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Robert Samuels Profile picture
@newsbysamuels
Mar 17, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
People often ask me what it is like to be a black reporter covering Trump’s America. I honestly don’t fully know because I’ve never been white, so I have little to compare it with. But I’ve found, for me, it is more an advantage than a disadvantage #GreatMomentsInReporting
In such a polarizing time, a lot of people want to explain why their views about America should not be discounted or rejected simply because they are racist, even if most folks who live in Washington would reject them as such. #GreatMomentsInReporting
I’ve been struck by how many white people want to discuss race and racism with me, without me even asking. I’m some times the first black person they’ve had in their homes, and the first one they’ve had deep conversation with about this stuff. #GreatMomentsInReporting
Many relish the opportunity. I do too. I love learning about this vast, complicated country , in which the only thing that really ties us is the we were taught that we live in a land of unparalleled opportunity. #GreatMomentsInReporting
Anyway, I mostly post of the #GreatMomentsInReporting on Facebook and Instagram. Follow along with me as I journey through America.

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More from @newsbysamuels

Robert Samuels Profile picture
May 26
I think about how nine years passed between Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat and the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, and become more astonished by those activists’ persistence. Nine years.
So many people who were animated to help end racial injustice after Floyd’s death told me how tired they already felt after four.

As we continued to talk to people about the book, I began having conversations with an 82-year-old man named Charles Person.
Person was one of the original Freedom Riders, the group of young people who boarded buses in the early 1960s to integrate bus stops, bathrooms and lunch counters along the highway system.
Read 5 tweets
Robert Samuels Profile picture
May 24
As a journalist who has conducted hundreds of interviews and read tons of articles about George Floyd, leading up to an award-winning book about his life and legacy, I've been bothered by the misinformation about him. Here are the answers to some myths about #GeorgeFloyd:
He didn't die of an overdose. That theory is based on preliminary report by a medical examiner, who later concluded his death was a homicide. Amount of fentanyl wasn't deadly, and Floyd did not show sign of overdose (coma). He died because of a lack of oxygen due to extreme force
It is untrue that Derek Chauvin used an approved police technique. The maximal restraint technique is supposed to be used until a subject stops resisting; never with deadly force. Police continued using technique after Floyd was unconscious, for at least three more minutes.
Read 8 tweets
Robert Samuels Profile picture
Jun 16, 2023
The amazing thing about the findings in this DOJ report is that Minneapolis' Police Department fashioned itself as one of the most progressive, educated and thoughtful departments in the country. And still.
Over the course of our reporting in "His Name is George Floyd," we talked to dozens of rank-and-file officers and leaders, all the way up to former police chiefs. I was confused when leaders told me they felt it was next-to-difficult to stem a culture of excessive force
The stories residents told, and police officers admitted to - of officers beating them up, tossing them in nearby cities with no way to get home, using neck restraints with no warning - were horrifying.
Read 5 tweets
Robert Samuels Profile picture
Oct 6, 2020
The more I hear about President Trump's covid treatment, the more I think about the late James Brooks, an 80-year-old black man who lived outside Detroit. He left Mississippi for Detroit and built a middle-class life for his family as a company man at Chrysler.
When James Freeman got sick this spring, there was so much confusion about what to do. This energetic man felt unusually tired and chest pain. His kids suspected covid, but they did not take him to the nearest hospital b/c it had a bad reputation for treating black patients.
So they took him to a drive-through test site at a hospital farther away with a better reputation. The outcome wasn't much better. He was denied a covid test 2x because he had no fever (even though he was elderly, lethargic and with chest pain). That's how limited tests were.
Read 8 tweets
Robert Samuels Profile picture
Jun 25, 2020
I've been fascinated by the Jamaal Bowman and race. I grew up in @RepEliotEngel 's district. He came to my small, Jamaican American church frequently that everyone there felt like they had a personal connection to him Time (and time in Washington) changes things. A quick story:
I approached Engel after church one day to tell him more should be done to prevent drug use near my local corner store. I was either 9 or 11. His response:, "I think what you want to do is for me to come and speak to your school."
He gave me his business card. I was starstruck. I imagined how cool everyone would think I was because I got a congressman to come to my school. I got home and realized he didn't actually address my concern. That was the day I vowed never to have a politician spin me again.
Read 4 tweets
Robert Samuels Profile picture
Jun 23, 2020
It's come to my attention that some people have interpreted my tweet about the word "reckoning" as a shady subtweet @WesleyLowery 's op-ed today. 1) It wasn't. 2) That would be cruel & unfair to Brother Wes, whom I love 3) Simply put, Wes' column is right: nytimes.com/2020/06/23/opi…
What's Wes right about? There needs to be a radical re-imagining of how daily cops reporting is done in journalism. It's long overdue, and it's been something reporters - particularly black reporters - have complained about for years. I know this because I am one of them. (1/
Almost a decade ago, my old news organization asked me to placed on the night cops beat. I didn't want to do it because deadlines were stiffening, newsprint was shrinking and all that led to an uncomfortable reliance on arrest reports and official statements from cops. (2/
Read 9 tweets

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