Dear readers,

Last week, the Guardian published its annual April Fools’ DisreGuardian issue on March 31. The issue included, amongst articles about Lady Gaga and Rebecca Black, racially charged material, including vintage ads that insensitively depicted the historical oppression of African-Americans and American Indians, as well as 20th-century misogyny.

Every effort is made to ensure that the DisreGuardian content is as distinct as possible from that of our regular issue. The Guardian strives to provide ethical, unbiased journalism and also to be sensitive to issues of diversity and student rights. We want to represent as many viewpoints as we can, and avoid alienating any communities, though that was the consequence of the offensive content in this, and prior, April Fools’ issues.

The DisreGuardian does not, and has never, represented the views of the Guardian editors, editorial board or staff. Instead, it is meant to be a satirical publication poking fun at the topics the Guardian regularly covers, as well as the staff itself.

But regardless of the issue’s intentions, we acknowledge that much of the material presented in the DisreGuardian was in extremely poor taste.

After reaching out to those who were hurt, we are reexamining our internal practices — both in editorial and advertisement content — to see how we can better serve all communities and rebuild any trust that we violated.

We apologize for the insensitive material published last week and will continue our efforts to address the judgement error that led to this problem.

We welcome any input and can be reached via email at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Guardian Staff