Articles Feature

Science Confirms It: ‘Black Don’t Crack’

Media Rarely Discuss Physiology of Race

Karen Attiah Named NABJ’s Journalist of Year

What if Central Park 5 Had Received Death Penalty?

ESPN Uses Dominican Connections on Ortiz Story

Confusion Fans Casual ‘N’ Word Use in School

Latino Media Called Key Vehicles for Pushback

A Columnist-Radio Host Leads a Philly Protest

Tony Winner Calls for More Diversity Among Critics

Short Takes

 

Actress Cicely Tyson, 94, was the cover subject of Time magazine's 2019 Optimists issue in January. The issue was guest edited by filmmaker Ava DuVernay. (Credit: Djeneba Aduayom)
Actress Cicely Tyson, 94, was the cover subject of Time magazine’s 2019 Optimists issue in January, guest edited by filmmaker Ava DuVernay. (Credit: Djeneba Aduayom)

Media Rarely Discuss Physiology of Race

Whether we are discussing Angela Bassett’s flawless face after the Oscars, or trying to figure out how it’s possible the pretty sister at work still looks 25 when we know she’s pushing 40, the African American community turns to this trusty, old school adage: Black don’t crack,Elizabeth Wellington, a lifestyle writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer, reported Wednesday.

“Now thanks to a Rutgers New Jersey Medical School study, grandma’s quip is truer than ever. And the reasons are far deeper than the melanin that shelters darker skin from the ultraviolet rays that lead to wrinkles. It goes right on down to the bone. . . .”

Wellington’s story stands out for a number of reasons, not least because for all the reporting of how race affects social dynamics, it is rare that the news media discuss the physiology of race. Why do people of different races look the way they do? And, biologically speaking, what are the pluses and minuses of those attributes? Too often the discussion is superficial, stopping at how closely nonwhite people approximate Caucasian beauty standards.

Wellington continued, “Black people are not only born with denser bones in our faces, those bones also don’t break down as quickly — especially the bone between the eyes and the cheekbones — as our Caucasian counterparts. The result: Black faces maintain structural support for a longer period of time so we have younger-looking skin for longer.

“ ‘This is why black people look like themselves longer,’ said Boris Paskhover, a facial plastic surgeon at Rutgers who spearheaded the study as a way to better understand the aging process as it relates to the bones in the face. As we get older, Paskhover said, black faces, like all faces, change, but the bone structure in black people doesn’t change at the same rate as in Caucasian faces, he said. ‘If we can understand what causes the face to look older, then we can perhaps one day understand how to prevent the aging process without surgery.’ . . .”

Elizabeth Wellington
Elizabeth Wellington

Wellington messaged Journal-isms she discovered the story when “Someone passed along a press release from Rutgers [University]. And, in all honesty, I put my sister girl spin on it…”

Being able to view the topic through a “sister girl” vantage point, Wellington agreed, is another argument for newsroom diversity. “[E]ven the scientist was feeling some kind of way about using the term ‘black doesn’t crack.’ ” Wellington added. “He thought it was pejorative. . . . I was like ‘that’s a serious compliment/smug moment…’ ”

This wasn’t the first time Wellington had written about the notion that “black don’t crack.” The headline for a January story was, “‘Black don’t crack’ on the outside, but it could be cracking on the inside.

Wellington wrote then, “[N]ow is not the time to get it twisted: Just because we are flawless on the outside doesn’t mean we should stop paying attention to our overall health. In fact, it’s now more important than ever. . . . ‘Inside we are suffering, but outside we are smiling,’ said Shelley Leaphart-Williams, founder and executive director of Lifesavers U, a nonprofit focused on mental health and suicide prevention in minority communities. ‘In other words, we are dying internally because our internal age is so much older than our physical age.’ The reasons are many, Leaphart-Williams said. . . .”

Fortunately for Inquirer readers, Rutgers writer Patti Verbanas was able to turn a jargon-filled report in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery into a readable news release that landed in the Philadelphia newsroom.

And both the public-relations and science-writing businesses are recognizing the need to greater diversity in those fields.

The PRSA Foundation is honoring diversity efforts in its industry at a New York gala on June 25.

Two weeks ago, the National Association of Science Writers announced Rodrigo Pérez Ortega, Helen Santoro and Anuradha Varanasi as recipients of its 2019 Diversity Fellowships. Pérez Ortega, Santoro and Varanasi are each to receive $5,000 to help defray relocation and living costs associated with completing a summer internship.

A 2018 membership survey [PDF] showed the association’s membership to be 88 percent white, 5 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 3 percent Hispanic or Latino, 2 percent South Asian, 1 percent black, 1 percent Native American and 1 percent other.

Karen Attiah Named NABJ’s Journalist of Year

Karen Attiah, the Washington Post global opinions editor who worked tirelessly to keep before the public the killing of Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, whom she edited, was named Journalist of the Year Wednesday by the National Association of Black Journalists.

In November, Attiah tweeted, “I said it before, and I will say it again. #Khashoggi’s killers messed with the wrong paper (@WashingtonPost)

“And in me, the wrong editor.”

Karen Attiah
Karen Attiah

NABJ emphasized Attiah’s body of work, rather than solely her advocacy for Khashoggi and press freedom.

President Sarah Glover said in a news release, “Karen has courageously used her commitment to her craft to provide thought-provoking commentary and insights that have led to positive dialogue and the visibility of issues that have not only impacted people of color and minority communities, but also journalists around the globe.

“I’m especially proud to see how Karen has propelled the tragedy of her writer’s death into a purpose-driven calling to further the cause for press freedom.”

The CIA concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination and dismemberment of Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to the Post, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in October.

Attiah was his fiercest Post champion, although Post Publisher Fred Ryan and editorial page editor Fred Hiatt completed an outspoken Post team demanding that the United States and the international community not permit the Saudis to cover up the assassination. Khashoggi and other heroes of press freedom were named Time’s Person of the Year for 2018.

Attiah was born in Desoto, Texas, to a Nigerian-Ghanaian mother and Ghanaian father. “Attiah has leveraged her platform to bring light to systematic issues that gravely impact the black community worldwide,” and used her writings to underscore the importance of diversity in media, NABJ noted.

Attiahe wrote on Facebook,  “[W]hen I got the call a month ago, I nearly cried. Out of all the recognitions and awards, this one means so much to me, to be in the company of so many black journalists I have watched and admired over the years. @nabjofficial, thank you for this honor. And thank you to all my friends and family that have supported my wild ideas and dreams. Last but not least, this is for you #JamalKhashoggi. Rest well, my friend.”

The award is to be presented during NABJ’s National Convention & Career Fair Aug. 7-11 in Miami.

What if Central Park 5 Had Received Death Penalty?

New York's' Daily News
New York’s’ Daily News, April 21, 1989

The success of Ava DuVernay’s Netflix miniseries, “When They See Us,” dramatizing the case of the Central Park Five, can be measured by the growing number of organizations shunning Linda Fairstein, the prosecutor of the five black and Latino teens accused of a brutal rape who served sentences that ranged from six to 13 years . DNA evidence later cleared them.

However, that success has not produced apologies from the media organizations that helped whip New York City into a frenzy, as outlined in a 2013 column in this space.

One media exception is the Miami Herald, which editorialized Monday that the case should be used as a warning to forestall the executions of any innocent men and women who might be on death row. Florida is one of 29 states with the death penalty.

There are 340 people on Florida’s death row,” the editorial began. “Without a thorough investigation into the state’s criminal justice system and a full review of every capital conviction, the next execution could be of an innocent person. Many state leaders seem OK with that.

“Those leaders, like Gov. Ron DeSantis, should binge watch some television. ‘When They See Us,’ a four-part series on Netflix dramatizing the infamous case of the Central Park Five — five young black and Latino boys falsely accused and wrongfully convicted of the brutal rape of a New York jogger in 1989 — vividly demonstrates how badly flawed the justice system in America can be.

“It took more than a decade for the boys’ unjust convictions to be overturned, but the damage to their lives and reputations can never be repaired. It could have been worse, though. The oldest boy was tried as an adult. He could have received the death penalty — and he could have been executed before he was exonerated. . . .”


(Credit: YouTube)

ESPN Uses Dominican Connections on Ortiz Story

With its Domincan connections, ESPN and ESPN Deportes claimed an early edge in reporting the shooting Sunday of Boston Red Sox great David Ortiz in his native Dominican Republic.

Throughout the night and today, ESPN and ESPN Deportes reporters Enrique Rojas and Marly Rivera have been documenting the story, providing updates on SportsCenter and other ESPN news and information platforms — including ESPN.com and ESPNDeportes.com — and transcribing Spanish-language news reports for fans on Twitter,” ESPN said Sunday.

“We are lucky to have incredible journalists that we have collaborated with for many, many years in the Dominican Republic, in particular Dionisio Soldevila [a sports editor with Periodico Hoy, a newspaper in the Dominican Republic] and Ortiz’s friend and business assistant, Leo López. That collaboration with Dominican journalists, and well as Enrique’s close relationship with David’s father, Leo Ortiz, has been essential to our reporting.”

Maria Cramer and Michael Levenson reported Wednesday for the Boston Globe, “Six people, including the alleged gunman, have been arrested and accused of attempting to kill David Ortiz to collect an $8,000 bounty, authorities in the Dominican Republic said Wednesday, as the retired baseball star remained in intensive care in Boston from a single gunshot wound to the back.

“At a press conference Wednesday, Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte, director of the Dominican National Police, and Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez Sanchez said the coordinator of the murder plot, whom they did not identify, had been offered 400,000 Dominican pesos, or roughly $7,800, to kill Ortiz, a native of the Caribbean nation. . . .”

Columnist Rubén Rosario suggests that Minnesota schools invite Neal Lester, foundation professor of English and founding director of project humanities at Arizona State University, to discuss the ‘N’ word. “You cannot reclaim a word that was never yours,” Lester says. (Credit: YouTube)

Confusion Fans Casual ‘N’ Word Use in School

Teen use of the ‘N’ word has become so widespread in some Minnesota schools that even a white teacher used it, while a confused associate principal told teachers to allow black students to use the word as long as it ended in “a.”

The situation led columnist Rubén Rosario of the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, to call Sunday for the schools to bring in an expert on the ‘N’ word, about which the columnist firmly declared, “That word and its variants should be stricken from everyone’s tongue unless it’s to teach or educate about its dark, ugly historical meaning. The word should still bite the conscience because there’s still racism and inequality out there. But I live in the real world of modern usage among the young, so I know that won’t be easy.”

Rubén Rosario
Rubén Rosario

A self-described Nuyorican (New York Puerto Rican), Rosario added, “I mentioned in our chat [with the expert] that most persons of Puerto Rican descent I know would not tolerate the use of the word spic or any variant of it in most settings.

“A museum in New York City was forced to apologize and change the title of an art collection that contained the S-word several years ago after major pushback from that city’s Puerto Rican community.”

Rosario recounted some of what led to his column. “In Burnsville in late December, Metcalf Middle School Principal Shannon McParland was caught on a student’s cellphone video saying to staffers, ‘Like, seriously, you’re going to call me a f—in’ n—–?’ after a female black student uttered the expletive and the racial slur at her. McParland is white.

“McParland later apologized twice, in a statement and later at a community gathering formed to discuss the incident.

“ ‘Words have power, and few words have a more hateful and destructive history,’ McParland said in the prepared statement. ‘I sincerely apologize to the students, parents and staff and community members for the pain my words have caused.’

“But the Metcalf incident apparently laid bare allegations of discrimination, lack of leadership, increased use of the N-word by white students and heightened racial tensions to the point that the St. Paul chapter of the NAACP fired off a letter to the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school board and the district superintendent requesting a probe.”

Rosario quoted Laura Ngeh, the only black teacher at Metcalf and whose contract was not renewed, “This has been poorly handled by the school, bad decisions made by honorable white people trying to be cool.”

“Added Greta Krupke, a veteran teacher who teaches sixth grade: ‘We were told that black students were reclaiming the word. We were basically left in the dark about how to address the word in our classes no matter who said the word. I get a lot of pushback from students (non-black). ‘(Ms. McParland) can say it, then so can I.’ ”

Rosario suggested the schools invite Neal Lester, Ph.D., an English professor and director of Project Humanities at Arizona State University, adding, “He is also an authority on the root history of the N-word and the black experience in America. . . . ”

“ ‘You cannot reclaim a word that was never yours,’ explained Lester during a brief chat. ‘As Toni Morrison wrote: Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined. . . .”

Latino Media Called Key Vehicles for Pushback

If Hispanic media are going to survive the transition to the digital age, they are going to have to find ways to fund professional development opportunities to support American-born, Spanish-language journalists; establish a bilingual news portal to translate and bridge across communities; and provide support for citizen oversight of Hispanic media to be a community resource against hate,” according to a new study of the state of the industry by Jessica Retis, associate professor of journalism at California State University, Northridge.

Jessica Retis
Jessica Retis

“The changes taking place within the Spanish-language and Latinx-oriented media have happened in parallel to the demographic shifts in the country and a corresponding rise of anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic sentiment,” Retis said, according to a June 4 university release. “Spanish-language media are important resources for information and self-representation, and can be an important resource for pushing back against anti-immigrant narratives that pervade some mainstream media.”

The release added, “Retis’ report, ‘Hispanic Media Today: Serving Bilingual and Bicultural Audiences in the Digital Age,’ was published last month by the nonprofit Democracy Fund. In it, Retis reviews the evolution of U.S. Spanish-language newspapers, radio and television, and outlines the challenges she sees facing Hispanic media in the digital age.”

It also said, “Spanish-language and bilingual media in the United States need to understand the history of Hispanic media in the U.S., and appreciate the country’s complex and diverse Hispanic population if they are going to survive the digital age. . . .

” ‘In order to understand the current situation with Hispanic media, you need to go back in time, more than 200 years,’ she said. ‘In doing so, we cannot talk about one homogeneous group of Hispanic media because there is no one homogeneous group of Latinos in the U.S. We are very diverse ethnically, as well as in the languages we speak, from Spanish to Spanglish. . . .’ ”

Solomon Jones of WURD radio and the Philadelphia Inquirer, with bullhorn in front of Philadelphia Police Headquarters. (Credit: Heathr Khalifa/Philadelphia Inquirer)
Solomon Jones of WURD-AM and the Philadelphia Inquirer, with bullhorn in front of Philadelphia Police Headquarters. (Credit: Heather Khalifa/Philadelphia Inquirer)

A Columnist-Radio Host Leads a Philly Protest

“ ‘Off the streets! Off the streets!‘ ” Chris Palmer reported Friday for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Those words echoed off the walls of Philadelphia Police Headquarters on Friday afternoon as more than 150 people gathered in front of the building, popularly known as the Roundhouse, to protest alleged police Facebook posts.

“Demonstrators called for the benching, if not firing, of about 330 active city cops recently accused of making racist or otherwise offensive posts.

“The protest, organized by Solomon Jones, a WURD radio host who also writes opinion columns that appear in The Inquirer, featured remarks from a variety of community members and public officials, including Jones; the Rev. Greg Holston, executive director of the interfaith community group POWER; recently acquitted inmate Hassan Bennett; longtime local activist Asa Khalif; and State Rep. Stephen Kinsey (D., Phila.).

“Each denounced what they said was a culture within the Police Department that tolerates public airing of biased remarks. Most speakers, without identifying specific posts or officers, agreed that cops with Facebook posts cataloged on the Plain View Project database, published Saturday by advocates studying police bias, should be removed from street duty or taken off the force. . . .”

In a follow-up column in the Inquirer on Tuesday, Jones credited the demonstration to a coalition of activist groups. Jones wrote of next steps: “In addition to setting up meetings with Police Commissioner Richard Ross and others, we are looking to public officials to pen resolutions denouncing the hate expressed in those Facebook posts. We are seeking to strengthen accountability for police officers who engage in this kind of behavior. And we have lawyers on standby in case we need to take legal action to force change.

“All power to the people. That’s what I saw at Friday’s rally. And now that we know just how powerful we are, we can stand up together, and win.”

Tony Winner Calls for More Diversity Among Critics

At Sunday’s Tony Awards, perhaps the most diverse in its history, “director Rachel Chavkin, the only woman to direct a musical on Broadway this season, blasted the industry during her acceptance speech for not giving more opportunities to women and people of color to helm the theater world’s biggest productions,” Marina Fang reported Monday for HuffPost.

Hilton Als
Hilton Als

“And we need to see that racial diversity and gender diversity reflected in our critical establishment, too,” Chavkin, the director of “Hadestown,” said.

Journal-isms asked Adam Feldman, theatre and dance editor for Time Out Media and president of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, if there were critics of color among its 19 members.

Hilton Als was a member until he stepped down as the New Yorker’s critic this year,” Feldman replied. “(I am hoping that Vinson Cunningham, one of his replacements at the New Yorker, will join the group this year, but he’s only just started at the magazine.)” Both are African American.

In 2017, American Theatre magazine announced it was helping to administer “an arts journalism track as part of the Rising Leaders of Color Program, a Theatre Communications Group initiative geared toward nurturing a new generation of theatre leaders of color.”

Cristina Pia-Guzman
Cristina Pia-Guzman

On May 30, the Theatre Communications Group announced the program’s 10 latest participants.

After two successful years with Portland-based writer TJ Acena and St. Louis-based writer Rosalind Early, the RLC’s theatre criticism and journalism track continues with Cristina Pla-Guzman, an arts educator and theatre journalist working in Miami,”  a news release said.

“Designed to help widen and deepen the talent pool of voices documenting, reflecting, and challenging the field, the RLC journalism track has already diversified the coverage in American Theatre, as both Acena and Early have become trusted go-to correspondents among the magazine’s national roster of freelance writers.

‘TJ and Rosalind have added immeasurably to our coverage and content over the past few years, and we look forward to working with Cristina,’ said Rob Weinert-Kendt, the magazine’s editor-in-chief. . . .”

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