There’s been a lot said and written this week about being Black in journalism, so here are my thoughts…Of course, these are my opinions, and don’t reflect those of my employer. So…. LONG THREAD… (1/20)
I’ve been a journalist since I was 16 years old, and I’ve been in a lot of newsrooms, freelanced, and worked in a couple of different countries. I’ve experienced all kinds of versions of racism. (2/20)
When the #metoo movement was heating up in media, and the guys who made inappropriate comments or advances over the years were being put on blast (NOT talking about the rapes or assaults here)… (3/20)
I often wondered… What if we did that to all the people who’ve been racist in media companies? (4/20)
What if the energy used to track down and expose all the men who ruined the careers of women….was directed towards all the newsroom “leaders” who ruined the careers of black journalists? (5/20)
The managers and editors who passed over us for promotions, opportunities, & raises & instead gave them to less qualified white people. The ones who refuse to hire or promote Black men.(6/20)
The managers who beat Black journalists down with months and years of microagressions to the point they had to resign to salvage their mental health… or their dignity. (7/20)
The managers who shot down nuanced stories about our communities & pressured their Black reporters to cover whatever the trending “Black” story was among white people that day, even when it had nothing to do with their beat. (8/20)
During #metoo, much was made of the “whisper networks” about sexual harassers in media. Guess what? We have those too! (9/20)
Black journalists talk to each other about the racism in our newsrooms, and share info about the bad actors and the people who dismiss, suppress, or disrespect Black voices. We know who they are, and many of us have kept receipts. (10/20)
We saved our HR complaints that went nowhere, bosses’ & colleagues passive-aggressive e-mails, the outcomes from serving on countless “diversity” committees whose findings and recommendations were ignored. (11/20)
What IF we held the people who ruined the careers and financial prospects of Black and brown journalists due to their racism to the same standard we hold the people who did the same to women because of sexual harassment? (12/20)
What IF we decided that, just like #metoo, people with a history of racist management practices weren’t fit to be newsroom leaders… or business leaders? How do you calculate the lost wages and the cost of the emotional strain? (13/20)
This is—and should be— a time of scrutiny for media. Are organizations willing to face their flawed history & do the work to improve? Or will they silence or attempt to delegitimize voices in their newsrooms pushing them to do better? (14/20)
Will they listen to complaints of Black and Brown journalists delivered through venues where those journalists actually have a voice (like social media)? Will they create a safer space for those voices to be heard in the newsroom? (15/20)
Or will they rely on antiquated policies and guidelines that don’t reflect a diversity of lived experiences or the reality of America and insist those voices be silent? (16/20)
Right now, many Black journalists are still working to improve their newsrooms and are running themselves ragged to cover the important stories happening all around us DESPITE leaders that aren’t equipped for the moment. (17/20)
And this isn’t just in journalism... what about all the managers in corporations and small businesses that engaged in discriminatory behavior that suppressed the advancement of black workers? (18/20)
Of course people should be allowed to learn and change and grow, but that doesn’t eliminate the past wrongs, or the lasting damage it caused. And how can we trust them to lead us at times like this? (19/20)
So when we look to the people leading newsrooms and businesses through this moment, it’s worth seeing if their track record has prepared them for— or disqualified them for— the current moment. (20/20)
