Thread by @keikoinboston

1. This is not how you create positive demographic change in the media. 🙅🏻‍♀️

L: archive.ph/YZVLF
R: archive.ph/4ZTEF

2. Kudos to Gregory Pratt (@royalpratt) & @chicagotribune for declining this interview with Mayor Lightfoot. 👏

"Politicians don’t get to choose who covers them.”

https://twitter.com/royalpratt/status/1395025840946262017

3. If POC want to increase our numbers in media, we can support student newspapers at high schools and colleges with high POC populations.

4. Many college & university student-run newspapers face funding challenges (even at majority white schools) and when they become unsustainable, they cease to exist.

savestudentnewsrooms.com/about/

5. Partner with racial minority journalist organizations to fund events, mentorships, and scholarships for K-12 and college students.

@aaja
@sajahq
@najournalists
@NAHJ
@NABJ

6. If you’re a teacher/professor, community organizer, run an after school or extracurricular program, invite racial minority journalists to speak to your youth about their careers.

7. Some POC think that this aspirational future where we’re on top and whites are out of power will be glorious but if we’re just recreating systems of oppression based on “skin color” by turning the tables, that’s NOT equality.

8. Some POC scoff at the idea that we need to stand up for the rights of white people when they are being discriminated against but if we don’t, we’re no better than white people who haven’t stood up for our rights.

9. I’ve been there. In 2015. I did most of the difficult work behind the scenes.

https://twitter.com/keikoinboston/status/1111435959617216513

10. Here’s what I wrote in 2019 about why I was planning to bail on event that was announced as a no whites event. Organizers were informed by the school that they couldn’t bar whites from the event.

https://twitter.com/keikoinboston/status/1111436295853633537

11. I think from the organizers’ perspective they weren’t discriminating against whites so much as trying to give Asian Americans a safe space to speak freely. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

12. Discrimination based on race needs to be opposed in all forms, regardless of who the discriminator is and what lofty goals they claim they’re trying to achieve.

https://twitter.com/keikoinboston/status/1111437826371932162

13. Update:

Wow, just came across this letter from Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot. It appears the recipients were local Chicago media outlets. There is no related press release on the mayor’s website.

archive.ph/eEVjs

https://twitter.com/tahmanbradley/status/1395030890888187906

14. Mayor Lightfoot’s letter is all common enemy identity politics instead of common humanity identity politics.

Quotes below.

seattletimes.com/opinion/common…

15. Para 4. The enemy: white male media.

“I have been struck since my first day on the campaign trail back in 2018 by the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall Press Corps specifically.”

16.

“… the group of reporters assigned to cover City Hall is practically all white. Many of them are smart and hard-working, savvy and skilled. But mostly white, nonetheless. Indeed, there are only a handful of beat reporters of color in the City Hall press corps. …

17.

… While there are women of color who sometimes cover my administration, there are zero women of color assigned to the City Hall beat. Zero. I find this unacceptable and I hope you do too.”

18. Paragraph 8:

“We are working hard to do our part. We host ethnic media roundtables, and work hard to prioritize outlets led by people of color. …

19.

… I or others from my administration regularly appear on Black and Latinx TV and radio stations, and we’ve also focused paid public service media ad dollars in that direction. We have worked to build diversity into our own communications team …”

20. Lightfoot highlights the African American and Latinx communications staff but makes no mention of AAPI or Native American comms staff despite paying lip service to us as part of the majority-minority Chicago population.

archive.ph/YZVLF

21. Paragraph 10:

“And the truth is, it is too heavy a burden to bear, on top of all the other massive challenges our city faces in this moment, to also have to take on the labor of educating white, mostly male members of the news media...

22.

… about the perils and complexities of implicit bias. This isn’t my job. It shouldn’t be. I don’t have time for it.”

Pretty sure most Chicagoans would like her to actually do her job?

23. Paragraphs 11 & 12:

“At the two-year anniversary of my inauguration, I am issuing a challenge to you. Hire reporters of color—and especially women of color—to cover Chicago politics, and City Hall in particular. …

24.

… If you only have a white reporter covering City Hall, make sure there’s a person of color working with them as well.

There are plenty of talented women reporters of color in Chicago for you to hire from, and that pool of talent is growing all the time.”

25. Paragraph 13:

“Does your institution have an initiative set up to intentionally cultivate, recruit, support and retain young reporters of color in your ranks? Are there any people of color in your leadership teams or on your editorial boards? ...

26.

… Are there qualified people of color on your team that could cover City Hall, but simply haven’t been given the chance? Have you analyzed your own coverage to identify and root out implicit bias?”

27. Paragraph 14:

“My team will always be responsive to your inquiries. We will always be transparent. But if the answer to these questions is no, be advised that I will continue to press for that to change.”