The Quad-City Times, an Iowa-based newspaper, has apologized to 2024 presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy for featuring him in a cartoon that depicted Republicans as racists.
The cartoon depiction featured Ramaswamy on a stage as MAGA voters shouted a variety of racist attacks at him.
“Show us your birth certificate,” shouted one voter. “Muslim!!” shouted another. “Get me a slushee Apu!!!” yelled a third voter, a reference to the famous Simpsons character, Apu, who had been criticized by diversity advocates for his alleged stereotypical depiction of Indian-Americans.
“It’s sad that this is how the MSM views Republicans. I’ve met with grassroots conservatives across America & never *once* experienced the kind of bigotry that I regularly see from the Left. Iowa’s @qctimes absolutely has the right to print this, but it’s still shameful,” Ramaswamy said in response to the cartoon.
In response, Quad-City Times executive editor Tom Martin called the cartoon “inexcusable” adding it had been intended to “criticize racist ideas and epithets.”
“Racist and hateful ideas, words or images have no place in our publications, much less our society. It’s why we apologize today for letting such an image slip through our editorial process and into our opinion page Wednesday in the form of a political cartoon,” he wrote on Friday, as reported by Fox News.
Martin said that the cartoon had been scrubbed from the website and that the paper would no longer accept work from the cartoonist.
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“We apologize to Republican primary presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, the Indian American community and our readers for publishing the offensive material in the Quad-City Times and Dispatch-Argus,” he wrote.
“We seek to share diverse ideas on our opinion pages – editorials, cartoons and commentary that provoke thought and constructive ideas. Dividing and disparaging with any racist images or rhetoric does not fit that mission or our ideals as a local news company. The oversight that allowed it to run is inexcusable, and we can and will do better.”
The cartoon also seemed to mock Ramaswamy’s campaign platform, with the drawing of the candidate’s poster behind him stating, “Quad City Republicans Welcome Anti-Woke Crusader Vivek Ramaswamy 2024.”
Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed on Tubi, Google Play, YouTube Movies, or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.