Black-Owned Newspaper, Call & Post, Runs Editorial Cartoon Portraying Lawmaker Nina Turner as "Aunt Jemima"

Black-owned newspaper Call & Post, based in Cleveland, OH, has done the unthinkable. The weekly newpaper printed an editorial cartoon caricature of black lawmaker, Sen. Nina Turner, as the black Aunt Jemima figure used to advertise a breakfast product line. Personally, I find the character offensive because of its use during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a racist stereotype. The cartoon has rankled some people in Cleveland, as it should.

The paper criticized Turner, a Cleveland Democrat, for supporting last month's successful ballot issue to overhaul county government. Some blacks fear the changes will reduce minority political power. The concern is a legitimate one, but do we always have to make it racial?

Of course, Call & Post associate publisher and editor Connie Harper says the caricature isn't hurtful. Really? Had that been published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the New York Times or even the NY Post, it would have drawn the ire of blacks nationwide. This is disgraceful. We can agree to disagree without getting in the muck.