Local Paper Apologizes For Cartoon Comparing Airplane Seating To Slave Trade Ships

The Lancaster New Era, a local paper serving a Pennsylvania community, issued an apology letter after it ran a cartoon that compared commercial airplane seating conditions to those that existed on slave trade ships. The community was outraged and the paper received complaints, including a letter-to-the-editor that described the cartoon.

“It depicted a couple viewing an old print of the hold of a slave ship, while the one character makes a comment about how it compares to airline seating,” Chet Williamson of Elizabethtown wrote. “I don’t recall ever having seen a more offensive cartoon in the Lancaster newspaper.”

“We all know that woodcut image of the slave ship and the cold, efficient way of laying out the bodies. To any person of normal sensibilities, that image alone makes one think of the stench of human waste and sweat and disease, of the dead lying next to the living, of those dead having their chains struck off only to be thrown overboard, of the moaning and crying and screaming in the darkness of the slave holds,” Williamson continued. “That’s a scene of utter horror, and there’s no joke or punch line that can survive it. The mere idea of a punch line next to that image is blasphemous, and a cartoonist who uses it is, at best, insensitive.”

Interestingly, Stephen Colbert made virtually the same joke on his hit Comedy Central show three days earlier; however, that political comedy show features a satirical conservative reporter. The Lancaster New Era is a genuine local newspaper, not a fake reporter. Meanwhile, Colbert’s character was actually mocking the mindsets of staunchly conservative, wealthy real-life public personas, as Philadelphia pointed out. Yet, even when Colbert made the joke, the audience was shocked at the comparison between airplane seating and the conditions on a slave trade ship. The gasps were not like Colbert’s audience’s normal hysterics.

Lancaster Online issued the apology on Thursday for the cartoon in Saturday’s The Lancaster New Era.

“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,” the paper’s president and executive editor wrote. “It both trivialized and demeaned their experience.”

The apology letter then featured a brief history lesson on slave trade ships.

“While the editorial cartoon was not drawn by someone on our staff, the decision to run it on our pages was made here,” the apology continued. “We are deeply sorry about printing this offensive cartoon.”

The newspaper’s apology letter for comparing commercial airplane seating to conditions on a slave trade ship was received by the community with mixed feelings.