Dominican Lou Controversy

On March 5, 2002, The Signal, the college newspaper of TCNJ, published The Crazy Man, with the introduction of the most infamous character ever devised: Dominican Lou, played by my friend Ruben. A month after the comic was published, The Signal received a letter from a Marlene Valera accusing the March 5th comic to be offensive.
Now, before I get into my little diatribe about this, I will re-iterate how the character of Dominican Lou came about.

Originally, it was a one-time joke created by Saturday Night Live, gone and forgotten. However, my friend Ruben felt that he could redefine this character. He cartainly did, however...
Ruben's version of Dominican Lou was made to be extremely stereotypical. By that, here is what I mean: The character was to wear a straw hat with the Dominican Republic flag flying on top of it. The character was to be based on Ruben, however, he would have 2 days growth.

A dirty "wifebeater" undershirt
Frayed jean shorts
Black socks
Sandals

With the clothing, comes the accessories:
On one hand, he would be carrying a macheté and in the other hand would be several stalks of sugercane.

There is his version of Dominican Lou. The version I drew up was completely watered down. Once the final drawings were made, Ruben aka: Dominican Lou was introduced.

I was applauded by my friends for this strip, saying it's the best Crazy Man comic so far. Though not everyone felt the same way. One month later, The Signal received a letter from Miss Marlene Valera with her complaints about this particular strip.

Here is the link to her letter as it is, nothing has been altered to it.
Crazy Man Offensive

After this letter was published, I kind of felt proud that I was able to provide such controversy, kind of gave me some purpose in life. Needless to say, Ruben and I did not take this laying down. A week, later, we fight back with our own letters to Miss. Valera

Here is the link to our letters as it is, and again, no alterations were made to it.
Crazy Man and Dominican Lou Fire Back

Once we made our point with our letters, we felt it was time to put the final nail in the coffin, and put this puppy to bed. Ruben came down to the Signal office, and the staff took a picture of us, with the five dollars. We just embodied my comic strip. Once it was developed, I made the comic to end this with an exclamation point.

There you have it. We never heard another peep from Miss Valera, and we were again applauded for sticking to our guns and not backing down. This is the Dominican Lou Controversy. One little comic, causing complaints, yet we put them in their place.

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