Student newspaper stolen in protest of anti-reparations ad

By The Associated Press

03.19.01

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The March 16 edition of Brown University's student newspaper made it to newsstands March 17, a day late and under protection of a campus policeman, after bitter protests from minority students over a paid advertisement in the paper.

An ad in the Brown Daily Herald denouncing reparations for African-Americans has angered a coalition of mostly minority student organizations, who stole the Daily Herald's entire press run March 16 to show their displeasure over the ad, which ran once, on March 13.

"It's not our place to decide which political views can be published in the paper," said Patrick Moos, editor in chief of the Daily Herald. "We want to publish everyone's views."

In a statement released March 17, Brown Interim President Sheila Blumstein backed the paper's decision to run the ad and said the theft would be investigated. She urged students to avoid a greater confrontation over the matter.

"The most effective response to ideas — even to ideas that may be deeply offensive — is not to silence them or intimidate those who espouse or publish them, but rather to develop effective opposing arguments through wider civil discourse."

The ad by conservative theorist David Horowitz was rejected by most of the 34 school papers where it was sent. After it ran in Brown's paper, the student coalition demanded a meeting with the paper's staff. At the March 15 meeting, the paper's management said they would not give the groups a free page of advertising as demanded, and also refused a request to donate the $725 paid by Horowitz to a campus minority fund.

The next day, angered students began removing the free paper from newsstands. They also went to the newspaper's office to try to take the remaining 100 copies of the paper but were rebuffed.

That prompted the paper to seek help from police in distributing reprinted editions of the paper on March 17.

The paper has not been approached to run the ad again, Moos said.

The Daily Herald receives no funding from the university.

The student coalition said March 17 it would continue its protests until the Daily Herald met its demands or renounced "its nominal affiliation with the University." The statement did not say whether the protesters planned to steal today's papers.

The Herald is the first Ivy League newspaper to print the full-page advertisement. The ad's headline says, "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea and Racist Too." It states that black Americans owe the United States more than it owes them and makes other arguments against reparations. Minority students at Brown said they were offended by the message.

Craig Washington, a black freshman from Pine Bluff, Ark., said that the ad went beyond the bounds of free speech. He called the ad "propaganda and lies."

"It's putting the wrong face on slavery and betraying the reparations movement," Washington said.

Despite the ad's content and the backlash, Moos said the decision to run the ad was worth it. He said most students, white and minority, support the paper's decision. Nevertheless, Moos says he feels the tension. He gets dirty looks on campus and has quit checking his voicemail at work.

"I'm sad students are upset, because I'm a student, too."