Following are excerpts from a blog written by Clay Jones, a freelance cartoonist who works for the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va.:

“Jerry Holbert is the editorial cartoonist for The Boston Herald.  Last week, he drew a cartoon on the Secret Service just letting anybody get into the White House. In the cartoon President Obama is brushing his teeth and this average ordinary guy who obviously doesn’t have a security clearance pops out of the bathtub and asks Obama if he’s tried the new watermelon flavored toothpaste.

“Yeah. It sounds like Jerry played into an old school racial stereotype.

“Jerry says he saw the toothpaste in a store and he used it. His editors at The Herald totally missed it. His editors at his syndicate caught it and had him change it to raspberry flavored toothpaste. Jerry apologized and so did his newspaper while standing behind him (which was nice to see).

“I believe Jerry. Jerry is a moderate to conservative cartoonist in my view and I’ve been reading his work for about 20 years. During that 20 years I’ve never seen him draw anything bigoted, sexist, homophobic or racist. I don’t think Jerry is a racist. Actually, even though I rarely agree with him, I think he’s a really good cartoonist.

“The point (which better writers than I have brought up) which bothers me the most is how does a journalist with several decades of experience not realize there’s a watermelon joke is racist? It’s a tasteless stereotype and totally vulgar and quite common. I can’t find it funny in any context.”

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