized the cartoon as “racist” and “tone-deaf,” respectively.
