First and foremost, The Leader would like to apologize to students of color and anyone else who was impacted by the harm caused by the recent article and its associated graphic that has been published in our latest issue on April 23.
We have removed the graphic and article from our website and digital pdf in an attempt to reduce further harm and exposure to those impacted.
The Leader understands the implications of the history surrounding the dehumanization of people of color in the media. Each of the staff members that examined the article before its publication was horrified to learn that the article and graphic fed into harmful racial stereotypes. As an organization, we are committed to including every voice on this campus, and the publication of the article and graphic harms the community in ways that are deeply upsetting and completely inexcusable.
The Leader would like to validate the concerns shared by the people of color on this campus. Although we never intended for the image and the article to be racist, intent does not equal impact, and it’s important to take responsibility for the harm that we have caused people of color on this campus. Despite the intent, irreversible harm was done, and intent does not matter in a case such as this where the impact is so grave.
We take full responsibility and accountability for the negative impact created by the article and graphic. It is not the duty of people of color to educate or provide concerns to The Leader regarding the actions that we have done to harm them, and we are disgusted to have put people of color in this situation.
In regards to all of the individuals that have been defending The Leader over social media platforms, please refrain from invalidating the feelings of people of color on this campus. The criticisms that we have received for the article and graphic are valid, and should not be discounted for the sake of defending the harmful actions that our team has participated in with the publication of the article and graphic.
We will also be apologizing to President Kolison privately, as we understand that this article and graphic undermined his dignity and dehumanized him in a way that was both racially insensitive and absolutely unacceptable.
The Leader is committed to instituting systems to ensure that actions like this that target and harm communities are never taken again. Firstly, we will be combing through every article, photo and graphic that we publish henceforth to ensure that there is not any aspect of it that can be harmful to any community within this campus and beyond. Secondly, we will be adding a diversity, equity and inclusion chair position within our executive board. As previously stated, it is never the responsibility of people of color to educate on the harms that may be caused by what The Leader publishes, but we want to acknowledge and act accordingly in response to several individuals that have asked for this position to be added.
The Leader cannot take back the harm that our actions have inflicted upon the community. All we can do is apologize and do better. We will do better.
The Scallion editors and Art Director have also included separate statements below:
The editors of The Scallion take full responsibility and accountability for the harm created by this piece. They are committed to learning from the feedback they have received from the community. The editors of The Scallion apologize for the massive oversights that occurred during every step in the process of creating this piece and understand that although the piece was not intended to cause harm, the intention behind the piece does not negate the impact that it has had to the students of color that were harmed by the piece.
The Art Director for the graphics department takes full responsibility for the graphic’s inception. They apologize for not flagging the graphic and thinking more in-depth about the harm that it could do. They apologize to the artist for putting them in a difficult situation. They apologize to everyone who was hurt by this graphic. And they apologize to President Kolison for creating an image that was racist and dehumanizing to him. There is no excuse for this situation, and they are taking steps to make sure this never happens again.