The Lancaster New Era on Friday apologized for an editorial cartoon that compared flying on a plane to the ships on which slaves crossed the Atlantic.
John Kirkpatrick III, the president of the Lancaster New Era, and executive editor Barb Roda addressed the “deeply hurtful, offensive” cartoon in an statement on Friday. The paper has deleted the cartoon.
“It compared a slave ship packed tight with human beings brought to America for a life of forced servitude with the discomfort of airline seating,” they said of the cartoon. “To somehow link the inconveniences of air travel with slavery in general and the slave ships in particular was not only just plain wrong it was deeply hurtful to our African American community and all those who understand the horrors inflicted on the men and women forced into the slave trade.”
“It both trivialized and demeaned their experience,” they continued.
In the statement, they explained that they ran a syndicated cartoon, but are responsible for letting it run in the paper.
“While the editorial cartoon was not drawn by someone on our staff, the decision to run it on our pages was made here. We are deeply sorry about printing this offensive cartoon,” Kirkpatrick and Roda said.
In the statement, the Lancaster New Era included a paragraph about the conditions on ships that transported slaves to the U.S.
According to The Guardian, Sheboygan Press in Wisconsin also ran the cartoon.
H/t Huffington Post
