|
Caricature on NUS Breakers poster draws ire from students |
|
By Tettyana Jasli
|
|
Aug. 16 2008 |
|
Publicity posters are essential for student groups and faculty clubs to spread the word about upcoming events.
But a poster advertising NUS Breakers’ upcoming event on Aug. 19 has attracted interest for a different reason.
 The poster depicts a black stick figure declaring a few paraphrased lines from civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech.
The paraphrased lines in question mimic the opening lines of King Jr.’s historic public speech in 1963, also popularly known as the “I have a dream” speech.
The portrayal of the caricature has drawn ire from a portion of the exchange student population who are from universities in the United States.
Those students The Observer spoke to took issue with the caricature and described the portrayal of an African-American stick figure declaiming King Jr.’s words as “very offensive.”
Patrick Lim, a fourth-year exchange student from the University of California, said, “We were surprised because that would definitely have caused a bit of a stir in the US.”
King Jr. was a prominent African-American civil rights activist who campaigned against racial segregation and discrimination in America during the 1950s and 60s before his assassination in 1968.
Lim also pointed out the resemblance of the caricature to “racist toys” popular in 1950s America. These included the “pickaninny dolls” and “golliwogs,” generally considered as derogatory representations of African-Americans.
However, not everyone was aware of the crude symbolism of the caricature.
There was little protest from the local students as they not seem to find the poster particularly offensive.
Second-year literature student, Moniza Hossain, said, “We don’t have a shared history so for us this is just something that happened so far away.”
Authorisation for putting up posters on campus is overseen by the National University of Singapore Students’ Union as every poster placed on campus must first bear a stamp of approval.
In response to queries posed by The Observer, Aaron Seah, NUSSU director of public relations, admitted the “dreadful error on our part” and apologised to those who had taken offense with the posters.
Seah also said that the NUSSU executive committee “had been sold on the initial idea of how the Breakers committee had been attempting a play on the famous words of Martin Luther King Jr. in trying to bring across the unity element of bringing the staff and students of NUS down for a charitable cause.”
“Unknowingly, we had not fully considered the racist depiction of the African-Americans in the form of the Golliwog,” he said.
Seah also said that action has been taken to remove the offending posters.
This controversy on campus comes a few days after an uproar involving racist “slit-eyed gestures” made by the Spanish Olympic basketball team during a photo shoot for an advertisement for the Spanish courier company Seur.
According to The New York Times, the players “pulled their skin behind their eyes to make it look as if they were Asian.”
The Spanish basketball team has said they never meant anything by it, claiming that the photograph was taken out of context.
Pau Gasol, leading player of the Spanish team, apologised on behalf of his basketball team on Aug. 14 after widespread criticism in the press. |
