Attacking the #1619Project, historian Peter Coclanis says that lately “in its domestic coverage [the NYT] reads at times more like a Midtown edition of the Amsterdam News than a national newspaper of record.” It’s a strange, revealing turn of phrase. /1
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The Amsterdam News, founded 1909, is one of the nation’s oldest Black-owned newspapers. Like its peers, it‘s declined in circulation and influence since the 1940s-60s—a time when Black journalists couldn’t get jobs at white-owned papers. /2
Does saying that the @nytimes reads “more like a Midtown edition of the Amsterdam News than a national newspaper of record” just mean it’s become too local, provincial? Obviously not. The Times is less focused on NYC than ever. /3
(Never mind that the News was long a national paper in many ways; MLK Jr, a Southerner, was a columnist.) Rather, Coclanis is saying he feels that the Times has become a Black newspaper. And let’s pause here for a moment to think about that perception. /4
To state the obvious, the Times has not become a Black newspaper. It‘s still owned by a white family. The newsroom remains beyond-overwhelmingly white. A Black man has been executive editor for 5 years, but there’s no particular reason to expect his successor will be Black. /5
If Coclanis perceives the Times as Black-run or Black-dominated, it’s because white people mistake even small increases in the number of Black people in white spaces as major changes—or even through the lens/language, which has a long history, of Black people taking over. /6
If he just means the Times has become pro-Black: Has he been reading the same paper that I have? When the AP style book last year disallowed euphemisms like “racially tinged” and “racially charged,” many people saw it as an implied rebuke of the Times. /7
Is #1619Project perfect? Is every decision the creators made the same one every historian would have made? Of course not. But the backlash is extremely troubling. I think people fear that @nhannahjones will—and can—change K-12 teaching. And as a historian, I hope she does. /end
@nhannahjones Circling back to tag @NYAmNews - pls follow! Just today, by @StephonPJohnson: "The Mississippi Department of Corrections tried to start 2020 with business as usual. It’s been anything but. Five people have died at three different facilities last week..." amsterdamnews.com/news/2020/jan/…
@nhannahjones @NYAmNews @StephonPJohnson Also today in the @NYAmNews, @StephonPJohnson explains how restaurant and bar workers were left out of new job protections just announced by @NYGovCuomo. Vital stories not covered elsewhere. amsterdamnews.com/news/2020/jan/…
