University's Student Newspaper Faces Backlash Over MLK Day Satire

HOUSTON, TX — It's no secret that many college students in liberal arts programs enjoy pushing the envelope on free speech and expression. Look no farther than the Stanford band taking jabs at the entire state of Texas at the Alamo Bowl last month in San Antonio.

But many people in Houston believe the editors of the Rice student newspaper Rice Thresher took it a little too far in last week's paper on the back page, which is highly-known for producing satire.

In a coupon-designed ad on the "Penny Saver" page of the Jan. 10 edition, the ad on the coupon read:

"Hey there, white people! We know. You have a day off to celebrate someone who managed to beat your system. Don't despair — for the low price of eternal shame you can spend these 24 hours doing something productive like beating off in a sock and wondering whatever happened to your 8th grade girlfriend. You're disgusting."

The editorials and satirical pieces by the paper don't necessarily support the university, and nor does the university necessarily support them. The university did release a statement regarding such pieces saying that though it may not agree with everything, it does support the paper's right to free speech.

Of course, folks fired back at the university saying they wouldn't support the school anymore, wouldn't send anymore money and some questioned writing such satire for Martin Luther King Day, asking if Dr. King would even support such speech.

The newspaper responded with an editorial to defend its piece.

"The purpose of our content is not to cause any harm or offense to our readers," the editorial read. "This is often a difficult line to tread with satire, which is not meant to be comfortable for everyone. Discussion and reflection, on the contrary, are often spurred by that which may make us uncomfortable. We take our responsibility in production of satire on our last page equally to that of producing news in our first 11. We are disappointed in Rice University’s response stating that this Backpage is contrary to the values of the university and offensive. We do not ask the university to stand with our editorial content on every occasion, but we are disheartened that Rice’s administration finds a part of a Backpage intended to target issues of institutional racism and general apathy to be "contrary to the values of the university."

Here's the full editorial from the Rice Thresher's website. Comments are at the bottom of the story.

Photos via RiceThresher.org