The Sacramento Bee, November 2, 1991:

An apology to our readers

We made an insensitive error in judgement in Friday's edition, and I want to apologize for it.

On page A1, we ran what was initially seen as a cute, innocent picture of two children dressing up for Halloween. But what was not caught in the editing process was the stereotype enforced in the picture of an African-American child dressed in a maid's uniform putting lipstick on a white child dressed in a party outfit.

The implication of the images in the picture and the words in the headline should have been recognized and they should not have run, even though it is a sad commentary on our society that pictures of children of different ethnic backgrounds at play carry such a bitter memory.

We were wrong, and our sincere apologies are offered to all of you. A very hard lesson in the area of sensitivity has been learned.

Gregory E. Favre, Executive Editor

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