Letter to the editor: published memes

Translate

Dear Editor,

As I sat down Sunday to read the latest issue of The Lumberjack, I was dismayed at the end of the paper. The meme on page 11 of the Wednesday March 22 print was demoralizing. It serves as an excellent example of reinforcing negative racial stereotypes. A meme image was printed with a stereotyping context giving a drug dealer type feel with a caption of broken grammar. It read, “Yall got any more of that Spring Break?” as an attempt at humor. It’s bad enough that this made it to print at all. It’s worse that it appears right next to an article titled Act Like a Man: Reinforcing Negative Gender Roles by Dominique Crawford directly on the previous page!

I hope I was not the only person to spot this obvious disgrace. The meme promotes the same type of demeaning stereotype thinking that is discussed in Crawford’s article, the only differences being that it involves race rather than gender roles and it uses a light hearted meme setting rather than common verbal expressions. I feel disgusted as this paper is a representation of Humboldt State University, the school I attend and have a strong connection to, and the editors allowed this to be printed. This simply promotes racial labelling that goes back through this country’s long history, a complex history inarguably tainted throughout with many past and present examples of discrimination and propagation of racial hierarchical structures.

Please work more diligently in the future to prevent such content from getting to print. I write this not seeking to patronize, condescend, or humiliate those involved. I hope this letter may open people to a new perspective on the fine line that, unfortunately but so often, exists between humor and offensiveness.

Sincerely,

Ian Osipowitsch

HSU Junior

Share This Post

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on email
Share on reddit

More Stories

John Craigie merges folk with humor at the Van Duzer Theatre

by Brad Butterfield John Craigie blended comedic anecdotes with folk music, creating a one-of-a-kind show on March 1 at the Van Duzer Theatre. Describing himself as ‘the love child of John Prine and Mitch Hedberg with a vagabond troubadour edge,’

Women’s volleyball club is being formed at Cal Poly Humboldt

by Jake Knoeller and Dezmond Remington For the first time, a women’s club volleyball team is being formed at Cal Poly Humboldt. The idea was brought up when a large number of women were consistently attending the men’s practices, including

Authors’ Celebration brings writers together

by Dezmond Remington Writers are famously loners, depicted in media as squirreled away in some dark cabin deep in the woods or confined to a cockroach-infested apartment. At the bare minimum, they’re often regarded as imprisoned in their own minds,

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply