Bittersweet came to mind, as did frustrated when she learned charges were forthcoming in the Flint water crisis.
And repairing the physical & emotional scars of Flint residents could take years.apnews.com/article/flint-…
You may remember Ariana Hawk's story. Her son, Sincere Smith, was two when his picture, captured by the talented @reginahboone, made the cover of Time magazine in 2016. Sincere suffered painful, severe rashes & dry patches because of Flint's water --A trauma impossible to forget.
I spoke to Hawk after the @AP broke the news. She's hopeful but said justice delayed is justice denied. Sincere is 7 now. He remains skeptical of all tap water.
The family went to FL recently. The children asked if the water was safe to drink.
"It's heartbreaking," Hawk said.
Important to note: The crisis never ended for Flint residents.
Many will never trust the water again. Many still rely on bottled water. The COVID-19 pandemic has made life that much harder for some, Hawk said. “We shouldn’t still be going through this seven years later."
NEW tonight: Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was charged Wednesday with two counts of willful neglect of duty stemming from an investigation of the Flint water crisis. MI AG @dananessel has a presser set for Thursday AM.
NEW: Black policy leaders will play a pivotal role in President-elect @JoeBiden's transition, marking one of the most diverse agency review teams in history. My latest for @AP: apnews.com/article/joe-bi…
Of the 500+ team members announced, more than half are women -- & Black men & women are leading more than one-quarter of the teams.
Diversity is significant: The teams will be responsible for evaluating the operations of federal agencies that have a broad impact on Americans’.
More on why it matters: Biden will take office at a time when the nation is confronting a historic pandemic, joblessness & police brutality -- crises that have disparately impacted Black Americans.
Black voters powered his victory. They want action now.
Michigan AG Dana Nessel has filed felony charges against two well-known out-of-state Republican operatives for allegedly orchestrating robocalls aimed at suppressing the vote in the Detroit area. detroitnews.com/story/news/pol…
From the story: The calls were made in late Aug to nearly 12K residents with phone numbers from the 313 area code. They stem from a false robocall that discouraged mail-in voting by saying their personal info would be part of a public database used by police if they vote by mail.
Why is this significant? Detroit is the nation's largest Black-majority city, it will play a major role in deciding which way Michigan goes in Nov. & in turn, a role in the overall outcome of the election. Suppression tactics like this could impact turnout.
Sen. @KamalaHarris stops in Flint at Magnificlips- a local downtown barber shop owned by Earl Jones and Tim Tyler. Due to the pandemic, their business was forced to shut down for a period of time one week after opening.
Harris was greeted by Senator Debbie Stabenow, who is wearing a black Biden/Harris face mask. Hard to hear but Harris talked to them about the challenges minority businesses owners face.
Sen. Kamala Harris taking a photo with a local business owner and her daughter. (Sen. Stabenow snapped the photo)
I think often of how reporters are told to work their way up in newsrooms by starting out on a night cops shift/covering police. Breaking news is seen as an entry level, easy to do gig. But it's not. Nor is it a throwaway beat, it's an integral part of community coverage.
Why do many newsrooms treat it as if it doesn't require a certain level of expertise? Expertise that really is required on all fronts: Not just in learning how to cover a police department but more specifically the community that the police department is supposed to serve.
It's ingrained in reporters to develop police sourcing. Makes sense to a degree. But what if we spent as much effort developing sourcing within the community, too? Police coverage isn't just covering the institution itself but rather its interactions with the community.
I'm encouraged to see so many newsrooms today publish internal diversity numbers & acknowledge that most don't reflect the communities they cover. But please remember, it's not enough to hire Black/POC journalists. These plans must include retainment & career advancement.
As you lay out hiring plans, ask yourself these questions: What sort of environment will these journalists be brought into? Will their voices be heard? Are they only being hired in entry level roles? Or in prominent beats and management roles?
Yes, newsrooms have shrunk/been decimated. But that doesn't change this fact: We weren't doing that great of a job covering these communities before that. The very future of journalism depends on all of us rising to the occasion to truly cover America's shifting demographics.