Obnoxiously Racist': UVA Student Newspaper Yanks April Fools' Articles After Backlash

It may be April Fools' Day, but certain jokes were not welcome.

The University of Virginia's student-run paper the Cavalier Daily has apologized and retracted two satirical articles published Wednesday, including one that satirized last month's violent arrest of UVA student Martese Johnson, whose bloodied face sparked outrage and accusations of police brutality.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Johnson's arrest.

The controversial Daily articles were titled, “ABC officers tackle Native American student outside Bodo’s Bagels” and “Zeta Psi hosts ‘Rosa Parks’ party;” the former sparked the most outrage online with some calling it "obnoxiously racist."

You gonna write an article about every other tragedy our school faced, or are we always the butt of the white man's jokes? @cavalierdaily

— chiq. (@_chelsgabrielle) April 1, 2015

This Cavalier Daily article is highly offensive and whoever thought it was funny is ignorant.

— Ashley. (@leymariee_) April 1, 2015

Really, @cavalierdaily ? This is not satire. It's obnoxiously racist. https://t.co/b6YJRROCzQ

— Sarah Storti (@damozel_)

April 1, 2015

By lunchtime Wednesday, the managing board of the Daily had yanked both articles, along with a Rosa Parks-related piece, and issued an apology, which read in part:

The managing board of The Cavalier Daily would like to issue a sincere apology for the publication of two pieces — “ABC officers tackle Native American student outside Bodo’s Bagels” and “Zeta Psi hosts ‘Rosa Parks’ party” — in our April Fools edition which was released this morning.

Both articles have been removed from our website, and this apology will run in our next print edition. We are currently in the process of personally reaching out to affected communities to issue apologies.

The April Fools edition is meant to start a conversation and provide satirical commentary on important issues. The April Fools edition is not meant to come at the expense of our peers. We neglected to foresee that these pieces would come across as the latter, and for that, we regret their publication.

See the Daily's cover below:

Image via issuu

(H/T: Business Insider)

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Follow Zach Noble (@thezachnoble) on Twitter