Ad author David Horowitz placed the ad, which gives "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea --and Racist Too," in The Duke Chronicle, The Brown Daily Herald and UC-Berkeley's Daily Californian, among others.
The ad states that "there is no single group responsible for the crime of slavery" and "only a minority of white Americans owned slaves, while others gave their lives to free them." The ad also asked "what about the debt blacks owe to America?"
Daniel Hernandez, editor-in-chief of The Daily Californian, said the newspaper published the advertisement on Feb. 28 and immediately received harsh criticism from some Berkeley students for printing the ad.
Hernandez said the full-page ad was placed in the paper by the business staff, and the editors simply overlooked it before press time. "It was an enormous blunder on our part," he said.
He added that the advertisement incited protests from a group of 40 to 50 primarily black students.
Hernandez said the paper agreed to let the group react with a free full-page rebuttal the following day.
"We wanted to make it clear to readers that the normal process of editorial review just didn't happen," he said.
Horowitz, who created the ad, said the ad was in response to "anti-American" behavior he had come across on college campuses around the nation.
Horowitz, a conservative, said he attended many conferences where only one political side was represented. He said conservative viewpoints were ignored in favor of the left wing.
