"I usually don't comment on other editorial Cartoonist's work unless I love it and it's a friend and they deserve congratulations," noted Latino cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz wrote recently on Facebook, "but here is a racist Cartoon (pictured) from Jon Russo from Creators syndicate apparently and it came on my feed through 'Townhall' email and I just wanna ask the editor or the Cartoonist, how do you know that the figure holding a gun is a criminal illegal alien and not just a criminal? Hmmm.

"In cartoon reasoning you could say 'oh it’s inferred,' but I think what he's inferring is that all brown people are 'illegal aliens' and also criminals. Do better, Creators."

The post had garnered nearly 600 reactions, 96 comments and 31 shares. It would be difficult to find any who disagreed with Alcaraz "It’s full-blown racism. They're not even trying to hide it, anymore," wrote one.

A spokesperson for the syndicate, asked for comment, told Journal-isms, "We condemn racism in all forms. As a media distributor, Creators neither controls nor censors the content we receive from our writers and artists. We are purely a platform that connects creators with distributors. The opinion expressed in this cartoon is solely that of Jon Russo."

On its website, Creators says, "Our goal is to make you think. We want you to react. We want you to respond. “Since 1987, the writers we represent and publish start discussions, arguments and even controversies. Love them or hate them, you can't ignore them. . . . At Creators, we support creators."

"Wow, seriously?" Alcaraz messaged Journal-isms after being told of the response. "Their job is to be an editor. They can't be bothered to do even that?"

But Creators finds backing from Daryl Cagle, an editorial cartoonist who also syndicates others through his Cagle.com and Cagle Cartoons, Inc. "I often find the views expressed on the right to be wrong or offensive, but we rarely kill cartoons or columns. We wouldn't have killed the cartoon you sent to us. "If we killed cartoons simply because they are wrong, we'd be killing a lot of cartoons, especially cartoons on the right."

Barbara Brandon-Croft whose "“Where I’m Coming From" features Black women, recalled a case just two years ago, when another syndicate did drop a cartoonist because it determined he was wrong--and said to engage in racism."As a stand alone comment, I suppose it passes the smell test," Brandon-Croft said of the Creators statement. "BUT what does it say of them? Creators has complete control over which creators they distribute. Do they believe it's okay to distribute a racist cartoonist's work? Even Andrews and McMeel Syndication (formerly Universal Press Syndicate) dropped Scott Adams' 'Dilbert' when the creator showed his true colors. Perhaps folks at Creators don't recognize racism when they see it. Complicity, I fear, is at issue here."

On his Feb. 22, 2023, YouTube show, cartoonist Adams "described people who are Black as members of 'a hate group' from which white people should 'get away.' Various media publishers across the U.S. denounced the comments as racist, hateful and discriminatory while saying they would no longer provide a platform for his work," David A. Lieb reported at the time for the Associated Press.

Lieb also reported, "Twitter CEO Elon Musk defended Adams in posts on the platform, saying the media previously 'was racist against non-white people, now they're racist against whites & Asians.'''')

Andrews McMeel Chairman Hugh Andrews and CEO and President Andy Sareyan said in a joint statement that their syndication company did consider its own values in deciding to drop Adams. "We are proud to promote and share many different voices and perspectives. But we will never support any commentary rooted in discrimination or hate," they said in the statement posted on the company website and Twitter. "Recent comments by Scott Adams regarding race and race relations do not align with our core values as a company."

"One thing is clear," said Gene Policinski senior scholar for the First Amendment at the Freedom Forum: "This is not a First Amendment issue. The cartoon and criticism of it do not engage a First Amendment legal question, since the Amendment's protections only apply to government and the distributing syndicate is a private enterprise," said Policinski, author of the newly published "The First Amendment in the 21st Century: From the Village Green to the Village Screen. More properly, the 'toon,' and commentary and judgment on the nature of the images and intent of the cartoonist, are the province of the court of public opinion, where all involved have a right to free expression."

It is also clear that images are powerful communications tools, so much so that the Trump White House even posted its own cartoon-like image last month ridiculing a previously deported woman convicted of fentanyl trafficking who was arrested after illegally reentering the U.S. Some creators who were asked for comment did not respond or did not want to speak on the record, perhaps not wanting to damage relations with Creators.

Hector Cantu co-creator of the nationally syndicated Baldo newspaper comic strip, told Journal-isms, "I hope it's clear that I am not OK with the decision to distribute this cartoon. I do not like this cartoon," also saying, "So they condemn racism, but they will distribute it. Look, everyone has a right to free speech. I'd never want anyone banning or censoring artists. There is a difference between creating art/commentary and distributing it. The bigger issue is lots of folks these days are catering to Big Racism, profiting from it, instead of standing up against it." He is with the Andrews McMeel syndicate.

Brandon-Croft is not with a syndicate, nor is Angelo Lopez, a Filipino American cartoonist who participated with Brandon-Croft, Cantu and others in a 2022 Journal-isms Roundtable on cartoonists of color.

"I disagree with Jon Russo's cartoon,” Lopez messaged. "But he does have a right of free expression. That does not mean that Creators Syndicate should distribute this particular cartoon. If the Creators Syndicate truly condemns racism in all forms, it sets itself the role of being editor of the material that it distributes. If the Creators Syndicate truly condemns racism, it should be under no obligation to distribute racist cartoons. When I used to do editorial cartoons for The Philippine News Today, my editor would occasionally kill one of my cartoons if he felt it wasn’t appropriate for his newspaper. I only got one or two cartoons rejected a year, but I understood that was a possibility." Ugly racist stereotypes in cartoons had damaging effects against Jews in 1930s Germany, against the African American community during Jim Crow, against Native Americans and Asian Americans and Hispanics and so many other vulnerable minority groups. Russo has the right of free expression through his cartoons. But we also have a right to protest the spread of false and damaging stereotypes against vulnerable minority groups." I don’t know either Jon Russo or the Creators Syndicate very well. But at a time when disinformation on social media is damaging democracies around the world, shouldn’t Creators Syndicate have responsibility to enforce editorial oversight so that the cartoons that it distributes reflect its values?”

EDITOR'S NOTE: Washington Post journalist Richard Prince occasionally submits his column "Journal-isms" to "Media Matters." Prince's "Journal-isms" originates from Washington, D.C. To check out Prince's complete "Journal-ism's" columns log on to: http://mije.org.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jon Russo (c) Creators.com.