Incoming Brandeis Black Student Organization President Suahad Iddrissu '09 discusses a fake advertisement in Gravity Magazine at a forum Sunday.

A campus humor magazine printed a racially charged fake advertisement last week that sparked outrage from dozens of students who said it was bigoted and offensive. The incident has brought to the forefront intense feelings of discrimination among some racial-minority students. And the editor in chief of the magazine, Gravity, resigned Monday night because of the controversy.

BlackJerry advertisement features a "BlackJerry," which it bills as an alternative to the popular BlackBerry cellular phone. It depicts a black man dressed in the minstrel style-he dons a top-hat, bow-tie and pin-striped suit-offering to drive a white traveler from Waltham to the airport in his Camry.

The text beside the image reads, in part: "I don't know where the car came from or why it's missing a window, but in no time I'm doing a buck-twenty down I-90 while the BlackJerry rolls up a j and starts humming my favorite mp3s. And all for only 3/5 the cost of a BlackBerry."

The last line references the infamous Constitutional compromise that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person. Outrage over the advertisement, as well as other parts of the magazine people considered offensive, was immediate and widespread.

Ben Douglas '08 will remain on Gravity's staff after resigning as editor in chief because, he said, the magazine would not have enough people without him.

All Gravity editors resigned, issued a public apology to the campus, and announced that the Gravity will not put out a Fall 2007 issue, according to a campuswide e-mail from Student Union President Shreeya Sinha '09 today. In the letter, Gravity editors apologize for the advertisement.

"We in no way intended to make anyone feel denigrated, marginalized, or attacked, and we would like to express our deepest sympathies to anyone who felt targeted by the content in our magazine. Our failure to properly screen certain material is, in our opinion, the result of an insufficient review process," the letter states.

Rather than putting together an issue, Gravity announced in the letter that staffers would spend the coming semester creating and implementing "a more effective editorial hierarchy."

Jonathan Rubinger '08, the student who created the advertisement, would not comment, but he posted an apology on the discussion board of a Facebook group created Sunday called "We Do NOT Tolerate Hate Speech on the Brandeis Campus." The group had 320 members at press time.

"To anyone whose feelings were hurt or who felt victimized by the BlackJerry advertisement, I am truly and deeply sorry," Rubinger wrote. "The intended target of the ad was racism itself, and I did not make this adequately clear."

Gravity's publication marks the fourth time in six years that a campus media group has come under fire for racially charged content. Hosts of a show on WBRS made disparaging comments about Asian women in 2002, the Justice printed an allusion to a racial slur in a sports column in 2003, and The Hoot printed a poem titled "I hate you thugs" in 2006.

Seeing the "BlackJerry" ad was particularly disillusioning for some seniors, who found their experience at Brandeis literally sandwiched by incidents of what they see as racism in print.

The sports column in this newspaper hit newsstands barely a month after those students arrived on campus their first year, and with "BlackJerry" appearing less than a month before commencement, some seniors felt they had come full circle, but with little progress.

"We came in with racism and we're leaving with racism," Shakiva Wade '07, a co-president of the Brandeis Black Students Organization, said at a recent forum to discuss the issue.

At the emotional forum, hosted Sunday evening by BBSO in the Intercultural Center, students expressed feelings of anger and frustration over the advertisement's content, and discussed ways to respond and prevent similar incidents in the future.

"This is just racist on so many different levels," said Jerome Frierson '07, the other BBSO co-president.

There was some discussion about the possibility of dechartering the magazine, but the conversation focused more on broader issues of hateful speech on campus.

"We need to be aware - we need to make sure that racism is not slipping under the radar," Frierson said.

Suahad Iddrissu '09, BBSO's incoming president, echoed others' perceptions of the advertisement and said media groups should be held accountable, but he also stressed restraint in how students should react.

"We need to think about this in a very tactful manner. Being emotional and launching a campaign is not the way to get things done," he said.

Rubinger did not attend the forum, but Douglas and Kevin Montgomery '07, a Gravity staff writer, did attend. Though Douglas never said a word during the forum, Montgomery described the incident as "a learning experience" for the magazine, adding that he was disturbed by the campus' reaction to the ad.

"I thought it was funny," Montgomery said.

And with the potential for dechartering the magazine hovering over the conversation, he also urged the crowd to consider responding in a less punitive response.

"I hear punishment, I hear 'let's make an example:' That doesn't work," Montgomery said.

Following the forum, the Student Union Senate passed a near-unanimous Union Resolution that condemned the magazine; called on Rubinger and the editors of Gravity to apologize publicly "for the offensive material published in their latest issue" and to resign; called for a judicial investigation into what the senators called a violation of the University's code of student conduct; and called for the Senate to consider dechartering the magazine.

The resolution also called for diversity training for incoming students and media editors, as well as "continued dialogue about cultural insensitivity on campus."

Leaders from Gravity, BBSO, the Union and other student groups met with administrators throughout the day and evening to discuss the issue. In an e-mail to various student groups Monday night, Union President Shreeya Sinha '09 said the Union was moving to fulfill the steps outlined in the Senate resolution. She also said that a history of events of prejudice on campus would be displayed in the Shapiro Campus Center.

Rubinger, meanwhile, sought forgiveness online.

"I continue to stand by the joke I was trying to make about the ridiculousness of stereotypes, and I apologize for my oversight of what could easily be misconstrued as an attack," he wrote in his apology on Facebook. "Know that it was not my intention to hurt feelings, but rather to induce laughter and promote an increased understanding of the ludicrous nature of black, racial and all stereotypes."

"Like all humans, I am prone to making mistakes; as a human, I humbly request that you forgive me for mine," he added.



-Michael Grillo, Shana D. Lebowitz and Claire Moses contributed reporting.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools