One of the cartoonists I worked with told me about what he had to go through to be published in one university's newspaper. He said it was similar to a casting call for a play or musical -- all the cartoonists came out one at a time and fielded questions from the entire newspaper staff who have looked at submitted work. He was asked a question similar to this one: "I don't see any black characters in your strip. Are you being racist?"

Forgetting that strip cartoonists are probably the only ones at this paper who have to be interviewed this way, I wonder if this attitude actually harms race relations. Looking over a comic strip -- printed in black and white, no less -- and asking why there aren't any black characters just doesn't sound right.

When I look at the group of people I'm now working with, I see them as a group of people. I don't see them as three white guys, two white girls, two black guys, one asian girl, and one hispanic guy. I definitely don't see them as two n***ers, a chink, a wetback, and five whiteys (or whatever the rude word for caucasians is these days -- "honky" didn't really catch on and "cracker" doesn't upset any white people).

But I wonder. Does that person actually think of people as black, as white, as hispanic, as Korean?

It seems to me that people who want racial equality often try to push for racial quotas. However, rather than being able to look at people as just "people", quotas force you to look at a person as a member of a race. You're forced to think of someone as Puerto Rican. Basically, this adds yet another division between races and makes it harder to attain racial equality.

Your thoughts?

-Faux "refuses to use terms like 'European-American'. I'm not from Europe. I'm from America." Pas

Oh, "n***ers" is the word you're probably thinking of. The one that it's okay if black guys use it to refer to other black guys, but if a white guy ever uses it -- look out.