Newsflash, editorial cartoonist Gary Varvel: removing a mustache from a cartoon face does not remove the racism and willful ignorance of the subject matter at hand.

On Friday (November 22), the Indianapolis Star published a cartoon that featured an immigrant family climbing through the window of a terrified white family's home at Thanksgiving, proclaiming that — thanks to President Barack Obama — their dinner would now have to house several unexpected guests.

"Thanks to the president's immigration order," says the father in the image, "we'll be having extra guests this Thanksgiving."

.@indystar I'm ashamed to be in the same field of work as the editors who allowed this ignorant, racist cartoon. pic.twitter.com/QEpbmxqp8P

— Margarita (@margarita) November 22, 2014

A version of the cartoon posted to their Facebook page featured a darker skin tone for the family, and a mustache for their patriarch while the version that ran in the Star (and on their site) lightened their pigmentation and removed the 'stache, as if that somehow made it any less racist.

The Case of the Mysterious Mustache: the original @indystar cartoon by @varvel & the edit pic.twitter.com/NRDUAkSASx

— Staci D Kramer (@sdkstl) November 22, 2014

But that's only part of the issue people have with the cartoon: in addition to being visually racist, it also blatantly and knee-jerkingly misleads the viewer based on an uninformed, reactionary handle on President Obama's policies. The immigration reform policies allow clemency for illegal immigrants who were in the country before January 1, 2014, have children here, and no criminal records — it in no way is an open invitation for unlawful immigration to flood the borders as the cartoon so implies.

Naturally, the Internet went amok over the depiction, causing the newspaper to take it down on Saturday afternoon.

"I was uncomfortable with the depiction when I saw it after it was posted," explained executive editor Jeff Taylor in a statement on the Star's website. "We initially decided to leave the cartoon posted to allow readers to comment and because material can never truly be eliminated once it is circulating on the web. But we are removing the cartoon from the opinion section of our website, as well as an earlier version posted on Facebook that showed one character with a mustache."

Taylor claims the racism was never intentional on Varvel's part. "He intended to illustrate the view of many conservatives and others that the president's order will encourage more people to pour into the country illegally."

Varvel himself has yet to issue a statement on the matter.

To learn more about your own implicit bias, head over to MTV's Look Different campaign.