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Black Journalists Repeat: It’s About Race

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Anti-‘Wokeness’ Joins ‘CRT’ as Code Language
. . . Language Continues to Be a Battleground
Psychologists Group Apologizes for Racist Past
No Black Women Win Lorraine Branham Scholarships
Groups of Color to Boost Investigative Journalists

Western Media Dominate COP26 Press Contingent
. . . China Threatening African Livelihoods
Nonprofit Newsroom Planned in Cleveland, Hiring 25
Prison Staff Shortages Leave Stabbings Undetected
Reporters Verify Killing of 1,000 in El Salvador

Short Takes: Danny Fenster; Patsy Loris; Kristen Aguirre; late racist Maryland editor; “a Black man did it.”

Nov. 13 additions:

Harvard Crimson’s first Hispanic editor; rescue of San Antonio student newspaper; a win for portraits of Australia’s Indigenous; Denver Post; Ozy Media; Huel Perkins; University of North Carolina’s Knight chair; Tamron Hall; right to record police actions; Don Lemon vs. Megyn Kelly; NABJ-NAHJ convention chairs; how justice failed again in Mississippi; Fresno’s education diversity program; Byron Allen and Tegna, McDonald’s; Jay Williams;

Vox.com’s new approach to diversity coverage; why Boston anchor switched to braids; Revolt’s streaming app; Adaora Udoji; Kim Godwin’s return to FAMU; Alberto B. Mendoza and sexual orientation; documenting Pakistani-American communities; Jazmin Aguilera; West Virginia’s Black newspaper; investigating reporters in U.S. from Spanish-language outlets; harassment of Nigerian journalist who covered mass killing by police; reporting on death of South Africa’s F.W. de Klerk.

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Anti-‘Wokeness’ Joins ‘CRT’ as Code Language

The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill framed the issue this way on Twitter: “White folks in 2020: How can we be better allies and help combat systemic racism? Teach us! White folks in 2021: Stop talking about racism. Your ‘wokeness’ is alienating everybody and causing us to lose elections. Chile, I can’t keep up.”

On public radio’s “On Point” this week, two talking heads debated whether the Democrats’ loss of the Virginia governor’s race was an issue of class or race.

The words “woke” and “wokeness” are being turned into pejoratives. James Carville, the Democratic Party strategist, used his post-election airtime on the “PBS Newshour” to denounce “stupid wokeness” as a reason for Democratic losses. Batya Ungar-Sargon, a deputy opinion editor at Newsweek, has a new book, “Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy,” and appeared Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

The analysis of last week’s Election Day outcomes has become the latest battle to define how much race plays a role in our politics and society. Journalists of color are not always a part of the discussion, but when they are, most are doing their best to keep the narrative on point.

The election hadn’t even taken place yet when Janice Gassam Asare, a diversity consultant, answered for Forbes the perennial question “Why Does Everything Have To Be About Race?“

“Well, for one, race affects every aspect of our lives. Racialized communities are more likely to live in food [deserts], polluted areas, and have lower-quality healthcare,” Asare wrote on Oct. 28. “What neighborhood you live in and what school your child goes to are influenced by race. K-12 schools, for example, with higher populations of Black and Latino students are more likely to be underfunded.

“Race impacts likelihood to be stopped by police, graduation rates, salary, and opportunities. Racism is embedded into every facet and crevice of America. Rather than questioning why racialized individuals ‘make everything about race,’ we should instead be interrogating how these gross inequities are able to continue.”

The victorious Republican Glenn Youngkin campaigned with just the opposite point of view. “We will not teach our children to view everything through a lens of race,” he said. “We will ban critical race theory from our school system on Day One,” using the phrase that has seemingly become a catch-all for discussions of race or inclusion in the curriculum, even if the actual critical race theory is taught primarily in law schools.

He “delivered fear with a smile,” Charles M. Blow wrote in The New York Times.

Youngkin was consistent with Republican views. The Pew Research Center, in a nuanced survey of the beliefs of members of both parties, concluded Tuesday, “Racial injustice remains a dividing line in U.S. politics. Perhaps no issue is more divisive than racial injustice in the U.S.”

To be sure, Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost the Virginia gubernatorial election to Youngkin for multiple reasons — ineffective messaging, voters’ COVID fatigue, impatience with President Biden’s legislative progress and perceived Democratic bickering among them.

But while analysts have pointed out the outpouring by rural whites to Youngkin’s message of white grievance, most did not note that that message did not resonate with people of color, who were not included in the “everyone” supposedly fed up with “wokeness.”

According to exit polls, Virginia whites favored Youngkin, 62 percent to 38 percent for McAullife; Blacks, McAullife, 86 percent to 13 percent for Youngkin; Hispanic/Latino, 66 percent McAullife to 32 percent for Youngkin; and Asians, 67 percent McAullife to 33 percent for Youngkin.

An Associated Press-NORC survey, the basis for this Fox News Voter Analysis, found that the GOP made gains with Latino voters, yet Latinos still went for McAuliffe in that survey as well, 55 percent vs. 44 percent for Youngkin. The Republican businessman also drew more Black votes that Donald Trump did last year in Trump’s presidential race, but still, the figure was paltry.

And yet Carville declared, “Wokeness is a problem and everyone knows it. It’s hard to talk to anybody today — and I talk to lots of people in the Democratic Party — who doesn’t say this. But they don’t want to say it out loud.”

It was mostly left to Black journalists such as Errin Haines of The 19th to differentiate between “everyone” and “white voters.”

Eugene Daniels, a Black journalist writing for Politico about the ongoing student protest at Howard University, noted that any Black frustration with Democrats is because Black voters feel the party is not doing enough for them, not too much.

“Biden’s original proposed $45 billion for HBCUs and other MSIs [minority-serving institutions] in the Build Back Better package was first cut down drastically by House Democrats before lobbying by the universities and their advocates pushed the number back up to $10 billion,” Daniels wrote Tuesday.

Haines said on PBS’ “Washington Week,” “Critical race theory is the big lie of 2021, and the modern-day Southern strategy that is appealing to white voters (video). Education is the 2020 version of economic grievance, you know, that code buzzword from 2016.”

Gary Abernathy, left, told Jonathan Capehart on the “PBS NewsHour,” “There’s a lot of emphasis on white people need to feel a certain amount of guilt over this. And we need to get past that.”

The difference was shown more starkly on the “PBS NewsHour,” when Jonathan Capehart, a Black journalist, told white conservative Gary Abernathy, substituting for David Brooks in their weekly face-off, “it’s not wokeness to want to be treated fairly by the police. (video) It’s not wokeness to want law enforcement to not view you instantly as a criminal, instantly as a bad guy. It’s not wokeness to demand that our nation’s history be taught and reflected accurately. That’s not wokeness.

“That’s at a minimum, it’s asking for dignity and respect. And so for someone, a Democratic strategist like James Carville, to say those things basically to the base of the Democratic Party, is really unfortunate, because I think we can talk about these issues of injustice and talk about how to move the country forward together. These don’t have to be two separate conversations.”

Abernathy said later in the exchange that he agreed with much of what Capehart said, but that, “There’s a lot of emphasis on white people need to feel a certain amount of guilt over this. And we need to get past that.”

Capehart replied, “I’m not asking for guilt, but I do think white people have to get over the feeling villainized just even when the word ‘race’ is used in a sentence. That’s all.”

Syndicated Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. responded to the “guilt” sentiment by writing, “Not to idealize young people, who have a nasty habit of becoming adults, but I suspect they have no need or desire of being treated like hothouse flowers. I bet the kids are, indeed, alright. It’s the grownups we have to worry about.”

Meanwhile, the Native Sun News in Rapid City, S.D., editorialized this week about the revelations of mistreatment of Native Americans sent to abusive boarding schools. “We believe that the government and the churches should pay any living survivor of the boarding schools $100,000 for each year they spent at these schools. From day one at the boarding schools the children were taught that their traditional religions were heathen, that their Native language was no longer acceptable, and that everything about their cultural and traditional lives were wrong. . . “

And in Detroit, more than 80 percent of residents who cast ballots in the general election voted yes to a proposal to form a commission to recommend housing and economic development programs. “Detroit now joins other U.S. cities that are mulling some form of repayment to descendants of African slaves,” the Associated Press reported.

“NewsHour” host Judy Woodruff told Capehart and Abernathy that the show would have to return to their unresolved discussion the following Friday.

. . . Language Continues to Be a Battleground

“Americans have always wrestled with language when it comes to describing race, with phrases and vocabulary changing to meet the struggles and values of the moment,” Amy Harmon wrote Nov. 1 for The New York Times. “But especially in the wake of protests for social justice in the summer of 2020, there is a heightened attention to this language, say scholars and activists, as some on the left try to advance changes in the culture through words. . . .”

Harmon also wrote, “Unsurprisingly, the language itself has become contested, especially by conservatives who have leveraged discomfort with the new vocabulary to energize their base of white voters, referring to it as ‘wokespeak.’ One conservative think tank circulated a list of words — including ‘microaggressions’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’ — that it said could alert parents that what has been labeled ‘Critical Race Theory’ is being taught in their children’s schools.

“The new language extends beyond race, adding phrases and introducing ideas that are new to many Americans. Gender-neutral terms like ‘Latinx,’ for people of Latin American descent, ‘they/them’ pronouns that refer to a single person, and ‘birthing parent’ or ‘pregnant people’ instead of ‘mother,’ to be inclusive of trans people, are also gaining traction. . . .

“Some activists defend the focus on language, saying that the way people use words is not mere symbolism but is necessary to achieving justice.

“ ‘Saying something like, “Black people are less likely to get a loan from the bank,” instead of saying, “Banks are less likely to give loans to Black people,” might feel like it’s just me wording it differently,’ Rashad Robinson (pictured), president of the racial justice organization Color of Change, said. ‘But “Black people are less likely to get a loan from the bank” makes people ask themselves, “What’s wrong with Black people? Let’s get them financial literacy programs.” The other way is saying, “What’s wrong with the banks?” ‘ “

Its apology chronicled the American Psychological Association’s nearly 130-year history with racism, starting with its promotion of eugenics.

Psychologists Group Apologizes for Racist Past

“The American Psychological Association issued an apology to people of color on Friday for its role in perpetuating systemic racism and discrimination in the U.S.,” Kynala Phillips reported Nov. 3 for NBC BLK.

The organization has 122,000 members.

“ ‘For the first time, APA and American psychology are systematically and intentionally examining, acknowledging and charting a path forward to address their roles in perpetuating racism,’ APA President Jennifer F. Kelly said in a statement.

“The association called past attempts to apologize for its responsibility in upholding racism ‘unsuccessful.’

“The resolution was adopted by APA’s legislative body, which is made up of its board of directors, APA members representing various states and members who represent ethnic psychological associations. . . .”

Phillips also wrote, “The resolution acknowledged that the origins of the discipline are rooted in ‘oppressive psychological science to protect Whiteness, White people and White epistemologies’ and that in many ways the field was complacent in the exploitation of people of color.

“The professional association was founded in 1892 with the goal of advancing psychology as a science, but in its efforts to expand the field, it was also complicit in the denigration of communities of color, the resolution said.

“To address this, the apology chronicled the association’s nearly 130-year history with racism, starting with its promotion of eugenics. . . .”

Dean Lorraine Branham waves at the 2010 commencement of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

No Black Women Win Lorraine Branham Scholarships

“The first cohort of Branham Scholars entered the Newhouse School of Public Communications this fall, with eight recipients from a wide range of backgrounds,” Shantel Guzman reported Thursday for the Daily Orange, campus newspaper at Syracuse University. “Notably missing from the group are Black women.

“The scholarship is meant to recruit students from socioeconomically disadvantaged and underrepresented populations, according to a Newhouse press release, and give them the opportunity to attend Newhouse ‘debt-free.’ The scholarship will be awarded to at most 10 students each fall.

“The absence of Black women received criticism over social media because the namesake of the scholarship, former Newhouse Dean Lorraine E. Branham, was a Black woman. . . .”

Guzman also wrote, “Amy Falkner, the senior associate dean of academic affairs at Newhouse, served as interim dean following Branham’s death in 2019. Falkner said the scholarship recently established in Branham’s memory aims to motivate students in a similar way to how Branham motivated them herself.

“ ‘The students who came to see Lorraine or got here because of (who) Lorraine was. Because she was both nurturing in a way to motivate students, especially students from underrepresented groups. But also not shy about lighting a fire under your butt if you weren’t doing what you should be doing and taking advantage of incredible opportunities,’ Falkner said. ‘It is an incredible opportunity for, essentially, underrepresented groups of students.’ . . .”

Groups of Color to Boost Investigative Journalists

“The National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ (NAHJ) Investigative and Data Journalism Task Force is working in solidarity with a group of affinity journalism organizations on ways to increase the diversity of newsroom investigative reporting teams and among investigative editors,” NAHJ announced Monday.

“As part of this newsroom leader accountability initiative, the task force is inviting a dozen top editors at some of the country’s major news organizations to meet and discuss their hiring record, the demographics of their investigative units, and to learn about efforts underway to ensure their investigative ranks reflect the changing demographics across the country. . . .”

Joining NAHJ will be the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association, but “The NAHJ invites other journalism allies to join us in this ongoing effort.”

NAHJ’s Investigative and Data Journalism Task Force is chaired by General At-Large Officer Mc Nelly Torres (pictured), an investigative journalist and editor at the Center for Public integrity.

Uganda’s Vanessa Nakate, in Glasgow, Scotland, for the COP26 climate conference, says of the climate crisis, “Globally, we are ignoring the people who are most affected by it. And because of that, so many people in the global south (a term referring to the more southerly, lower-income countries that are often most affected by the climate crisis) have lost hope.” She is on the cover of the Nov. 8-15 issue of Time magazine. Credit: YouTube)

Western Media Dominate COP26 Press Contingent

At the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, concluding Friday, “the conference handed out nearly two thousand physical media badges in the first week,” Jon Allsop wrote from the conference Tuesday for Columbia Journalism Review. “I asked the press office if it could provide a list of media participants or a breakdown of the above numbers by country or region, but it said that it was ‘not in a position’ to do so.

“I’ve spent the days since then trying to figure out who is represented among the media at COP, and who is not. In the absence of official data, that hasn’t been an easy task — but it’s become increasingly clear that numerous Western outlets have more journalists here than many entire countries, sometimes significantly so.

“Access and exclusion have been huge stories at COP26 — some of the countries most immediately threatened by the climate crisis were unable to send their leaders, never mind activists and concerned citizens — for reasons ranging from cost to COVID to both. There are excellent journalists from the Global South on the ground here (indeed, I featured some of their work in my dispatch for CJR on Tuesday) and many more covering COP remotely; many Western journalists, meanwhile, have shone a spotlight on very vulnerable countries, both in their coverage and during live events such as those at the Climate Hub.

“Still, as far as physical representation goes, media is very clearly part of the broader, highly unequal trend. . . .”

. . . China Threatening African Livelihoods

Chinese expansion in Africa is “really threatening not just climate change but the livelihoods of millions of Africans,” according to Nnimmo Bassey (pictured), a Nigerian environmental activist, poet, author and director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation.

Bassey, who appeared Wednesday from COP26 on “Democracy Now!” also said “the impacts of global warming on the continent of Africa [are] enormous.”

Bassey told host Amy Goodman, “China is about running Africa, driving deforestation in the continent, investing in fossil fuel facilities development, the exploitation pipeline, for example. They’re investing in a pipeline that would take oil from — very waxy oil from Uganda to a seaport in Tanzania for export. And this is something that’s really threatening not just climate change but the livelihoods of millions of Africans who live in the Rift Valley and who depend on freshwater system from the Lake Victoria basin in East Africa.

“So, right across the continent, the influence of China and the investment in fossil industry development on the continent is a big problem in terms of global warming, in terms of livelihoods and in terms of local economies, because right on that continent, I would say, the total workforce of the continent, only — out of the total workforce, only less than a percentage, 1%, of Africans are working in that sector. So it doesn’t in any way multiply or adapt to the local economies. It’s just another way of — another wave of exploitation. And that’s what China is driving on the continent.

“Russia is only driving, pushing old technology for nuclear power in some places on the continent. And I believe that they ought to have been on the table. They should have faced the nations that they are — in which the Russians are taking action that is compounding the crisis, and not stay away, and just send delegates to come here and talk to the rest of the people.”

Goodman replied, “as we wrap up, number one, can you describe the real effects of the climate emergency on the continent of Africa? And, two, what gives you hope? When we see you every year at the climate summits — we’ve been together from Copenhagen on — you’ve been arrested at protests, yet you keep going. What gives you hope?”

Bassey answered, “Well, the impacts of global warming on the continent of Africa [are] enormous. One thing is that Africa is right at the center of the world, have their large chunk of the continent right on the Equator, so the temperature impact on the continent is far above the global average. So, global averages, personally, are very threatening to me and to others on the continent.

“Now, again, the continent is surrounded by water bodies. So there’s serious sea level rise impact, has been predicted by the IPCC to have higher levels of impact, apart from the Pacific island states, on the continent. Already a place like Nigeria is losing about two meters every year to coastal erosion due to sea level rise. And this is having grave impact already on communities, on infrastructure, and it’s a big problem. . . .”​

A Northeast Ohio collaborative journalism gathering in October 2019 at the MidTown Tech Hive, where participants created diagrams of their information needs. (Credit: Cleveland Foundation)

Nonprofit Newsroom Planned in Cleveland, Hiring 25

“A coalition of philanthropies announced plans Tuesday to launch a nonprofit newsroom that will provide coverage of Cleveland, kicking off an effort to help fill a void left by the shrinking of news organizations in Ohio,” Haleluya Hadero reported Tuesday for the Associated Press.

“The donors say theirs will be one of the largest local nonprofit news startups in the country. The American Journalism Project, one of the funders, has launched three other nonprofit newsroom startups and supported 26 others across the country.

“A broader effort, called the Ohio Local News Initiative, is set to establish a network of nonprofit newsrooms across the state that would share a back-office infrastructure, with each community having a newsroom to serve local needs, said Sarabeth Berman, CEO of the American Journalism Project. . . .

” Berman says the journalism project is in talks to expand the initiative to other parts of the state and expects a flow of further donations. The newsroom in Cleveland is expected to hire 25 staffers to launch by mid-2022. . . .”

Prison Staff Shortages Leave Stabbings Undetected

“A prisoner at a Philadelphia jail was repeatedly stabbed in an attack by three men on a cellblock with no guard nearby, leaving him to stagger back into his cell as no one came to his aid,” Samantha Melamed and Dylan Purcell reported Nov. 4 for The Philadelphia Inquirer. “The Sept. 30 incident, captured on surveillance video obtained by The Inquirer, went undetected after other prisoners rushed over to mop up the blood.

“Corrections officers and prisoners said the situation was a consequence of intensifying staff shortages at the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, where violence has been simmering among men who spend 21 hours a day locked in their cells.

“An Inquirer analysis of a week’s worth of recent staffing rosters revealed that 20% to 30% of shifts on a given day were filled by officers and supervisors working overtime. Many officers put in 16-hour or even 22-hour workdays. . . .”

(Photo: Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Northeast Philadelphia; Credit: Tim Tai/Philadelphia Inquirer)

Reporters Verify Killing of 1,000 in El Salvador

“On Dec. 10, 1981, an American-trained unit of the Salvadoran army stormed into a remote village near the country’s border with Honduras,” Nelson Rauda reported Tuesday for ProPublica, Retro Report and PBS’ “Frontline.”

“In the days that followed, the soldiers killed nearly 1,000 civilians, most of them women and children. Raymond Bonner, a ProPublica and Retro Report contributor who was then working for The New York Times, traveled with photographer Susan Meiselas through rebel-held territory to report on the massacre.

“Their story about the atrocities and a similar account by The Washington Post’s Alma Guillermoprieto were fiercely attacked by the Reagan administration, which viewed El Salvador’s military as an essential ally in the fight against the country’s leftist rebels. Administration officials insisted El Mozote had been the site of a firefight between the army and rebels.

“After the war finally ended in January 1992, investigators began to dig up the bodies. Of the more than 140 remains first exhumed, more than 95% were children; the average age was 6 years old. Many had been rounded up and locked in a convent, then killed in a fusillade of fire before the building was burned. The reporters had been right all along.

“Four decades after he filed his first story on El Mozote, Bonner returned to El Salvador and teamed up with Nelson Rauda, a reporter with the independent news outlet El Faro, to track the country’s faltering efforts to hold the perpetrators accountable.

“The key to that inquiry was a Salvadoran judge who heard testimony from victims, families and some of the military officers involved.

“Taken together, the evidence indicated that the El Mozote attack was part of a pattern set by El Salvador’s military and political leadership. Bonner and Rauda’s reporting is traced in a documentary . . . produced by the nonprofit news organization Retro Report and the PBS program FRONTLINE. (Check your local schedules for airtimes.)

” The following story, by Rauda, details the personal costs of doing this work in a country whose populist president has handcuffed the judiciary and publicly attacked journalists who challenge the official line. . . .”

Short Takes

Edward J. Clarke’s “1940s columns were uncovered through reporting by Gabriel Pietrorazio of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland in their #PrintingHate series, reviewing racist media coverage of the past,” the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association said. “An article about the Pocomoke City incident will be published in early December 2021.”
Raquel Coronell Uribe’s father, Daniel Coronell, is the former president of Univision News and her mother, María Cristina Uribe, was a well-known TV news anchor. Both parents hail from Colombia. (Credit: María Cristina Uribe)
Sergio Medina, editor-in-chief of The Ranger, opens a letter to the editor. (Credit: Jose Arredondo/Spectrum News 1)
Merna Beasley, an indigenous woman in Australia, and three others with similar backgrounds have been highlighted in David Prichard’s winning entry for the 2021 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, an internatonal honor.
“The program chairs and committees play a critical role in reviewing and selecting member-submitted session and workshop proposals, and work on session content strategy and development in conjunction with the organizations’ Boards and staff.”
“Florida A&M University (FAMU) alumna Kim Godwin recalled her journey from journalism school to local television newsrooms around the country to being president of ABC News,” Andrew Skerrit wrote Nov. 2 for the university.
” ‘A big part of my story is trusting your journey,’ said Godwin, whose journalism career has led to nine relocations around the country. ‘Trust your journey and keep going. If you are moving, you are hard to stop; keep going; keeping growing; keep glowing. Something in motion is harder to stop.’ . . ” Godwin visited on Oct. 28. (Credit: AJ Shorter)
F.W. de Klerk, left, and Nelson Mandela (Credit: Facebook)
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Richard Prince’s Journal-isms originates from Washington. It began in print before most of us knew what the internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a “column.” Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity. Send tips, comments and concerns to Richard Prince at journal-isms+owner@groups.io

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