That's the picture that I had posted on my office window and the picture that offended.
I work at one campus of our local community college. I have my own office and I have a window that looks out onto a busy hallway. I have worked at this particular campus, in this office, for the past 10 years and have always posted political cartoons in said window.
This isn't the first time I have been criticized for my choice of cartoon to display. I arrived one morning several years ago to find a note taped to my window telling me to keep my liberal sentiments to myself and that I was there to teach not to spread my misguided opinions to the college students.
I sat on that message and the cartoon all morning that time, contemplating my next move. Would I write something scathing in reply? Would I cite my right to post what I wished as my right of free speech? Would I quote academic freedom?
In the end, I simply posted the anonymous note next to the cartoon it complained about with the words "viewer comment" written across the top.
This time, I was out of work because of car trouble. It took two days to get this problem resolved, and when I came in this morning I found the cartoon I had posted on my desk with the following note attached.
As a parent of a student at ** and a professor at ** (different place), I am offended by the cartoon you have posted on your window. The implication is that white men see African Americans as criminals.
Dr. ***
To me, the implication is some white men see African Americans as criminals just as some white men see me, a dark-skinned Mexican-American, as an illegal, a criminal, poor and lazy. Considering recent events, it seems to me that my posting of this cartoon is timely and relevant to the kind of discourse that should be happening in America. But this gentleman saw it as offensive to him and wanted it removed from view.
My office assistant did not want to take it down as it is my window in my office, but after his second visit to complain, she took it down to get him to leave her alone.
And so now I get to decide what to do again. Do I re-post the cartoon along with his comment? (name redacted, of course) Do I stand up for academic freedom and repost it even though I am not a professor and academic freedom doesn't actually apply to me. Do I go through my stash of saved cartoons and find something I think might offend him even more and post that? Or, do I just move on and find a new cartoon to post?