Racial literacy in journalism
Recently I was asked by my RA to describe my culture and how I am diverse. While I appreciated the question and thought it was a great way for him and my roommate to understand me, I felt awkward about it. My RA had a great response, he is Afro-Latino, a proud Catholic and values his family to the highest degree. When it was my turn to talk about myself… I felt like I had nothing to say. I’m a young cis, straight, white woman from the suburbs of D.C. who does not practice religion or have any defining characteristics. I realize that I cannot change the internal part of who I am and I don’t want to, but I know that I can do more in order to not feel awkward when talking about issues of diversity.
I am also a tour guide on campus. (Technically not yet, I’m still in training, but you get the idea). On our tours we must include diversity all throughout and have a specific cultural stop where we talk about Frederick Douglass, the cultural center in the student union and emphasize all the really cool clubs that my college has to offer. While I was going through training before all of the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer, we only had one stop where we talked about diversity. My advisers all said things along the lines of, “we know it’s awkward, but you have to do it.” At the time I thought it was fine, but now looking back that statement in itself is not very inclusive and promoting the excitement that my campus has to offer for all students. Fortunately the tour guides have changed the route and promote diversity throughout the tour.
The reason that I am sharing these personal stories about how I am not diverse and how I still find it awkward to share my experience regarding race relations is because I recently read two articles that inspired me to write this post. Hopefully, it’s okay they are not from Medium, but I will definitely be looking to further my knowledge about the topic of diversity within the journalism field.
I think it is so important to raise every voice. That is why I got into journalism in the first place. You can tell stories about the underrepresented and oppressed in order to help and build their communities. Journalism does what politics can’t sometimes. It shares the unpolished truth. In the articles that I read, Cristi Hegranes and Khalil Gibran Muhammad both shared important details regarding reporting and race. Most importantly, it’s not enough to just have a diverse writing room (EVEN THOUGH THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!) but also everyone in that writing room needs to feel comfortable and have the background knowledge to report on such issues. Especially regarding language, from “protesters” to “rioters” and if it’s okay to use the word “ethnic,” these are important conversations that must be had. I will be the first to admit that I did not have a comprehensive race education in my public school, but it is so encouraging to see that some school boards are trying to combat the lack of diverse information our history classes are taught. I cannot wait to see what the education system looks like by the time my kids are old enough. What I want to do now is to really educate myself, so in the case where I am asked a question in a job interview about race reporting, I will be educated, race literate and excited to report on whatever I can.
I did read one anti-racist work over the summer, Ijeoma Oluo’s “So You Want to Talk About Race,” and I thought it was super helpful. I was highlighting and flagging the pages, hoping to get as much information as possible from her writing. However, I know I can do more. Whether it be other books about anti-racism or about intersectional feminism or more articles like the Poynter ones I will link, I know I can and will do more research. I encourage everyone out there to do the same. This is not the end of my journey. I will never claim to know everything simply because I won’t ever know everything. I know I can do more though. Those are not my stories, but the least I can do is read them and understand them and know what I can do as a cis-gendered, straight, white female to help the others that need their voices to be heard.
Newsroom updates to style guide entries related to race are heartening, but far from comprehensive By Cristi Hegranes
Not sure if you should call something racist? Here’s AP’s guidance By Denise-Marie Ordway (A conversation with Khalil Gibran Muhammad)
