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85% of Blacks Want Trump Impeached

by richard03258

57% of Latinos Agree in Poll, Only 41% of Whites

Champs Think Twice About White House Visits

Rights Leaders Hopeful After Meeting Zuckerberg

Just 2% of Latinos Identify With ‘Latinx’ Term

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Members of the World Series champion Washington Nationals visit the White House on Monday.  Most of those who spoke directed their comments solely toward the Nationals’ accomplishments and didn’t mention President Trump. Some Asian Americans criticized Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.  (video) (credit: USA Today)

57% of Latinos Agree in Poll, Only 41% of Whites

Eighty-five percent of African Americans say President Trump should be impeached, the highest of any ethnic group, according to the latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll.

Fifty-seven percent of Hispanics feel the same way, the poll shows.

However, only 41 percent of whites do, according to the survey, meaning that the common conclusion that the country is evenly divided on the impeachment issue is possible only because of the intense anti-Trump feeling among people of color.

“A year out from the 2020 election, we don’t have 2020 vision, but the general dynamics of the race are coming into focus: a sitting president below 50 percent, who receives credit on the economy, speaks his mind for better or worse, but who most Americans do not trust and who is facing an impeachment inquiry that a majority of Americans support,” [PDF] a summary of the poll said Monday. “Taken together, these suggest a tough road ahead for Donald Trump. . . .”

Jeff Horwitt, a senior vice president at Hart Research and Associates, which conducted the survey for the two news organizations, told Journal-isms that the sample sizes for Asian Americans and Native Americans were too small to be valid.

He gave the racial breakdown as:

Impeach/Not impeach

White                                    41 percent/54 percent

African American             85 percent/9 percent

Hispanic                               57 percent/40 percent

“The raw number of interviews among all adults are 117 African Americans and 99 Hispanics,” Horwitt messaged.

The poll was conducted from Oct. 27 to 30, among 900 adults of all races, with additional interviews to get to 414 interviews among Democratic primary voters, the survey takers said.

(Credit:: teezill.com)
(Credit:: teezill.com)

The results for blacks and Latinos clearly contradict Trump’s frequent boasts that people of color support him.

Trump made a typical claim in July when he insulted the majority-black city of Baltimore. “What I’ve done for African Americans, no president, I would say, has done. Now, I’ll say this: they are so happy, because I get the calls,” he told reporters as he left for a speech in Virginia that was boycotted by black state lawmakers, as Daniel Dale reported July 30 for CNN. “They are so happy at what I’ve been able to do in Baltimore and other Democratic-run, corrupt cities.”

Trump continued later: “The African American people have been calling the White House. They have never been so happy [at] what a president has done. Not only the lowest unemployment in history for African Americans, not only opportunity zones for, really, the biggest beneficiary the inner city, and not only criminal justice reform. But they’re so happy that I pointed out the corrupt politics of Baltimore. It’s filthy dirty. It’s so horrible. And they are happy as hell.”

At a rally in New Mexico in September, Trump claimed, “We are working night and day to deliver a future of limitless opportunities for our nation’s Hispanic-American citizens.  . . . Nobody loves the Hispanics more. We love our Hispanics, get out and vote,” Bess Levin reported Sept. 17 for Vanity Fair.

Trump also said, “At the center of America’s drug crisis, this is where the Hispanics know it better than anybody. People said, ‘Oh, the Hispanics won’t like a wall.’ I said, ‘I think they are going to love it.’ You know why? Because you understand it better than other people, but at the whole center of this crisis is the drugs that are pouring in, and you understand that when other people don’t understand it.’ . . . .”

Champs Think Twice About White House Visits

“Though it’s been customary for champion teams to visit the White House since the Reagan administration, such visits to the White House have become controversial in recent years,” Jeffrey Katz and Esther Ciammachilli wrote Monday for Washington’s WAMU-FM, reporting on the Washington Nationals’ visit to the White House after last week’s World Series championship.

“A number of Latino and African American players from the Boston Red Sox boycotted a May meeting with Trump to celebrate the team’s 2018 Series victory. And the White House rescinded an invitation for the Philadelphia Eagles to accept congratulations for winning the 2018 Super Bowl after several players said they wouldn’t attend.

“The Washington Capitals did meet with Trump after they won the 2018 Stanley Cup. But there were a couple of defections from that visit, too, including star goalie Braden Holtby.

“Trump has not extended an invitation to the Washington Mystics, who won the WNBA championship last month.”

Relief pitcher Sean Doolittle “told The Washington Post Friday that he would not go to the White House, citing his stance against Trump’s divisive rhetoric about refugees and people of color,” the writers continued.

“ ‘My wife and I stand for inclusion and acceptance, and we’ve done work with refugees, people that come from, you know, the “shithole countries,” ‘ Doolittle said. It was a reference to remarks Trump reportedly made during a meeting with lawmakers last year, when talking about immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries.

“Doolittle told the Post that he wanted to attend the White House event to support his teammates but couldn’t compromise his own beliefs to do so.

“The no-shows at the White House besides Doolittle, [Anthony] Rendon and [Victor] Robles, included Joe Ross, Javy Guerra, Wander Suero, Wilmer Difo and Michael A. Taylor. . . .”

Al Sharpton tweeted this photo Tuesday, adding, "Went home after flying all night, shaved, bathed, and went straight to the polls to VOTE this morning. You haven’t been on a plane all night, so you have no excuse not to do the same." (Credit: Twitter)
The New York-based Al Sharpton tweeted this photo Tuesday, adding, “Went home after flying all night, shaved, bathed, and went straight to the polls to VOTE this morning. You haven’t been on a plane all night, so you have no excuse not to do the same.” (Credit: Twitter)

Rights Leaders Hopeful After Meeting Zuckerberg

“An intimate dinner at Mark Zuckerberg’s Palo Alto home could mark a turning point in civil rights’ leaders ongoing feud with Facebook,” Cat Zakrzewski wrote Tuesday for the Washington Post.

“Some activists say they’re hopeful that their concerns about Facebook’s decision to exempt politicians’ ads from fact-checking are getting through to the chief executive.

“Zuckerberg ‘did imply that it was an evolving kind of policy’ even though he’s remained firm publicly in his decision on the policy during weeks of broad backlash, Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, told me. Leaders from about ten civil rights groups who dined with Zuckerberg last night warned him that politicians might abuse Facebook’s policy to suppress the vote by spreading misinformation during upcoming elections and the 2020 Census.

“ ‘I am now hopeful about the fact that he was open to the discussion and seemed to be going through a process of trying to get it right,’ Sharpton said. ‘I’m not where we want to be, but better than where we were.’

“Zuckerberg’s dinner signals the Facebook chief executive is taking a more active approach on civil rights issues after he faced criticism at last month’s congressional grilling for not being able to answer basic questions on these issues.

“Representatives from groups including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Color of Change, and Muslim Advocates joined for the two-hour meal that included steak, scallops and carrots. They also dined with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, and Nick Clegg, Facebook global policy chief. Yesterday marked the first time many of the leaders had engaged directly with Zuckerberg, as Sandberg and other executives have taken the lead on running the company’s civil rights outreach in recent years.  . . . .”

(Credit: ThinkNow Research)
(Credit: ThinkNow Research)

Just 2% of Latinos Identify With ‘Latinx’ Term

“While my colleagues and I are progressive on social issues, as researchers, we have to put aside our personal biases and render advice based on the best available empirical evidence,” Mario Carrasco, co-founder and principal of ThinkNow Research,” wrote Friday on medium.com.

“To examine the acceptance of ‘Latinx’ our firm conducted a nationwide poll of Latinos using a 508-person sample that is demographically representative of Census figures, yielding a ± 5% margin of error with a 95% confidence interval.

“We presented our respondents with seven of the most common terms used to describe Latinos and asked them to select the one that best describes them. When it came to ‘Latinx,’ there was near unanimity. Despite its usage by academics and cultural influencers, 98% of Latinos prefer other terms to describe their ethnicity. Only 2% of our respondents said the label accurately describes them, making it the least popular ethnic label among Latinos. . . .”

Reporting on the survey, Latino Rebels wrote Tuesday, “There is some myth out there that the use of Latinx is a massive imposition coming from outside activist forces descending on a unsuspecting populace. It’s quite the opposite.

“The term is supposed to challenge your conventional thinking, raising the issues of inclusion and not exclusion. It is supposed to question how messy self-identification within the U.S. Latino community really is. And, more importantly, while we as community allow ourselves to get sucked into a debate that will just divide and conquer us, there are bigger issues to address. It’s pretty clear that in the end, those who cry ‘political correctness’ and the ‘liberal police’ will want us to focus on this debate and completely ignore the harsh realities of living under a white supremacist administration that continues to disparage, demean and detain Latinos. . . .”

In April, the Associated Press said in ts Stylebook revisions that the gender-neutral Latinx “should be confined to quotations, names of organizations or descriptions of individuals who request it and should be accompanied by a short explanation.”

Sharpton, Rights Leaders to Face Facebook

Nov. 2, 2019

Fear Social Media Giant Aids Voter Suppression

How Hundreds Die in U.S. Marshals’ Custody

Deadspin Staff Quits After ‘Sports Only’ Directive

Story on Ogletree Illness ‘an Absolute Must-Read’

AP Adds Reports From Indian Country Today

Public Wants Better Coverage of Addiction, K-12

Journalists Make Essence’s ‘Woke 100’ List

Pittsburgh Black Reporters Say Racism Takes Toll

Cummings Praised as Champion of Transparency

Short Takes

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg poses for a photo with engineers at a startup called Andela in Lagos, Nigeria, in September 2016. Facebook said Wednesday it uncovered a covert Russian influence campaign targeting the domestic politics of eight African countries. (Courtesy Facebook)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg poses for a photo with engineers at a startup called Andela in Lagos, Nigeria, in September 2016. Facebook said Wednesday it uncovered a covert Russian influence campaign targeting the domestic politics of eight African countries. (Courtesy Facebook)

Fear Social Media Giant Aids Voter Suppression

“Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will meet with civil rights leaders including Al Sharpton next week in California amid concerns about the company’s policy of letting politicians lie on its platform,” Ben Brody and Naomi Nix reported Thursday for Bloomberg.

“ ‘I have deep concerns that this policy is a misinformation vehicle that could aid voter suppression and voter misinformation efforts, and it should be stopped immediately,’ the long-time civil rights activist said. . . . ”

Meanwhile, “Facebook said on Wednesday it had suspended three networks of Russian accounts that attempted to interfere in the domestic politics of eight African countries, and were tied to a Russian businessman accused of meddling in past U.S. elections,” Jack Stubbs and Joseph Menn reported for Reuters.

“The campaigns used almost 200 fake and compromised accounts to target people in Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya, Facebook said. Between them, the accounts amassed more than 1 million followers. . . .”

Sharpton said in a statement, “Last week, I sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, requesting a face-to-face meeting with me and other national civil rights leaders to discuss Facebook’s policy to decline to fact-check the accuracy of politicians’ content on Facebook. I have deep concerns that this policy is a misinformation vehicle that could aid voter suppression and voter misinformation efforts, and it should be stopped immediately.

“I received a letter back from Mr. Zuckerberg agreeing [to] my request and I will meet with him early next week in California to press our concerns. I expect to be joined in the meeting by Marc Morial of the National Urban League, Derrick Johnson of the NAACP, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Vanita Gupta of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, among others.

“The fact that Twitter and even some Facebook employees have taken strong stands on this issue only furthers the need for Mr. Zuckerberg to reconsider his position. In an era of voter suppression, we must press with all we have to protect our civil rights and voting rights. This is not an issue of free speech; this is an issue of voter misinformation and voter suppression.”

Russian government-backed online interference in the 2016 election aggressively targeted African Americans more than any other group, according to a major report from the Senate Intelligence Committee, as Grace Panetta reported Oct. 8 for Business Insider.

“Research from the Senate Intel Committee and other investigations, including special counsel Robert Mueller’s massive 400-page report into Russian interference in the 2016 election, have previously found extensive evidence that Russia’s interference efforts stoked racial tensions in an effort to depress African-American voter turnout,” Panetta wrote.

Donie O’Sullivan added Oct. 24 for CNN Business, “Mark Zuckerberg last week invoked Black Lives Matter in explaining why he believes it’s so important to allow free expression on Facebook. But real black activists remember how Facebook (FB) allowed its platforms to be used to take advantage of BLM and African Americans, standing by as Russian trolls created fake pages and events and allowing for the biggest BLM page on the site to be a scam run out of Australia. They don’t trust Facebook to stop that from happening again and so they are taking the fight into their own hands. . . .”

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, told the Journal-isms Roundtable in Washington last month the group had been in conversation with Internet platform providers about Russian disinformation targeting African Americans and began a largely unsuccessful “log-off Facebook” campaign (Facebook) last year.

How Hundreds Die in U.S. Marshals’ Custody

“In 2017, Isac Garcia-Wislar was living in Gardendale, Texas[,] on a plot of land he’d bought to live on with his children and grandchildren,” Seth Freed Wessler and Alissa Escarce reported Oct. 23 for Latino USA. “One spring morning, he was riding in his cousin’s car when they were pulled over for speeding.

“Garcia-Wislar, a 51-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was referred to Border Patrol and charged with illegal reentry. He had been deported once before to Mexico, 15 years earlier, which meant that he could be charged with a federal felony.

Isac Garcia
Isac Garcia

“As he waited to be sentenced, Garcia-Wislar became one of about 60,000 people detained each day by the U.S. Marshals Service, an arm of the Department of Justice responsible for holding people charged with federal crimes until they’re sentenced or set free.

“But the Marshals don’t operate their own detention centers. Instead, they have agreements to pay more than 1,000 local jails around the country to hold detainees for them.

“Garcia-Wislar was placed in a county jail in West Texas. A few months into his stay, he told the nurse he was having intense pain in his back and shoulder, and was having a hard time breathing.

“Over the next few days, Garcia-Wislar’s pain became unbearable, but the jail stalled on getting him serious medical care. By the time he was sent to the hospital, Garcia-Wislar could barely hold his body up. He died three days later of illnesses doctors say could likely have been treated if not for the delays in care.

“In a yearlong investigation with Mother Jones and Type Investigations, Latino USA brings you a first-ever look into the sprawling detention system run by the U.S. Marshals. The agency’s detention population has ballooned since the Trump Administration started criminally prosecuting nearly everyone caught crossing the border without papers.

“But the Marshals Service has repeatedly failed to make sure its detainees are held in safe conditions — even after hundreds of people have died on its watch. . . .”

Deadspin Staff Quits After ‘Sports Only’ Directive

“The entire staff of around 20 writers and editors at Deadspin have announced their resignations or otherwise left the publication in recent days, leaving the future of the popular sports website in question and signaling the end, at least in its current form, of a brash, iconoclastic and sometimes controversial blog that grew into one of the most influential voices in sports media,” Ben Strauss reported Friday for the Washington Post.

“The announcements, which started Wednesday and continued into Friday, arrived days after a new directive to publish only sports and sports-adjacent content was issued by chief executive Jim Spanfeller and editorial director Paul Maidment of G/O Media, Deadspin’s parent company. Interim editor in chief Barry Petchesky was fired Tuesday, and subsequently the entire staff quit, a stunning development that gutted one of the landmark online sports publications.

“On Friday, the accomplished Washington-based writer Dave McKenna confirmed he had quit, leaving the site without any of its editorial staff, according to its former editor. A spokesman for G/O Media said Deadspin intends to hire a new team of writers. . . .”

Pam and Charles Ogletree walked together at a park in Cambridge, Mass. Amid their losses, they hang on to this. (Credit: Suzanne Kreiter/Boston Globe)
Pam and Charles Ogletree walked together at a park in Cambridge, Mass. Amid their losses, they hang on to this. (Credit: Suzanne Kreiter/Boston Globe)

Story on Ogletree Illness ‘an Absolute Must-Read’

“This Sunday Boston Globe story was an absolute must-read: ‘As his Alzheimer’s looms, Charles and Pam Ogletree take one last walk in love,’ Brian Stelter reported Wednesday for his “Reliable Sources” newsletter. “And it remains No. 1 on the Globe’s website two days later. . . .”

“The Globe is out with a followup about how Jenna Russell reported and wrote the sensitive story with care and compassion. Russell says Pam ‘was reserved at first, but she made time for me, in a series of meetings spanning about six weeks this fall, first with her alone and later including Charles. As we established a foundation of trust, our conversations quickly became very deep and rewarding. Her honesty and directness were stunning. I found myself contemplating marriage and commitment in ways I never had before.’ I did too, while reading the story. . . .”

The Indian Country Today newsroom at the Iowa presidential forum in September. (Courtesy Indian Country Today.)
The Indian Country Today newsroom at the Iowa presidential forum in September. (Courtesy Indian Country Today)

AP Adds Reports From Indian Country Today

“On October 1, an Associated Press headline read, ‘Indigenous filmmaker strikes playful tone with showcase ad.‘ The story — one of the 2,000 the AP’s members could select from the wire service that day — was the first the AP picked up from Indian Country Today, the nation’s leading outlet for news from Native America,” Valerie Vande Panne reported Monday for Columbia Journalism Review.

“If the old adage — that good journalism is the first draft of history — is true, then October 1, 2019, marked the first time in mainstream US media that history was written by a Native publication about Indian Country. (Indian Country is the common and general reference to communities of Native Americans and all tribal governments in the United States.)

“ ‘In the whole history of media this hasn’t happened before,’ says Aliyah Chavez, Kewa Pueblo, the author of the story the AP picked up. ‘It’s super exciting.’ . . .”

In a separate development, the Native American Journalists Association announced Wednesday a partnership with Mathison, a Los Angeles firm “committed to bridging the gap between underrepresented communities and employers committed to equity and inclusion,” to expand job opportunities for NAJA members. “With support from the Knight Foundation, the project aims to increase career opportunities for underserved communities while helping employers build a more inclusive hiring process. . . .

“This project supports NAJA’s long term strategic goal of increasing the number of Indigenous journalists working in mainstream newsrooms from 0.2 to 2 percent within the next 10 years. . . .”

Public Wants Better Coverage of Addiction, K-12

“African Americans have lower trust in most local institutions — especially local law enforcement and businesses — but they have slightly more confidence in local news than white and Hispanic respondents do,” the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation reported Tuesday.

“Still, less than half of African Americans express confidence in local news (44%). . . .”

The survey, conducted with the Gallup Organization, also found, “Almost twice as many respondents are dissatisfied with the amount — rather than quality — of coverage of drug addiction, the local environment and K-12 education in their local area. Conversely, majorities of those unhappy with coverage of weather, politics, sports and crime are dissatisfied with the quality of the coverage of these topics, as opposed to the amount of coverage.

“Insufficient attention to drug addiction, the local environment and education may point to a mismatch between the importance Americans attach to these issues and the amount of coverage local media give them. Public dissatisfaction with the quality of local political coverage is consistent with Americans’ frustration with the job that local news is doing at holding local leaders accountable for their actions. . . .”

Anna DuVernay, bottom, left, and Gayle King, top, right, are among those on the "Essence Woke 100" list. (Credit: Essence)
Ava DuVernay, bottom, left, and Gayle King, top, right, are among those on the Essence “Woke 100” list. Family members Willow Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, who have a talk show on Facebook, complete the bottom row. (Credit: Essence)

Journalists Make Essence’s ‘Woke 100’ List

Essence Magazine has created a 2019 “Woke 100” list that includes at least 10 current or former journalists or communicators “who exemplify the true meaning of being change agents and power players and are inspiring communities around the world,” the magazine announced Monday.

The emailed news release also said, “ESSENCE’s entire ‘Woke Issue’ is dedicated to stories reflecting activism, political reform, human rights and social justice. Articles include Free at Last, which features interviews with Cyntoia Brown and Alice Marie Johnson — both released from prison after public outcry and now on a mission to reform the criminal justice system.

“In addition, ESSENCE’s cover story Enchanting features Queen & Slim star Jodie Turner-Smith — who delivers a powerful performance in a timely tale about the community’s fraught interaction with law enforcement. . . .”

In a sign of the times, the list is liberally inclusive of transgender people.

Among the 94 people listed:

  • 3. Raquel Willis, “executive editor of Out magazine. . . .”
  • 24. Tananarive Due. “American Book Award winner Due is a leading voice in American Black speculative fiction. . . .” She was a Miami Herald reporter from 1988 to 1998.
  • 26. Karen Horne. “As the senior vice-president of programming talent development and inclusion for NBC Entertainment and Universal Television Studios, Horne is working to make prime time more diverse. . . .”
  • 37. Brittany Noble Jones. “When the Jackson, Mississippi, news anchor was told her natural hair was ‘unprofessional’ and was later fired, she refused to leave WJTV quietly. Instead she shared her story on social media and has joined the fight to end hair discrimination in the workplace.”
  • 39. Karen Attiah. “When journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed, Attiah refused to remain silent. As the Global Opinions editor for The Washington Post, she issued blistering critiques of both the Saudi and U.S. governments, providing a powerful profile in courage.”
  • 40. Nikole Hannah-Jones. “The award-winning New York Times reporter has written extensively about school segregation and racial injustice. Recently, she helmed the newspaper’s landmark 1619 Project, which commemorated the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first slaves in the U.S.”
  • 41. Adrienne Banfield-Norris, Jada Pinkett Smith and Willow Smith. “This trio is breaking barriers on Red Table Talk, a weekly show on Facebook Watch that tackles controversial topics like sexual orientation and race, as well as marriage and the challenges of motherhood. . . .”
  • 42. Gayle King. “There should be no question why the CBS This Morning lead anchor is worth every last penny of her new $11 million deal. Not only did she keep her calm in a contentious interview with R. Kelly but she continues to be the face of leadership, poise and dignity on morning network news.”
  • 43. Ava DuVernay. “Her miniseries, When They See Us, chronicled the Exonerated Five. . . .”
  • 71. Tiffany D. Cross, “a graduate of Clark Atlanta University, is the cofounder and managing editor of The Beat DC, a digital platform that covers the intersection of politics, policy and people of color. . . .”
  • 84. dream hampton. “In January the activist and writer executive-produced Lifetime’s six-part series Surviving R. Kelly, which delved into the sexual misconduct allegations against the singer. A little over a month after it aired, Kelly was charged with criminal sexual abuse.”

Pittsburgh Black Reporters Say Racism Takes Toll

“Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has a reputation as one of the most livable cities in the nation,” Letrell Deshan Crittenden, program director and assistant professor of communication at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, wrote Oct. 25 for Columbia Journalism Review. “This piece, however, argues that reporters of color working within the Pittsburgh media ecosystem have a much lesser quality of life both inside and outside of the newsroom.”

Letrell Deshan Crittenden
Letrell Deshan Crittenden

In a piece originating at Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Crittenden continued, “Previous studies related to diversity and inclusion within Pittsburgh’s media ecosystem highlighted two issues.

“First, Pittsburgh news media over-represents African Americans as a criminals. Additionally, newsrooms in the area are woefully underrepresented in terms of diversity.

“Based on a series of 20 interviews with journalists who are currently or have worked within the Pittsburgh news media — including 16 who identify as individuals of color — this goes beyond numbers, and gains insights on issues of diversity and inclusion directly from newsroom workers, and documents a number of concerns journalists of color have about their working conditions within the Pittsburgh media ecosystem. . . .”

Crittenden also wrote, “If newsrooms truly seek to increase diversity within newsrooms, and improve coverage of communities of color, newsrooms must do more than simply hire more people of color. They must find ways to make journalists of color feel they can thrive within their newsroom environments, and directly challenge institutional systems of racism within their organizations.

“Nevertheless, diversity and inclusion efforts could still remain a challenge, if the larger community remains unwelcoming to people of color. For that reason, developing ways to locate and train individuals of color with roots within the Pittsburgh region may be the best way to ensure journalists of color are retained, and that news about communities of color remains a focus point within the larger news media ecosystem. . . .”


Rep. Elijah E. Cummings accepts the 2019 Sunshine in Government Award. (Credit: C-SPAN)

Cummings Praised as Champion of Transparency

“News Media for Open Government, an alliance of press organisations of which RTDNA is a member, joins those who say goodbye to Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD-7) today, while remembering the popular Maryland leader and his tireless efforts to improve government transparency,” the alliance said Oct. 25 via the Radio Television Digital News Association.

Members of the alliance include the Associated Press, Association of Alternative Newsmedia, National Association of Broadcasters, National Newspaper Association, News Leaders Association, News Media Alliance, Online News Association, RTDNA, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Society of Professional Journalists.

“Representative Cummings, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, was presented NMOG’s 2019 Sunshine in Government Award in February for his unwavering efforts in pushing to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act in 2016,” the coalition continued. “He worked on a bipartisan and bicameral basis to write a clear presumption of openness into the law. He and his staff pushed agencies to do all they could to make FOIA work better. He also spent countless hours pushing back on overbroad and unnecessary proposals that would weaken FOIA.” Cummings died at 68 on Oct. 17.

John Conyers (Credit: Jason Miccolo Johnson)
John Conyers (Credit: Jason Miccolo Johnson)

Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University and author of the new book “How to Be an Antiracist,” offered another perspective that contemplated Cummings’ age.

“My father, God willing, will turn 72 in May, which is the average life span for black men in the United States,” Kendi wrote Oct. 24 in the Atlantic. “Black men have the nation’s lowest life expectancy, four years less than white men, seven years less than black women, nine years less than white women.

“It was no aberration for Cummings to die at 68 after a series of health problems. It was no hyperbole when, 25 years ago, a Brooklyn rapper nicknamed the Notorious B.I.G. titled his debut studio album Ready to Die. It is also no accident that black women are three to four times more likely to die during pregnancy than white women. Despite the mortality gap narrowing in recent decades, black life remains unexpected. . . .”

Kendi added, “mortality statistics on Asian and Native Americans are less available, and less accurate. But that does not take away from the need to recognize different forms of Latino deprivation, of Native deprivation, of Asian deprivation, and increasingly white deprivation, which is to say what white people are depriving themselves of by means of their own racism. . . .”

Cummings’ death was followed 10 days later by that of former Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., at 90.

“He was a man who took great risk on the issues and on the people he fought for, to upend the status quo for what he believed,” columnist Bankole Thompson wrote Oct. 27 in the Detroit News.

“He doggedly championed civil and human rights from 1965, when he was first elected to Congress, up to the final moments of a congressional career that abruptly ended in 2017 after he faced mounting allegations of sexual harassment. . . .

“Conyers’ body of work is a testament to his unrelenting commitment to fight for those who are disenfranchised in American society. Over the decades, he authored key legislation that had an indelible impact on our national life.

“He also introduced H.R. 40, the bill to establish a commission to study the impact of the cruel institution of slavery. Known as the reparations bill, H.R. 40, first introduced in 1989, continues to linger in the House Judiciary Committee, which Conyers himself once led as its first African American chairman. . . .”

Conyers addressed the National Association of Black Journalists when it met in Detroit in 1992.

“Mr. Conyers exhorted the journalists, many of whom have had to struggle to get their jobs, ‘not to fear endangering your careers or getting yourselves fired,’ ” Doron P. Levin reported then for the New York Times.

“Amplifying his remarks later, Mr. Conyers, who is black, said, ‘We need activists in journalism’ who will ‘challenge managerial practices.’ . . .”

Committee to Protect Journalists
Committee to Protect Journalists

Short Takes

 

Diablo Valley College students protest. (Credit: Ethan Anderson)
Diablo Valley College students protest incidents of racism. (Credit: Ethan Anderson)

(Credit: WLMT-TV) (video)

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