DC Conspiracy[dots pattern]

11.11.2005

CC Fest Reminder and Friday Afternoon Discussion

Before I get into this, one last reminder that the Washington DC Counter Culture Festival is this Saturday – please visit the website for all the information you would need.

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Opening this up for a little discussion, this could get ugly but let’s try to keep it civil.

As some of you know I edit the cartoon page for a local paper down here, I do it for free, it's more of a relaxing fun kind of thing - helping out the locals. I love it, great guys – get to put together some great cartoon pages. The paper itself is extremely progressive which is cool, I totally jive with their message but my cartoon page is accessible to all – it’s the stuff that I like and is supposed to be fun and lighthearted. It’s been getting great feedback.

At a recent editorial meeting somebody asked me why I don’t have any female or minority cartoonists. The honest to God answer is – I just don’t. I went after people whose cartoons I liked and put openings out there for people to come to me. The way I saw it, since I was going for non-opinion based toons, just straight comedy, it didn’t really matter what sex, religion or race the cartoonists were as long as they were good and can create something that fit the tone of the page. As a matter of fact, some of the names of the cartoonists we have aren’t race or gender specific, so unless you see the cartoonists, you’d have no idea what they looked like. And, to boot, my ancestry is Puerto Rican – which most would label as a minority – and I’m the guy picking out the cartoons that I want on my page.

So I guess the question is - do you feel that people are supposed to create something that is in some way tied to their gender or ethnicity? Mind you, I’m not saying that this person was implying that – but she was certainly making an assumption based on the content of the cartoons that everyone I used was a white male.

And now that I think about it, Chris Mararac is of Asian descent, so that’s not even fully correct.

Jason at 2:37 PM  |  link to this     

2 Comments

Well, for what it's worth, here's my opinion...


The comics page is not exclusively made up of, but is primarily, DC Conspiracy folks. The DC Conspiracy is a racially and sexually diverse group, and when you've posted to the group the opportunity to get involved with this project, you posted to everyone.

I don't think that because everyone, or nearly everyone, who replied fits a profile of 'white male' who chose to respond and act on this opportunity should make you, the other editors of the paper, or any of it's readers feel that you've been racially or sexually bias.

The opportunity was there for everyone... the choice was up to the artists to get involved. The lack of diversity in contributers lays with those who neglected the opportunity.

This is not meant as a 'hairy eye' to anyone who chose not to contribute. I appreciate that this opportunity doesn't interest everyone.

I really enjoy the writing in that paper, and am a little dissapointed that they might make suggestions of racism (as I see it) because of the heritage and sexual orientation of the volenteers that contribute to it.

Let me know how things progress with this.

Jacob at 11/11/2005 3:08 PM   

Well - this wasn't the "paper's view" and it wasn't necessarily accusatory (although it wasn't fun trying to explain myself). It was one of the lower people, a new one actually – everyone else there loves the page – but it was enough to get me wondering if people feel that a cartoonist only a minority cartoonist when he or she writes towards his or her gender or race, that’s more the question.

Jason at 11/11/2005 3:14 PM   

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