School Removes Some Advertising From Black Publication

As punishment for printing what UCLA officials said were anti-Semitic articles, the university Thursday dropped some school-funded advertising from an African-American student magazine on campus and sharply reprimanded its editors.

Winston C. Doby, UCLA’s vice chancellor for student affairs, said the magazine, Nommo, was “promoting hatred and divisiveness and engaging in personal and group denigration.” As a result, he suspended all advertising by the student affairs department in the publication, an extremely rare action that is expected to severely hurt the magazine, which comes out six times a year. UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young also criticized the publication.

The editor of the magazine, Shonda Hornbeck, denied that the articles were anti-Jewish and said Doby’s move violated freedom of expression. Hornbeck said the controversy “is totally blown out of proportion” and contended that UCLA officials had not acted forcefully against anti-black items in campus publications in the past.

The administration action came after Nommo’s last issue of the school year appeared earlier this week. In an opinion piece, one staffer referred to previous disputes with a Jewish student newspaper on campus and wrote: “Silly rabbits, they think I don’t like them because they’re Jewish. . . . That’s ridiculous. I don’t like the majority of them because they’re typical cave-dwelling (Kazar mountains to be exact) white, Zionist (expletive).”

Hornbeck said the comments were directed at the newspaper’s editors and not meant to disparage all Jews.

Hostilities arose in February, after Nommo printed an editorial supporting a bookseller who distributed “The Protocols of Zion and the International Jew,” a book widely denounced for its discredited anti-Semitic theories.

Jewish students and leaders complained that Nommo was giving legitimacy to anti-Semitism. Nommo editors later said they received death threats from Jewish students.

Doby said the ban on his advertising--for such services as health care and counseling--will stand until Nommo editors show more responsibility.

Advertising from other university departments was not affected but Doby urged them to follow his lead.

Hornbeck estimated that the student services ads account for more than half of Nommo’s revenues but said the magazine will survive.