Posted on 04/16/2005 7:02:58 AM PDT by bourbon
An advertisement that ran in today’s print edition of The Daily Mississippian contained a racist message.
The ad (pictured at left) was paid for by the New Century Group and promotes American Renaissance, a monthly magazine launched in 1991 that espouses incendiary views about immigration and race relations.
The Daily Mississippian advertising staff will include a retraction and apology for the advertisement in Monday’s edition of the paper.
Melanie Wadkins, advertising manager for the S. Gale Denley Student Media Center, said American Renaissance will be refunded the $220.50 paid for the three-column, 10 inch ad.
Wadkins, who is the staff adviser for the SMC advertising staff, said she does not make decisions concerning advertising content. That responsibility lies with the student employees.
“Everything submitted to the paper is supposed to be looked at by the student staff,” Wadkins said. “In this case, it wasn’t.
“After the ad came in by e-mail, no student on staff raised a question or concern in the course of producing it. I generally refer questionable ads to the editor for approval. This was not brought to my attention at all,” Wadkins said. “It was an honest mistake; it certainly was not intentional.”
Advertising representative Ronald Odom, a senior journalism major from Bartlett, Tenn., was contacted via telephone Wednesday by a representative of the Oakland, Va.-based American Renaissance.
Although the policy is for advertising representatives to proof the ads they sell, Odom said he did not see the ad before it ran today.
“With pre-made ads, there’s really not a lot of proofing because the customer sends it the way they want it,” Odom said. “It just kind of snuck through the cracks between advertising, creative services, editorial and into the paper. I’m sure if someone had read it, it would have definitely been taken care of ahead of time.”
The Daily Mississippian Editor, Emery Carrington, said the advertising staff has consulted with her in the past regarding potentially inflammatory ads, but she was not contacted in this case.
“Editorial and advertising are separate entities; the editorial staff does not like being tied up with the money-making aspect of the newspaper because we want to keep our news and other stories free of bias,” Carrington said. “We do not like the intermixing of advertising and editorial departments of the newspaper and keep them separate as possible.
“This ad’s message was completely unacceptable and is something that The Daily Mississippian staff does not condone, believe in or support,” Carrington said. “During the final process of sending the paper to press, I did not read the ad. I do not usually read ad copy when I’m putting the newspaper to bed.
“At the same time, I’m disappointed that I didn’t read over this because it is unacceptable content that the public will understandably take as offensive and assume that it was approved by us.”
Carrington said The Daily Mississippian staff does not agree with the message contained in the ad.
“We have repeatedly spoken out against hate and racism in this newspaper,” Carrington said.
“I think this university has come a long way and has become intolerant of messages such as those that American Renaissance spreads. The university, the newspaper and the administration do not condone it. I hope the readers will understand that this message would have never appeared in our newspaper under normal circumstances.”
Odom also said the advertisement does not reflect his attitudes or those of his colleagues.
“The staff at The Daily Mississippian is a very diverse group, and we have grown to be a family," Odom said. "This ad does not reflect the relationships we share with each other as a diverse group of students."
Wadkins said she agreed.
“I’m very disappointed, and I’m sorry that it ran because it’s extremely inflammatory and it doesn’t reflect the views of anyone who works here,” Wadkins said. “The ad and its message offend me greatly.”
Odom spoke against the message contained in the ad.
“Being an African American student at the university who appreciates the progress we have made from our past, I am offended that this organization would place an ad in our paper to influence the thoughts of our community and try to undo the advancements we have made in race relations,” Odom said.
“Different racial groups are not the cause of friction. The cause of friction in the community are people who call themselves Americans but truly do not agree with our constitution in regards to freedom and the laws about immigration. The U.S. did not become the strongest country in the world by adopting closed-minded views.”
Link to Clarion-Ledger article about the same incident
Ole Miss student Ronald Odom, who took the ad from New Century via phone, said he saw it before the newspaper was printed, but he didn't read it because he didn't know it was his ad. The ad says American Renaissance.
"It was purely an accident. Our screening should have been tighter," the 21-year old senior journalism major said. "Being an African American, I appreciate the progress the university has made. It has done a great job in improving race relations and morale around campus."
Note: I do not share the views of the American Renaissance Foundation. I just think it is funny that a liberal student newspaper ran this racist ad b/c the paper's slacker staff was too lazy to read their ad copy before sending it to press.
(((MS PING)))
What views are those?
If Jesse Jackson or some other race-baiting black "leader" were to take out a similar ad, pointing out how illegal immigration is destroying black people's political power, would it be considered racist?
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Hard to look at just the picture without looking for some 'sense' to it; so cannot imagine this was totally ignored.. .
. . .and since diversity IS a Libs favored assumption; would bet that at the least, the first few lines were read; and no 'red flag' went up. . .
Dittos!!
The authors of this ad expressed themselves very badly...whatever their aims...and they do seem racist. The fact that whites will be a minority in the US one day is simple fact, however, no matter what your point of view is. If we don't manage to blow ourselves to kingdom come, generations from now we'll probably all be brownish/yellow.
Nope. . .not at all.
..this article is written with Lib buz words; someone probably did read at least a couple of 'first lines' and did not recognize a problem. . .
And of course, the only people to have a problem with anything Jesse does; are simply 'nasty racists'.
not doing too well this morning. ..make that 'buzz' words. . . ;^#
Daring to suggest that massive non-white immigration might not be an entirely positive thing.
What I wonder about is how many people believe in their heart every word of this ad but would never, ever admit to it.
There are some pretty big elephants in the room that nobody will discuss.
This is racist?
Beam me up Scotty. No intelligent life here.
Looks like someone was slacking to me. What a ridiculous ad.
If the fact that whites in the US will be a minority one day is a simple fact (which I believe it is), how is pointing out that fact 'racist'?
While the ad's authors could certainly have gotten their message across more clearly, I fail to see anything so explicitly racist or inflammatory in the ad itself. The group (I'm totally unfamiliar with them) may espouse racist views which I would totally disagree with but I just don't see them expressed in this particular ad.
The latter generations mixed by ethnic heritages: Italians with Irish, Greek with Polish, all sorts of people today can not say with certain that they are pure anything.
The future generations do to different hertiages currently immigrating legally and illegally, will be all sorts of mixed colors and races. Hispanic with white, black with white, asian with hispanic, etc, etc, etc.
My thoughts don't mean I am for forced diversity, but peoples will eventually mix cultures. I'm all for it as long it's an American culture, which is the real problem today with celebrating diversity which means changing Americans culture by force.
Every race is expected to speak highly of, promote, and be proud of their race and culture.....except whites. When whites do it, it is considered racism. Notice, there are no white "activists", only white racists.
That is just the ugly truth. I cannot be concerned about the future of my race in this country. That is considered racist. Minorities are expected and encouraged to be concerned about their future in this country. That is considered progress.
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