Virginia paper sorry for printing racist rant about 'black motherf*ckers'
July 23, 2013
A newspaper in Virginia on Tuesday said that it would apologize after protesters demonstrated outside of its offices on Monday over anonymous racist comments that were recently printed.
In the July 16th edition of the weekly newspaper C-Ville's "The Rant" section, editors transcribed an anonymous voicemail that complained about African-Americans in Charlottesville restaurants.
"To all you black mother f*ckers running up here to the Charlottesville restaurants looking for free food, we wouldn't be known as a restaurant, we would be know as a food bank," the message said. "So, from now on when you bring your black ass into a restaurant in Charlottesville and want free food, carry your asses to a food bank. Thank you."
Dozens of protesters responded on Monday with a rally outside of the newspaper's office.
"The week of the Trayvon Martin-Zimmerman verdict, to release that is in disgustingly poor taste," protester Joseph Jordan told WVIR. "This is a pattern of the rant, it gives a platform for racists and queerphobic people, sexists, rape culture to flourish anonymously."
In the comment section of The Editor's Desk blog on Monday, Editor Giles Morris vowed to publish an explanation in Tuesday's paper.
"Because of an editorial mistake, last week’s paper included a racist rant in The Rant section," Morris wrote. "We regret the error and we apologize for the hurt it caused. Our readers demand a higher standard from their community paper."
"The Rant is designed as a vehicle for free speech and our policy has been only to edit rants that contain libel or hate speech. Giving voice to racist sentiments is not consistent with the mission of this paper or the aim of The Rant."
Watch this video from WVIR, broadcast July 22, 2013.
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