Speaking to address a submission that was recently published in The Cord on September 20, 2017, we would like to voice that Dear Life’s do not reflect the opinion or beliefs of The Cord or WLUSP. They are anonymous submissions meant to provide students a space to engage and submit their own content. With every submission of Dear Life we inform contributors that we do hold the right to not publish submissions that are offensive, threatening or harmful to any person or group.
In the most recent issue of The Cord, there was a submission that goes against this process. We are currently examining how the incident happened to ensure that it is prevented from happening again. We apologize that we missed this unacceptable submission, that it was not caught until after it had been printed and for the impact it had on our readers. This was a failure on our end to not catch the racist coded language this submission used.
The Cord values diversity and we do not want nor allow racist or oppressive language within our paper. We work to educate our staff, volunteers and readers on concepts of anti-oppression and privilege. We know how important it is to take a stand against hate. We are constantly working to learn and unlearn and to update our procedures to reflect this process.
We appreciate the input and engagement from the Laurier community. Please contact either president@wlusp.com or editor@thecord.ca if you have further input or questions.