Newspaper apologizes, pulls offensive ad featuring racist imagery

By Kevin Ozebek

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    OAKLAND PARK, Florida (WSVN) — A South Florida newspaper has apologized after the publication ran an offensive advertisement that featured racist imagery in a recent issue.

Oakland Park resident Michael Williams and his partner are avid readers of South Florida Gay News, and this past weekend, when they opened up the latest edition, they were shocked to see the advertisement.

“The ad was really questionable and had a lot of really disturbing references,” Williams said.

Inside the publication was an illustration that showed several people lynched, and a ‘West Side Story’ character dancing on top of the face of George Floyd. Williams and his partner immediately called and complained to the paper.

SFGN’s Executive Editor Jason Parsley was notified, and he said the illustration was a paid advertisement.

“It’s hard to put into words the level of disgust I feel right now,” Parsley said. “I didn’t notice it, so I didn’t flag it. The owner of the company didn’t notice it. He didn’t flag it. The designer briefly saw the ad and just thought it was a theatrical ad, for instance, and he didn’t notice it.”

The ad was bought and placed by the CastroCreeper Society, an organization that says it champions fair housing prices in San Francisco.

Philip Behrens is the founder and leader of the group.

“The gay community in San Francisco is part of what I call the ‘Gay One Percenters,’” Behrens said. “They’re living in million dollar, multimillion dollar Victorians.”

7News asked him why he put the ad in a South Florida magazine.

“The one percent gays in San Francisco were not generally born in San Francisco,” Behrens said. “They’re very mobile, and I would say they are almost an international group. If they’re offended, are they unaware that people were lynched?”

Behrens said he commissioned the illustration because he thinks the musical “West Side Story” ignored the racial issues Black New Yorkers faced in the 1950s.

“My artist is Black, and when I explained this concept of this picture to him, he wasn’t confused,” Behrens said.

“That’s meaningless to me,” Parsley countered. “That’s why I am not blaming him. We took the ad. It’s our fault. Any money we received from the ad, we are going to donate to another organization because we want nothing to do with it.”

Parsley said as soon as he realized what was in the advertisement, he had as many copies pulled from newsstands as he could, and he also reprinted the edition.

“We wholeheartedly apologize. We’re sorry,” Parsley said. “We’re going to continue to have conversations inside the newsroom to see how it went wrong and how it went so so, so wrong.”

While Parsley reviews the paper’s procedures, Williams said he is accepting the paper’s apology.

“Any steps that he can take to correct the situation and acknowledge the error, that’s a win,” Williams said.

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