Frank mag apologizes, modifies cartoon image criticized as "racist"

A cartoon in Frank magazine is being altered because of complaints it was racist in its depiction of black poet and activist El Jones, according to a story from Canadian Press. 

"Andrew Douglas, the managing editor of the Atlantic region version of Frank magazine, apologized to readers on Tuesday, saying he’s fearful that the depiction of El Jones among a group of protesters in the cartoon could attract racists to the publication," [the Sun story said.]

The cartoon depicted Jones with a jutting chin and sloping forehead. A number of people were intending to mount a boycott and get the magazine removed from stores.

Jones said she views the cartoon as a throwback to racist images in magazines in the 1800s that depicted African men and women as having features closer to primates than Caucasians.

“It’s an animalistic way of representing Africans as monkeys ... Anyone familiar with the history of racism and the history of racist depictions can see this immediately,” said Jones, who holds a women’s studies chair at Mount Saint Vincent University and is a former Halifax poet laureate.