Many years ago - more than 30 - I was lucky enough to earn a post grad fellowship to the @Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. I was, I think, the first, or one of the first, Canadian students to study there.
I had to find a place to stay - so I was delighted when one of my fellow incoming students called me up. She was from Atlanta, and she and her brother were driving down to St. Petersburg to look for an apartment for her. She asked if I might want to be her roommate.
We chatted on the phone and hit it off, and I said sure! So she found us a great place to share.
A day or two later, I was called by an administrator from Poynter. She was calling because she wanted to make sure I knew my new roommate was....black. At first, I was deeply confused. I didn’t understand why she was calling. And I was offended. Did she think I was racist?
I told her, huffily, that the race of my roommate made no difference to me. I was flabbergasted that the school should call to tell me such a thing.
But she said she was acting to protect my roommate. They didn’t want me to arrive and then refuse to live with her. Apparently they’d had such issues in the past. It was a huge wake up call for me, about what it was like to be black in America.
My roommate Janita turned out to be the brilliant & delightful @PoeCommunicate - and we clicked immediately and stayed friends ever after. She went on to write for the @chicagotribune & the Atlanta Journal-Constitution among other acclaimed papers.
Today, she’s a professor and academic, educating a whole new generation of journalists. Goodness knows, I’ll always be grateful for the education she gave me, a naive white kid from Edmonton, about the realities of black life in Georgia.
I’m wishing the best for her tonight, and for all my American friends. And for all journalists risking their safety to cover the news. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay stalwart.
Since I posted this, I’ve been shocked & horrified to see the waves of images of journalists across the US who report that they’ve been assaulted by both police and protesters. You are not the enemies of the people. You are champions of the truth. Thank you for bearing witness.
