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Brexit Stories Miss Racial Connection

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‘The Driving Force . . . Was Racism’

‘Words Matter,’ Says Anchor Compared to Gorilla

USA Today Journeys to Angola for 1619 Project

Washington Post Examines How Slavery Is Taught

USA Today’s Wadsworth Wins Award for Diversity

Roberts Is Highest Paid News Anchor of Color

3 Groups Team to Fund Investigative Project

China Expels Wall Street Journal Reporter

ONA Honors Journalists of Color Network

Takei Airs Series on Japanese American Camps

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(Credit: Mindsight Collective, Britain)

‘The Driving Force . . . Was Racism’

Brexit is back in the news after new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s audacious move to suspend Parliament, but few in the media are making the connection between Britons’ desire to leave the European Union and the resurgence of racism in Britain and on the continent.

The connection has been there all along.

“The discussion in Britain has mostly missed . . . one of the biggest divides that the vote uncovered: 53% of White voters wanted out and 73% of Black voters wanted to stay in the EU,” Kehinde Andrews, a professor at Birmingham City University in the UK, wrote for ebony.com on June 29, 2016, shortly after the referendum. “Black voters overwhelmingly supported staying in, not because of any love for the union but because they recognized that the driving force behind the desire to leave was racism.

“Being part of the EU means being subject to European laws and Vote Leave campaign’s motto was to ‘take back control’ of the nation from the bureaucrats in Europe. Vote Leave’s supporters argued that Britain ‘could be great again’ if the country did not have to send hundreds of millions of pounds to Europe, and have its hands tied by such inconveniences as the European Court of Human Rights. But when Vote Leave was undercut by virtually every economist and the vast majority of business leaders, many of whom predicted the economic chaos, the organization played its Trump card: immigration. . . .”

(Not surprisingly, Britain’s departure was egged on by then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.)

Since the vote, the racial tie has only become stronger.

“Ethnic minorities in Britain are facing rising and increasingly overt racism, with levels of discrimination and abuse continuing to grow in the wake of the Brexit referendum, nationwide research reveals,” Robert Booth reported in May for the Guardian.

“Seventy-one percent of people from ethnic minorities now report having faced racial discrimination, compared with 58% in January 2016, before the EU vote, according to polling data seen by the Guardian.

“The data comes amid rising concern at the use of divisive rhetoric in public before this week’s European parliament elections, where some leading candidates, including Ukip’s Carl Benjamin and the independent Tommy Robinson, have records of overt racism. . . . .” Ukip refers to the United Kingdom Independence Party, a right-wing to far-right political party.

In July, Malorie Blackman, a best-selling black British author, told the Sunday Times Magazine, “I’ve heard more racist comments in the past three years than I’ve had in the last 30. There’s now more open hostility; it’s like people feel they can say whatever they want. I’ve had people deliberately barging into me while shopping — stuff I haven’t had to put up with for years. . . .”

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across the country on Saturday to protest against Johnson’s move to suspend parliament.

The American news media are acknowledging that they have underplayed the role of race in the rise of Trump. Perhaps they will also do a better job of reporting the racial factor in Britain and the rest of Europe.

 

KOCO TV anchor Alex Housden apologizes to black co-anchor Jason Hackett for comparing him to a gorilla during a broadcast. (Screengrab from Quinlan Report’s YouTube.)

 

‘Words Matter,’ Says Anchor Compared to Gorilla

The story of a white TV anchor in Oklahoma City who compared her African American co-anchor to a gorilla during a broadcast went international and spread quickly via social media.

Black co-anchor Jason Hackett accepted the apology of KOCO-TV anchor Alex Housden with a lesson that “words matter,” Chacour Koop reported Monday for the Kansas City Star.

Housden, a morning anchor, finished a segment about a gorilla at the Oklahoma City Zoo by comparing the animal to co-anchor Hackett.

“Kind of looks like you,” Housden said.

Koop wrote, “Hackett accepted Housden’s apology and said she’s one of his best friends — but that the comment hurt his feelings.

“ ‘What she said yesterday was wrong,’ Hackett said. ‘It cut deep for me, and it cut deep for a lot of you in the community.’

“Hackett said the apology was a ‘teachable moment’ to say that ‘words matter.’

“ ‘We’re becoming a more diverse country, and there’s no excuse. We have to understand the stereotypes. We have to understand each other’s backgrounds and the words that hurt, the words that cut deep,’ Hackett said. ‘We have to find a way to replace those words with love and words of affirmation as well.’. . .”


Angola was barely mentioned in the history of the slave trade. USA Today invited Wanda Tucker there to search for her roots. (Credit: USA Today)

USA Today Journeys to Angola for 1619 Project

“The 1619 series, 1619.usatoday.com, overseen by Managing Editor Kristen Go, is an exhaustively researched examination of the journey, the protagonists who defined that moment of history and the pain and repercussions that continue today,” Manny Garcia, standards and ethics editor for the USA Today Network, wrote Tuesday for USA Today.

Garcia was referencing the landing 400 years ago of enslaved Africans at the British colony of Virginia, the subject of commemorations on both sides of the Atlantic, including most prominently the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project.

Nichelle Smith, who edits USA Today’s Black History Month publication, in Luanda, Angola. (Credit: Kelley Benham French, USA Today)

“Our journalists traveled from Virginia to Angola and beyond to produce a vivid, multi-part series that includes the Tucker family’s quest to connect with its past,” Garcia continued.

“Wanda Tucker, who traces her family roots to the 1800s in Virginia, has been trying to connect her family history back to William [Tucker] — the first recorded African baby baptized in Virginia, a child born to Anthony and Isabella, survivors of the White Lion, a privateer that anchored at Point Comfort, where its captain traded human beings for supplies.

“We traveled with Wanda Tucker to Angola; USA TODAY underwrote her journey so we could be alongside her to document her quest, starting at the port city of Luanda and moving deep into the interior to the point of origin of the Portuguese trade, the historic Ndongo Kingdom. Portuguese slave ships, one even named San Juan Bautista — Saint John the Baptist — would sail from Luanda with innocents below deck, never to see their homeland again.

“Today, we humbly start this series, to honor lives lost and the spirit to survive. Our journalists have been deeply affected by their work. . . .”

 

William Foley Jones, left, Walter F. Jones and Verrandall S. Tucker stand in the Tucker family cemetery in Hampton, Va. Members of the Tucker family took ownership in restoring a cemetery of enslaved Africans that included William Tucker, the first recorded African baby baptized in Virginia. (Credit: Washington Post)

Washington Post Examines How Slavery Is Taught

“The Washington Post today released ‘Teaching Slavery,’ a new project that looks at how slavery is taught in schools,” the Post announced by email on Wednesday.

“For this project, The Washington Post interviewed more than 100 students, teachers, administrators and historians throughout the country and sat in on middle school and high school history classes in Birmingham, Ala.; Fort Dodge, Iowa; Germantown, Md.; Concord, Mass.; Broken Arrow, Okla.; and Washington, D.C. The articles examine the lessons students are learning about slavery, obstacles faced by teachers in teaching this difficult subject, the right age to introduce hard concepts about slavery to young students and how teachers connect the history of slavery to 21st-century racism and white supremacy. . . .”

For one part of the series, by Joe Heim, the Washington Post “asked noted historians to write an essay on aspects of slavery that are misunderstood, poorly taught or not covered at all in the nation’s classrooms. . . .”

The responses:

USA Today’s Wadsworth Wins Award for Diversity

Maribel Perez Wadsworth

Maribel Perez Wadsworth, president of the USA Today Network and publisher of USA Today, has been selected for the 2019 Robert G. McGruder Award for Diversity Leadership, the News Leaders Association announced Tuesday.

“Wadsworth, who oversees Gannett’s 109 daily newspapers and USA TODAY, set about rebuilding Gannett’s once industry-leading commitment to diversity by not just talking about the need for diversity, but putting systems in place to ensure that her vision is carried out,” said the organization, which combines the American Society of News Editors and the Associated Press Media Editors.

“Under her leadership, she has demanded that a diverse pool of candidates be considered for every open position in the consumer division and that the hiring team also include a diverse mix of decision-makers.

“To cement these new standards, she backed the creation of a position focused on developing a diverse pipeline of internal and external talent.

“Mizell Stewart III, current president of the News Leaders Foundation, oversees the talent pipeline.

“ ‘She is deserving not only for championing diversity in hiring and promotion, but reinforcing the business case for diversity and inclusion,’ Stewart said. ‘To survive and thrive, news organizations must truly serve a changing America, and responding to a diverse mix of consumers is critical to our future.’

“Currently, 26 percent of all of the USA TODAY Network’s managers in local news and 24 percent of USA TODAY’s managers are people of color, a notable improvement from before Wadsworth assumed her current role, according to her nomination letter. Among Gannett’s eight regional editors, four are minorities. In the past two years, Wadsworth hired a diverse group of top editors at several of the company’s sites, including Indianapolis, El Paso, Corpus Christi [Texas] and Evansville [Ind.] . . . .”

Michael Days

Meanwhile, a new executive committee will begin leading the News Leaders Association as of Sept. 8, with Michael Days, vice president of diversity and inclusion of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the first president of the new organization, NLA announced Friday.

The others on the board are:

Vice president: George Stanley, editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and regional editor, USA Today Network Wisconsin; treasurer: Mark Baldwin, executive editor, Rockford (Ill.) Register Star; secretary: Manny Garcia, senior director, standards and ethics, USA Today Network; leadership initiatives officer: Robyn Tomlin, executive editor, the News & Observer and the Herald-Sun (N.C.), and Southeast regional editor, McClatchy; membership initiatives officer: Alison Gerber, editor, Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press; immediate past president: Nancy Barnes, senior vice president of news and editorial director, NPR.

Also, Sarah Nordgren, Associated Press; Nancy Ancrum, Miami Herald; Katrice Hardy, Greenville (S.C.) News, and regional editor for the South, USA Today Network; Mandy Jenkins, Compass Experiment (Ohio); Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, CBS News; Carla Minet, Centro de Periodismo Investigativo; Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, Washington Post; Mark Horvit, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Audrey Cooper, San Francisco Chronicle; Sewell Chan, Los Angeles Times; Lucy Dalglish, Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland; Paul Cheung, Knight Foundation; Brian McGrory, Boston Globe; Dennis Anderson, Gatehouse, and Peoria (Ill.) Journal-Star.

Roberts Is Highest Paid News Anchor of Color

Robin Roberts

Robin Roberts, co-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” is the highest paid news anchor of color, followed by Lester Holt of NBC News, according to Brian O’Connell, reporting Sunday for The Street.

Commentator Sean Hannity of Fox News, whose presence on a list of news anchors some would question, was ranked highest paid overall.

“Roberts took an alternative route to news broadcasting, working for ESPN before leaving for ABC in 2005,” O’Connell wrote. “Roberts earns an annual salary of $18 million at ABC. A cancer survivor, Roberts is a frequent speaker on the subject of illness and recovery, and has earned four Emmy awards for her work at ABC.”

O’Connell also wrote, “Broadcasting the news has taken a hit in the information age, as more and more media consumers get their news from digital platforms rather than turning on Fox, CNN or some of the other ‘alphabet’ TV news networks. The average U.S. news anchor salary stands at $58,964, according to Payscale.com, O’Connell wrote.

The list:

1. Sean Hannity, Fox News, $40 million.
2. Diane Sawyer, ABC News, $22 million.
3. Robin Roberts, ABC, $18 million
4. George Stephanopoulos. ABC, $15 million
5. Anderson Cooper, CNN, $12 million

6. Shepard Smith, Fox News, $10 million
7. Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business Network, $10 million
8. Joe Scarborough, MSNBC, $8 million
9. Bret Baier, Fox News, $7 million
10. Scott Pelley, CBS News, $7 million

11. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC $7 million
12. Tucker Carlson, Fox News, $6 million
13. Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC, $5 million
14. Lester Holt, NBC News, $4 million
15. Erin Burnett, CNN, $3 million

3 Groups Team to Fund Investigative Project

“The Fund for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), and the Miami Herald Media Company today announced a fellowship project that seeks to expand investigative reporting opportunities for diverse journalists,” the groups announced on Tuesday.

“The unique partnership will offer freelance journalists an opportunity to complete an investigative project that digs into issues of consequence and of interest to readers of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. The content produced during the three-month fellowship will be edited and published by the Miami Herald Media Company’s flagship publications — the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald — in both English and Spanish.

“The fellow will receive a $30,000 grant financed by FIJ and NAHJ. Miami Herald Media Company will provide the fellow with workspace and other editorial support. The fellowship will fund work-related travel, and other expenses, plus a stipend. . . .”

 

China Expels Wall Street Journal Reporter

“The Wall Street Journal’s publisher confirmed Friday that Chinese authorities have declined to renew one of its reporters’ press credentials, effectively expelling him from the country, following an investigative story he worked on about a cousin of Chinese President Xi Jinping,” Steven Jiang reported Friday for CNN Business.

“Beijing-based reporter Chun Han Wong was the co-author of a report published in the Journal last month that detailed alleged involvement of Xi’s cousin in high-stakes gambling and potential money laundering in Australia.

“When asked about Wong’s effective expulsion, the Chinese government insisted that it handles foreign journalists’ press credentials in accordance with law.

” ‘We are firmly opposed to the malicious smearing and attacks against China by certain foreign journalists, who are not welcome in China,’ the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement Friday. ‘At the same time, we will facilitate newsgathering work that complies with laws and regulations for foreign journalists in China.’

“The Journal reported Friday on Wong’s removal from China, linking Beijing’s decision to his story last month.

” ‘Mr. Xi’s private life and that of his relatives are considered sensitive by Chinese authorities,’ the Journal said in its story. ‘Prior to publication, (foreign) ministry officials urged the Journal not to publish and warned of unspecified consequences.’ . . .”

ONA Honors Journalists of Color Network

Tomas Ayuso (Credit: Tomas Ayuso)

“We are pleased to announce the selection committees have granted the 2019 James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting to Honduran writer and photojournalist Tomas Ayuso, and the 2019 ONA Community Award to the administrators of the Journalists of Color Slack channel (JOC Slack),” the Online News Association announced on Tuesday.

“Tomas Ayuso is the fifth recipient of the James Foley Award, which honors digital journalists who produce exceptional reporting under the most challenging conditions. The selection committee was impressed with his unflinching coverage of conflict in Latin America as it relates to the drug war, forced displacement and urban dispossession. His work includes the ongoing project ‘The Right to Grow Old,’ a series of stories that examine why Hondurans are fleeing their country, how they do it and their displacement in Mexico.

“This year’s ONA Community Award recognizes the dedication and industry impact of the JOC Slack administrators: Aaron Williams, Sisi Wei, Tauhid Chappell, Erik Reyna, Julia Chan, Lam Thuy Vo and Lo Bénichou. As volunteers, this group has helped to create a community that puts journalists of color in the same ‘room,’ forming a support network that travels with them throughout their careers. . . .”

Takei Airs Series on Japanese American Camps

“For more than six decades, including his best-known role as Mr. Sulu on the original ‘Star Trek’ television and movie series, George Takei has aimed to tell one story,” Peter Wong wrote from Atlanta on Aug. 10 for the Portland (Ore.) Tribune.

Now, in 10 episodes that began Aug. 12 and continue through Oct. 14 on AMC, “Takei said ‘The Terror: Infamy’ will tell the story of what happened to more than 100,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned during World War II.

“As a 5-year-old boy born in Los Angeles, Takei was one of them, his family sent from Los Angeles to Camp Rohwer in Arkansas, and later to Camp Tule Lake on the California-Oregon border.

“The family returned to Los Angeles in 1946 after Tule Lake was closed.

“During the recent national convention of the Asian American Journalists Association, Takei, now 82, said he is taken aback by the number of people who are unaware of what happened to people like him.

” ‘They are shocked — and I am shocked they are shocked,’ he said.

“This is an American story. The fact that there are so many Americans who still to this day are unaware of that to me is very troubling. It is particularly troubling because we are the echoes of what is happening today on the southern border.’ . . .”

Wong also wrote, “The first episode was shown near the close of a daylong segment of the Asian American Journalists convention aimed at developing skills of minorities to produce content and tell stories.

“Takei appeared on a discussion panel afterward with Alexander Woo, producer and writer; Lily Mariye, director, and Derek Mio, lead actor who plays Chester Nakayama, a second-generation Japanese American who eventually opts for U.S. Army service. . . .”

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