If you don’t seek out stories about race, you’re less likely to see them
February 17, 2020 8:01 PM Subscribe
Black journalists push media to cover ‘hyper-racial’ moment in politics: ”Race and politics,” one reporter said, “is really the story of our time.” - “Sometimes we as an industry don’t understand how psychologically and emotionally tolling these conversations can be,” Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery told POLITICO, adding that white colleagues are “having a high-minded conversation about things that impact your life every day.”
“Racism often manifests as subtext and implication,” he wrote. “Black & brown ears can hear the racism clearly while our white colleagues engage in fruitless, if earnest, pedantic games.”
Why Journalists Must Stop Segregating Stories About Race - “In my view, too often, coverage of racial issues at mainstream news organizations is treated episodically, focused largely on exploding controversies and breaking news stories...But in my experience this approach also segregates the topic of race to news, focused on conflict and controversy, that polarizes audiences. Audiences are conditioned to see race as a hot-button topic only worthy of the most blockbuster stories, making it tougher for journalists to tell subtler, more complex tales.”
The Modern Newsroom Is Stuck Behind The Gender And Color Line - “Nationally, Hispanic, black and Asian women make up less than 5 percent of newsroom personnel at traditional print and online news publications, according to 2016 data from the American Society of News Editors…hiring women, minorities and generally journalists of diverse backgrounds is not a luxury or a matter of "different optics," or political expedience, as recruiters typically approach the matter, but essential to the profession's mission and longevity. A typical white, male-centric newsroom, means critical stories will continue to go unreported and news analysis will remain unbalanced.”
When newsrooms are dominated by white people, they miss crucial facts - “There’s another reason why diversity matters. The media exists in a climate of unprecedented hostility. The relationship between the White House and the press, frequently rocky, has devolved into a circumstance in which the president of the United States has referred to us as the “enemy of the people”. Trump’s attacks are facilitated by the fact that, in the past two decades, trust in the media has plummeted. This is a crisis of democracy, since the press’s role as a guardian of democracy is founded upon the trust of the public. But at least some portion of that distrust is a product of people who rarely see themselves or their stories depicted in the media they consume. A great deal must be done to rebuild public trust. But it can begin by including the voices of all Americans.”
“Racism often manifests as subtext and implication,” he wrote. “Black & brown ears can hear the racism clearly while our white colleagues engage in fruitless, if earnest, pedantic games.”
Why Journalists Must Stop Segregating Stories About Race - “In my view, too often, coverage of racial issues at mainstream news organizations is treated episodically, focused largely on exploding controversies and breaking news stories...But in my experience this approach also segregates the topic of race to news, focused on conflict and controversy, that polarizes audiences. Audiences are conditioned to see race as a hot-button topic only worthy of the most blockbuster stories, making it tougher for journalists to tell subtler, more complex tales.”
The Modern Newsroom Is Stuck Behind The Gender And Color Line - “Nationally, Hispanic, black and Asian women make up less than 5 percent of newsroom personnel at traditional print and online news publications, according to 2016 data from the American Society of News Editors…hiring women, minorities and generally journalists of diverse backgrounds is not a luxury or a matter of "different optics," or political expedience, as recruiters typically approach the matter, but essential to the profession's mission and longevity. A typical white, male-centric newsroom, means critical stories will continue to go unreported and news analysis will remain unbalanced.”
When newsrooms are dominated by white people, they miss crucial facts - “There’s another reason why diversity matters. The media exists in a climate of unprecedented hostility. The relationship between the White House and the press, frequently rocky, has devolved into a circumstance in which the president of the United States has referred to us as the “enemy of the people”. Trump’s attacks are facilitated by the fact that, in the past two decades, trust in the media has plummeted. This is a crisis of democracy, since the press’s role as a guardian of democracy is founded upon the trust of the public. But at least some portion of that distrust is a product of people who rarely see themselves or their stories depicted in the media they consume. A great deal must be done to rebuild public trust. But it can begin by including the voices of all Americans.”
This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- frimble
This literally happened the other day with the NYTimes piece on AA racism and coronavirus. A verified journalist asked around AA forums for people to "share" racist experiences. It's a fine topic as part of broader coverage, but when you drop in as a representative of a major publication just to ask about that (grar narratives to share to the world), it feels less like getting to know Asian Americans as a community of human beings and learning about interesting Asian American perspectives about the coronavirus, and more like extracting information for a white lens, and feeding the media cycle. It's paradoxically quite racist, and a failure of journalistic vision, to engage a minority community that way.
posted by polymodus at 3:00 AM on February 18, 2020 [18 favorites]
posted by polymodus at 3:00 AM on February 18, 2020 [18 favorites]
In the spring of 2018, Tequila Johnson, an African-American administrator at Tennessee State University, led a mass voter-registration drive organized by a coalition of activist groups called the Tennessee Black Voter Project. Turnout in Tennessee regularly ranks near the bottom among U.S. states, just ahead of Texas. At the time, only 65 percent of the state’s voting-age population was registered to vote, the shortfall largely among black and low-income citizens. “The African-American community has been shut out of the process, and voter suppression has really widened that gap,” Johnson told me. “I felt I had to do something.”
Harpers - Election Bias, The new playbook for voter suppression.
posted by adamvasco at 6:53 AM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
Harpers - Election Bias, The new playbook for voter suppression.
posted by adamvasco at 6:53 AM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
I’ve followed Lowery’s career since his coverage of Ferguson—he is massively talented. For a while I thought things looked so bright for the future of WaPo with younger hotshots like him, Seung Min Kim, and Liz Bruenig. Unfortunately the Post itself treated him like crap and now Lowery is leaving for CBS News (and Bruenig has left for the NYT).
Another good example of what Lowery is talking about is the NYT’s Charles M. Blow, who has been one of the only elite media voices refusing to brush Bloomberg’s stop and frisk policy under the rug. It makes a difference to have a voice speak under the NYT mantle who can say “this policy personally affected my life, this is not a thought exercise or ethical game to be played around the table on Sunday morning shows.”
posted by sallybrown at 7:28 AM on February 18, 2020 [6 favorites]
Another good example of what Lowery is talking about is the NYT’s Charles M. Blow, who has been one of the only elite media voices refusing to brush Bloomberg’s stop and frisk policy under the rug. It makes a difference to have a voice speak under the NYT mantle who can say “this policy personally affected my life, this is not a thought exercise or ethical game to be played around the table on Sunday morning shows.”
posted by sallybrown at 7:28 AM on February 18, 2020 [6 favorites]
This is something I notice a lot, for me more about LGBT and disability issues - people in the community seek it out, other people assume that nothing is going on for us because they're not hearing about it. It's the whole thing where people with privilege are treated as "average" and the rest of us are "special interests".
posted by bile and syntax at 8:14 AM on February 18, 2020 [15 favorites]
posted by bile and syntax at 8:14 AM on February 18, 2020 [15 favorites]
So pay attention to the story you do read. Actively seek out more.
As a white person, I've found that following POC journalists on Twitter is a great way to quickly pick up on some of these stories (also on some really good prose stylists!) without putting so much of the burden on POC friends/colleagues to "educate" me.
posted by praemunire at 10:15 AM on February 18, 2020 [4 favorites]
As a white person, I've found that following POC journalists on Twitter is a great way to quickly pick up on some of these stories (also on some really good prose stylists!) without putting so much of the burden on POC friends/colleagues to "educate" me.
posted by praemunire at 10:15 AM on February 18, 2020 [4 favorites]
I've only read the first article so far. It's super interesting and important. Thanks.
posted by medusa at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2020
posted by medusa at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2020
I seriously restrict my exposure to news in general - if it's important, it filters through to me, but I just can't stay healthy with the continuous violence-filled and despair-inducing news cycle. But it occurred to me recently that when I am ready for a dose of news, I may as well start with a Black-focused news site, like the Bay View. It definitely gives me a different perspective than, say, the San Francisco Chronicle's website.
posted by kristi at 1:50 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by kristi at 1:50 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by plonkee at 10:56 PM on February 17, 2020 [22 favorites]