A Racist in West Georgia?
As the hearings for the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor gets underway, conservatives are ready to take many of her comments out of context to make the point that she was selected not for her qualifications, but because of her sex and color of skin. Yet, some of the conservatives who make this point have questionable records themselves when it comes to matters of race. One of those individuals is Ellis Smith, the former Editor-in-Chief (and now webmaster) of the West Georgian, the student newspaper of the University of West Georgia (where Newt Gingrich was once a history professor for eight years before entering politics).
On May 26, 2009, Smith posted on his Twitter: "Looks like Obama picked somebody who favors race and gender above the Constitution and the law...surprise surprise". But Mr. Smith has had his own racism issues at the university newspaper, one of which led the president of the University of West Georgia to write an opinion piece about.
Before becoming the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, Ellis did an internship for none other than neoconservative William Kristol's Weekly Standard. Throughout the first few weeks of his term at his new position at the paper, an international student who was also on the newspaper staff submitted an op-ed piece, expressing her support for Barack Obama and criticizing Sarah Palin for being, well, Sarah Palin. But the devout Republican that Ellis Smith had become, he refused to publish the op-ed, openly saying he wasn't interested in hearing what an international student had to say about American politics. "If you can't vote, stay out of it," he said. This event was witnessed by the Ombudsman at the newspaper. (In a number of e-mails to this blogger, Smith denied the truth of this incident and explained his refusal to accept the editorial by saying, "The article in question, regarding President Obama, was a fawning, factless, unintelligible rant about how much she loved him. This would normally be fine, except we had covered the Democrats the week before, and her job was to cover the Republican National Convention that week.")
A month later, Ellis called the international student into his office, saying she must see a video about violence in some country. Upon entering, she sees four other individuals waiting around to also see the video. Ellis then shocks the visiting student by playing gay porn as everyone begins laughing. The international student feels forced to quit the newspaper after the school administration failed to act to address the issue.
But Ellis Smith most certainly did not stop offending people after that incident. Over his term as the editor-in-chief, he has presided over the publication of a number of racially insensitive articles about minority students on campus. In one instance, a staff writer wrote an article about students not being able to understand international professors on campus because of their thick accents. When one of the editors submitted the article along with the picture of a professor teaching, Ellis Smith disposed of the appropriate picture and replaced it with one of an Asian man licking another Asian man. The publishing of the article with this picture brought an Asian student to tears during a dialogue meeting that followed the incident. In an e-mail to me, Smith responded to the reporting on this incident by saying, "It seems to have made perfect sense to the students at UWG, because we only received about five complaints."
Through these articles, a pattern seems to have emerged that shows Ellis Smith has actively done everything to prevent minorities from having access to and represented by the newspaper. This pattern has also prompted the students to create a group on Facebook called "Students against the Biases of the West Georgian."
In the most recent case, the West Georgian published an article titled "Join a Frat with Buck Futter, Jr." in which the author, Jacob Lovell, made offensive stereotypical comments about Greek life. This led the Student Government Association (SGA) to make a wise and long overdue decision to cut the West Georgian's funding by $11,000. Smith responded to this incident by saying "a satirical article criticizing Greek Life has nothing at all to do with race."
Ellis Smith was given a chance to respond to all the allegations. While he has attempted to explain the context of the aforementioned incidents, he initially did not deny their accuracy, explaining, "I didn't find it necessary to answer charges that are either a product of an over active imagination or easily explained away as a simple oversight. One thing you learn as an Editor is that no matter what you do, some people will love it, while others will hate it. Unfortunately, some people choose to express disagreement in this day and age by baselessly playing the race card."
Ellis and Lovell have both consistently questioned the motives of the international student who was one of the three sources interviewed for this article, although they have not been able to factually disprove any of her allegations.
Another person who has been making race-related accusations against Sonia Sotomayor is Newt Gingrich. He recently wrote on Twitter, "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a Latina woman' new racism is no better than old racism." Why isn't Newt Gingrich speaking up about the blatant case of racism at the paper of the university where he once taught? Is he willing to take a stance on that "old racism," which he eloquently referred to in his recent tweet?
If the University of West Georgia--a state university--wants to allow the West Georgian to engage in this amount of racism and alienate minorities on campus, current and prospective minority students and professors may have to accept that as a reality. But the notion that racist individual like Ellis Smith with big platforms have the legitimacy to criticize President Obama's selection of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court is as preposterous as this same kind of people's support for Bob Bork and Clarence Thomas.
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Everyone doesn't like or get off watching porn like neo-con flunkies. His behavoir is a pattern of the old southern losers who can't deal with the fact that our president is biracial. My neighbor has a daughter in that college and she has reported a variety of racist incidents. I'll be sure to forward this article on... No one is immune to class action civil rights law suit. The MACHINE thinks the same rules apply.
University of West Georgia’s Student Newspaper Is
Not Subject to Censorship Even Under Controversy
The West Georgian, the student newspaper of the University of West Georgia, has published controversial articles that have drawn both praise and criticism.
As a student-run newspaper, one of its objectives is to serve as a learning tool for the young journalists who are responsible for its production. While the university might not agree with the entirety of the content of The West Georgian, it is supportive of the freedom of the students to express their views.
Indeed, that right is protected by the First Amendment.
As such, the university is careful not to engage in censorship, preferring instead to allow broad leeway in The West Georgian’s content.
Dissent and disagreement are likely outcomes of a free press. Such public airings help keep our communities informed and strong. The University of West Georgia will continue to help train future journalists for this role, knowing that they will make mistakes and learn from them as they grow.
It is the policy of the University of West Georgia to maintain our campus as a place of academic and social discourse for all, which is free of all forms of harassment based on ethnicity, gender, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or disability. We fully expect our student journalists to maintain and respect these standards.
The West Georgian will continue its mission of serving the campus under new leadership.
Rob Douthit
Director of Media Relations
University of West Georgia
Do you people realize that in the same comments you are making about how bad a person is for being a racist, you are making vague generalizations about people from the south? Do you not realize that is the same thing? Your ridiculous self-serving comments aren't worth reading.
the title of this article "A racist in Georgia" is redundant is the same way "A fish in Water" is redundant.
I think that this entire story is shotty journalism at best. Where is the actual proof of racism here?? Any accusations of racism were attributed to hearsay and not backed up at all. The other articles that were supposedly "racially insensitive" were never attributed while other articles were! Where's the proof here. The whole article is about this guy being a racist but I don't see a single shred of proof!
Aw! I think its hilarious that you joined The Huffington Post just so you can valiantly defend Ellis against racist allegations! Being a student at UWG, I make it a point to not read The West Georgian because I truly believe that Ellis is a racist, and a sub-par "journalist". What you see as a "practical joke" I see as an indication of character.
Wasn't the establishment of the Huffington Post to give the public the REAL story instead of the bull that we were being fed by the mainstream media. I don't see how this is any better.
And take this Twitter statement: "Looks like Obama picked somebody who favors race and gender above the Constitution and the law...surprise surprise"
How this that racist at all. This is his opinion based on a speech that Ms. Sotomayor gave in the past.
You also decide to turn the blog posting into a hatchet job about Newt Gingrich. But, did you ever contact Newt for the story? How was he supposed to independently know that these articles even existed? Does he have one delivered to his house every day? Plus, you never offered proof of racism so even if you did show him this post, there is nothing to back up your accusations.
How dare you bring the University of West Georgia into your "story" by assuming that "they want" these kinds of things printed. It is a student run newspaper who practices the 1st amendment with every issue it churns out and for the University to censor it would be breaking the United States Constitution and the law. Obviously, hate speech can be taken out but they can only do that when it is presented. After this blog post, it still has yet to be presented.
It is very clear here that Sam Sedaei owes a huge apology to the University of West Georgia but dragging its name through the mud with assumptions that it supports racist rhetoric (which he obviously has no proof of) being printed in the school newspaper. The attack on Newt is also a very low blow seeing is how he never could have known about this, if it were true.
Lastly, I think it is important, Sam, that you apologize to your readers. Obviously, you had a quick deadline and slapped a bunch of stuff together about Obama, Newt Gringrich, Sotomayor, Ellis Smith, and the University of West Georgia. You probably never tried to contact Newt. You probably never contacted UWG, you probably never tried to contact Ellis. And, you didn't back up your facts.
Thanks for the opportunity to comment and your audience will be awaiting your apology.
I am disgusted with this article because it is entirely untrue. Mariam is just lying to make herself look good. He is not racist, nor is he leaving the newspaper. I currently work for The West Georgian. Yes, there are articles that I don't agree with, but no one there is racist. Why doesn't someone add in that Mariam use to stalk Ellis. She was completely in love with him and I suppose when she was rejected she took it out on him. If you don't know whats going on, then why do you believe this one sided article? Ellis is a hardworking, loyal, decent human being. He allows his fellow writer to write opinion pieces over anything. If they choose to write about Frat guys, then so be it, who cares. That is there opinion. Just because he lets people write about "their" opinions does not mean he shares their views. Wake up people. This article is a load of crap.
You're expecting racial tolerance in a state whose flag is a backdoored Confederate flag?
The administrators on the other hand should have taken Ellis and Jacob Lovell's seige of the paper more seriously.
Someone asked me why we should care about it now that Ellis and Jacob are both gone, but we have to bring this to the attention of the administrators, so that this does not happen again- all students and student groups should be well represented. Ellis and Jacob used this paper to spread their propaganda and they weren't stopped until their term ended. So does this mean that we remain spectators while we see Greek organizations, minority groups and others being trashed?
The University President and a few other administrators wrote a response to some of the articles and it is great that they did, but why wouldn't they go beyond that? We have a very multicultural campus and it would help if we had some respect for that in the paper that is supposed to be the voice of West Georgia and not a select few.
Even giving it the most charitable reading, Ellis' behavior is pretty unprofessional. Does he have any ambitions to work in journalism after he leaves UWG? Does he expect that in the age of the intertubes, this kind of behavior won't follow him around?
The author wasn't asked to write this...but he felt compelled to write this, because there were so many issues here...it isn't about discrimination against one international student, So those accussing her on Facebook should read the blog article closely, to realize that there are many issues that were addressed.
It is not a news article, and so ofcourse the author can write about anything he likes. To call someone names is not professional and just shows that u have nothing to say in your defence. Stick with responding to the points rather than bashing my character! It really doesn't reflect well on you...
Anyways. I love West Georgia but believe that things have to be changed...
Finding a racist in Georgia, (east or west) must be as hard as finding a Jew in Boca or someone with a tan in Palm Beach.
As the former news editor of The West Georgian, I must say that I'm utterly ashamed at the direction the newspaper has taken.
For three years, I worked as a staff writer and as an editor and the quality of news and photos printed is a slap in the face of journalism.
From an outsider's standpoint, the newspaper has been used by a few reactionary students to promote their often far-fetched ideas and agenda. I can assure any of you all that anything resembling the type of stories published in The West Georgian will not fly in the real world.
It's clear that the editor-in-chief in question refused to show the type of leadership that would motivate reporters to also check their biases at the door. It's clear that the newspaper went from an award-winning publication to a publication that's a throw back to the days of Yellow Journalism.
Sadly, this type of damage not only harms those who proudly serve as the newspaper's editors and reporters. It also harms the reputation of the so-called journalism department as one that has no interest in adequately preparing its students for transitioning into the news business.
I just hope the future leadership of The West Georgia and the Mass Communications Department would show enough initiative to get the newspaper back on the correct path.
If anyone is interested in further discussing anything with me, please feel free to e-mail me at gmail.comxon@gmail.com
Kristal S. Dixon
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