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That Line About Blacks in Prison vs. Slavery

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Sen. Booker Should Drop Misleading Statistic

. . . Where Was the Student Newspaper?

$3.6 Million for Racial Equity in Journalism

Reporting Uncovers a Lost Black Cemetery

Ross Leaves AP, Settles Lawsuit, Starts Project

Amy Barnett Joins BET; David Wilson Leaves

After Reporting, Hospitals Ease Up on Suing Poor

Increase Seen in Quoting Anti-Immigrant Language

Virginia’s Lt. Gov. Sues CBS Charging Defamation

Eritrea Ranked World’s Most Censored Country

Short Takes

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., flanked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., makes his point during Thursday’s Democratic presidential candidates debate. (Credit: ABC News)

Sen. Booker Should Drop Misleading Statistic

Viewers of Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate or of the soundbites that followed saw Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., repeat a line that has become a staple of his talking points:

There are more blacks under criminal supervision today than were in slavery in 1850.

Sen. Booker, please stop. Most reporters aren’t calling him on it, so let’s reach back to 2011 to explain why they should.

The line comes from the widely acclaimed “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” by Michelle Alexander, published in 2010.

“The problem is that the fact (and it is true) that there are more Blacks in prison today than were in slavery 160 years ago, without proper analysis and context (which I will assume that Alexander offers in her book), is misleading at best, and at worst, potentially damaging to the very population of Black males whose treatment and exploitation is being protested,” Alfred Edmond Jr. wrote in 2011 in Black Enterprise magazine, of which he is SVP/editor-at-large.

“That’s because statistics, without the benefit of context, analysis and critical thinking, are extremely dangerous, especially for Black people. For every person who believes that the over-representation of Blacks in the prison system is proof of the bias inherent in that system (as I do) , there is at least one other who believes that such disproportionate representation is proof positive that Black men are more prone to crime and violence — and worse, that most Black men are guilty until proven innocent. Statistics and facts can be used to define and defend, or to demonize and destroy. . . .”

Edmond continued, “While the fact that today’s Black incarcerated population is larger than the 1850 slavery population in sheer numbers (and alarmingly out of proportion to Black Americans’ share of the U.S. population) is a shocking comparison, it doesn’t really say much. That’s because today’s total Black population is far larger than America’s Black population in 1850. So a more accurate and illustrative comparison would be the percentage of the Black population who were slaves in 1850 versus the percentage of the Black population incarcerated today.

“According to the 1850 Census, there were 3.6 million African Americans (including roughly 3.2 million slaves) in the U.S. population. By comparison, in 2010, the Census reported nearly 39 million African Americans (not counting those of mixed races), more than 10 times the Black population in 1850.

“Based on those figures, it is not plausible, even at first glance, that today’s Black incarceration rates are anywhere near the proportion of Blacks in slavery in 1850. In fact, nearly 90 percent of Blacks in America were slaves 160 years ago. According the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, non-Hispanic Blacks (including women) are 39.4 percent of the total prison and jail population in 2009. Not even close.

“So, is there a disproportionate number of African Americans in prison? Absolutely. Are most Black people in prison? Absolutely not. Are there strong parallels between the prison industrial complex and the American system of slavery and disenfranchisement of Black people? Again, absolutely. Is there a higher proportion of Black people in prison today than were in slavery in [1850]? Again, absolutely not.

“Should we sound the alarm to get people to adopt a greater sense of urgency and take action to change the criminal justice system and, more importantly, to keep African Americans out of it? Absolutely, positively, yes. But using statistics and citing facts and studies without providing critical analysis and context, for the sake of getting our attention, is the equivalent of pulling a false alarm. Both can result in the trampling of the very people we’re trying to save.”

. . . Where Was the Student Newspaper?

The Democrats’ decision to hold the debate at Texas Southern University, a historically black institution, accomplished several objectives:

It called attention to the importance of the black vote and to these colleges and universities.

It provided a venue for the candidates to try to outdo each other in stating their commitment to African American issues, including funding for historically black colleges, attention to criminal justice inequalities and to the bill before Congress to consider reparations proposals. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., for example said she would put $2 trillion dollars into HBCUs.

It also gave ABC reporter Linsey Davis, a black journalist and one of the moderators, a chance to demonstrate that she could raise some of these issues with precision.

But it didn’t seem to do much to call attention to student journalism at TSU.

The website of the TSU Herald featured a story dated Sept. 7, “All roads lead to TSU for third Democratic primary debate.”

It was not updated during or after the Sept. 12 debate.

The explanation may lie on the newspaper’s “Contact Us” page:

“The Herald is the official student newspaper of Texas Southern University. It is published monthly, except during holidays.”

UPDATE:  “Our students were everywhere,” Serbino Sandifer-Walker, interim assistant dean of the School of Communication at Texas Southern University, responds. See the Comments section, http://journal-isms.com/2019/09/that-line-about-blacks-in-prison-vs-slavery/#comments

$3.6 Million for Racial Equity in Journalism

“Borealis Philanthropy just announced its new Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, which has raised $3.6 million to date, with plans to start making grants in the first quarter of 2020. Of the $1.2 billion in grants given to journalism organizations in America between 2009 and 2015, only 6% went to serve specific racial or ethnic groups, according to an analysis by the Democracy Fund,” Kay Dervishi reported Friday for NYN Media.

“The Ford Foundation has teamed up, with the Open Society, Community Change, Demos and the Center on Democracy and Organizing to launch a learning series called Realizing Democracy. The initiative kicked off yesterday with an event that included panels and art displays related to the subject. . . .”

“As we’ve learned throughout the decades, inclusive news coverage and newsrooms benefit everyone, including elite news consumers. If we don’t understand our nation in all its breadth, we can’t act in our best interests,” said Farai Chideya, program officer for creativity and free expression at the Ford Foundation, in the announcement. “A historic lack of diversity and equity in journalism has left countless stories untold, and multiple American communities and issues poorly-covered. To rebuild our news industry and promote civic participation, we must invest — financially and with knowledge and networks — in a broader range of media-makers, for the good of all.” Photo at announcement

Tampa Bay Times staff writer Paul Guzzo, left, and staff photographer James Borchuck are seen near the edge of a property that has been determined to be the former Zion Cemetery, July 1, in Tampa, Fla. (Credit: Chris Urso/Tampa Bay Times)

Reporting Uncovers a Lost Black Cemetery

“Tampa Bay Times journalists Paul Guzzo and James Borchuck have brought new meaning to the journalistic creed: Give voice to the voiceless,” Mark Katches, executive editor of the Tampa Bay Times, wrote Thursday, attempting to drive home the importance of local journalism.

“You probably have heard that their reporting uncovered the missing Zion Cemetery in Tampa — a segregation-era burial ground where hundreds of black men, women and children were laid to rest. And then the city, incredibly, lost track of them all.

“Only now, and only because of Guzzo and Borchuck’s work, Zion Cemetery has been found.

“Paved over generations ago to make room for warehouses and an apartment complex.

“Late last month, at least 126 coffins were identified by a team of archaeologists using ground penetrating radar. And those are mostly just the bodies buried in the courtyard. Under the actual apartments there could be scores more. Residents who live in buildings atop the cemetery land will be relocated. The complex eventually will be demolished.

“Guzzo crammed into a conference room at the Tampa Housing Authority on Aug. 30 as the team of archaeologists announced the results of their investigation that had been prompted solely by his work. Some in the room gasped. Others buried their heads. One community leader left in tears.

“ ‘It was hard to hold it together,’ Guzzo said. ‘It wasn’t just about a lost cemetery for that room — most there were African Americans. It was more like they were hit in the face with the reminder of what their ancestors dealt with.’ . . . ”

Sonya Ross at the unveiling of the Alice Dunnigan statue in Russellville, Ky., in August. (Credit: Bailey Vandiver/Twitter)

Ross Leaves AP, Settles Lawsuit, Starts Project

Sonya L. Ross, the Associated Press’ race and ethnicity editor and former White House reporter, has quietly retired from the news cooperative after 33 years, settled a three-year-old discrimination suit against her employer and begun her own journalism project.

“I retired from AP at the end of June to run my own journalism initiative, Black Women Unmuted,” Ross, 57, told Journal-isms last week by email.

Among the initiative’s first efforts is “Madame Mayor,” a series exploring governance issues cities with black female mayors — in Atlanta; Baton Rouge, La.; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; New Orleans; San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — presented with FierceforBlackWomen.com and WURD radio in Philadelphia, founding content partners.

“First up: Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who spoke with legendary journalist and fellow Atlanta native Charlayne Hunter-Gault about her struggle to balance the city’s economic development needs against concerns that gentrification spurred by that development is pushing out the poor.”

The project was launched under a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network and last week was awarded a $25,000 grant from the Facebook Journalism Project Community Network.

Lauren Easton, director of AP media relations, said the organization had posted Ross’ race and ethnicity editor’s job internally.

On Ross’ appointment as the first to hold the race and ethnicity post in 2010, Steven Komarow, acting Washington bureau chief, said, “She’ll work with AP journalists around the country to produce coverage that captures the changing facets of race and ethnicity in the United States and its effects on the experiences of people of various races. Through her editing and writing, she’ll help the AP look thoughtfully at the evolving definition and significance of race and ethnicity in American culture and society.

“Sonya will also expand her role in the news department’s diversity initiatives, and help the AP create new types of content on diversity topics in all formats.”

Last October, Ross told the Journal-isms Roundtable (Facebook membership required) that the news outlets that pay the AP to run its copy are increasingly seeing the business case for covering race. Ross highlighted how the coverage appeals particularly to the coveted millennial demographic. Even as AP clients (and AP itself) have cut back on staff, Ross said her team has been growing. “The overall goal is to chronicle the changing demographics,” she said.

Ross, an Atlanta native, joined the AP in 1986 under an internship program that followed a 1973 complaint filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by female AP employees. A settlement was negotiated between the AP, the Newspaper Guild and the EEOC.

She rose at AP from general assignment reporter in Georgia to urban affairs reporter and White House reporter, world services editor and news editor for regionals in Washington. She was the first African American woman permanently assigned by AP to the White House.

On Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks, Ross, cameraman George Christian and sound technician Erick Washington were among only five journalists with President George W. Bush aboard Air Force One.

In 2011, when April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks was elected to the board of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Ross noted how rare that was. “WHCA is 97 years old. [It is now 105.] Its board was all white and male for most of that time,” Ross wrote in an email then. “There were no black [board] members until Bob [Ellison] was elected president for the 1990-91 term. I was elected in 1999 and served until 2003. No black correspondents have served for nearly a decade. April ran for election twice, I think, before winning this time.”

Francesca Chambers, senior White House correspondent for DailyMail.com, now serves on the board.

To underscore her belief that more journalists of color needed to be political writers, Ross chaired the Political Journalism Task Force of the National Association of Black Journalists.

In 2016, Ross unloaded a bombshell.

Ross accused the news organization of marginalizing her and denying her opportunities for promotion because of her race, age and gender, Zoe Tillman reported at the time for the National Law Journal.

“According to the complaint, the trouble began in 2008, when the former Washington bureau chief, a woman, was replaced by a white man, whose name is not included in the complaint. He is referred to as ‘Employee A.’ Ross claimed the new supervisor created a hostile and abusive work environment, singling her out for criticism, speaking to her harshly in front of another reporter, and undermining her efforts at advancement.

“Ross said that when she became Race and Ethnicity Editor in 2010, the move was announced as a promotion, but AP failed to give her the necessary resources to do the job. She said she was promised a ‘meager’ pay raise at her insistence, and did not receive it until she protested three years later.

“In 2011, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs began an audit of the AP, according to the lawsuit. Ross said she was urged not to discuss her discrimination complaints, but did so. In the years that followed, Ross said that AP retaliated by cutting her out of editing opportunities, denying her resources and diluting her authority as an editor. In February 2016, according to the lawsuit, the Labor Department’s compliance office concluded its investigation with a finding of workplace hostility. . . .”

On March 28, Ross and the AP told U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan that they had reached a settlement, and Chutkan dismissed the case. The terms were not disclosed.

Ross’ new project, undertaken with partners Tracie Powell and Kelly Macias, is an extension of her promotion of black female journalists. Last year and this, for example, Ross championed Alice Allison Dunnigan, the first black woman to cover the White House, traveling with President Harry S. Truman. Ross was an active participant when a statue was unveiled in Dunnigan’s honor at the Newseum in Washington and later in Dunnigan’s hometown of Russellville, Ky.

“It is so gratifying to see Alice Dunnigan finally being given her rightful place among America’s greatest journalists,” Ross said at the Newseum. “Because she endured low wages and myriad indignities to become a political reporter, the little black girls who came after her could stand in the White House on their own authority and question presidents too. As one of those little black girls who walked through the door she opened, I cannot thank her enough for her sacrifices.”

Amy Barnett Joins BET; David Wilson Leaves

BET Networks announced Wednesday that Amy DuBois Barnett, a former top editor at Ebony, Honey and Teen People magazines and currently chief content officer for theGrio.com, would become senior vice president and general manager of BET Digital.

Amy DuBois Barnett

Left unsaid was that David A. Wilson, co-founder of theGrio.com, quietly exited the job the previous Friday after having left Brazil to take the position less than a year ago.

Wilson told Journal-isms by email, “I am doing great! Not sure if I have ever been better to be honest. I decided to move on from BET for an opportunity to focus on my project in Brazil. I’m grateful for my time at BET. I really loved working with so many talented folks there and throughout Viacom. I wished Amy all the best in her new role. She’s a great choice.”

From Brazil, Wilson had told his Facebook friends in 2017, “I am here to help inspire the creation and expansion of more black revenue-based media in Brazil. In the U.S.A. black universities, black media, black banks, and other black institutions historically have helped us support each other, define ourselves for ourselves, grow economically, and improve our societies. Black and more specifically black-owned institutions are desperately needed here. I’m hoping to lend my talent, my experience, my relationships, and my passion to help develop opportunities for media and black entrepreneurs of the largest population in the Black/African diaspora. I also hope to inspire more Black people to think globally. . . .”

Barnett was named to the Grio position in 2017 and said then she planned to reboot the site as a “video-centric destination for black millennials” under its latest owner, Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios.

David A. Wilson

Entertainment Studios spokesman Eric Peterkofsky did not respond to a question about who is running the site with Barnett’s departure.

BET’s statement said that “In her role, Barnett will oversee all aspects of digital content of BET non-linear platforms, BET’s digital and social strategy, content development, social programming, editorial, business development/partnerships, and digital business operations. . . .”

As for his achievements, Wilson said he was proudest of “Black Coffee,” a daily morning digital talk show hosted by Marc Lamont Hill, and “Imagine Room,” an online series in which “The hottest up-and-coming musicians are taking the stage,” in the words of its publicity.

In a survey conducted for Journal-isms last year by the comScore research firm, the Black Entertainment Television website remained the most-viewed targeting African Americans, while theGrio.com was No. 10.

After Reporting, Hospitals Ease Up on Suing Poor

“Over the past few months, several hospitals have announced major changes to their financial assistance policies, including curtailing the number of lawsuits they file against low-income patients unable to pay their medical bills,” Maya Miller and Beena Raghavendran reported Friday for ProPublica.

“Investigative reports have spurred the moves, and they prompted criticism from a top federal official.

“ ‘We are learning the lengths to which certain not-for-profit hospitals go to collect the full list price from uninsured patients,’ Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told board members of the American Hospital Association on Tuesday, according to published remarks. ‘This is unacceptable. Hospitals must be paid for their work, but it’s actions like these that have led to calls for a complete Washington takeover of the entire health care system.’

“In June, ProPublica published a story with MLK50 on the Memphis, Tennessee-based nonprofit hospital system Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.

“It brought more than 8,300 lawsuits against patients, including dozens against its own employees, for unpaid medical bills over five years. In thousands of cases, the hospital attempted to garnish defendants’ paychecks to collect the debt.

“After our investigation, the hospital temporarily suspended its legal actions and announced a review. That resulted in the hospital raising its workers’ wages, expanding its financial assistance policy and announcing that it would not sue its lowest-income patients. ‘We were humbled,’ the hospital’s CEO, Michael Ugwueke, told reporters. . . .”

MLK50 is a nonprofit reporting project on economic justice. In partnership with the National Civil Rights Museum’s MLK50 commemoration, it calls itself “journalism focused on poverty, power and public policy in Memphis, 50 years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.”

Increase Seen in Quoting Anti-Immigrant Language

“Since 2014, major U.S. newspapers have used dehumanizing labels to refer to immigrants at a steadily increasing rate, according to a new study by Define American and the MIT Center for Civic Media,” the group DefineAmerican reported.

Moreover, “The Center for Immigration Studies, a far-right, anti-immigrant group, was frequently cited by major U.S. newspapers in the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency — without mention of the group’s deep ties to the Trump administration,” Maryam Saleh reported Thursday for the Intercept.

DefineAmerica said, “This disturbing trend coincides with a vast increase in coverage of immigration-related issues. The study, ‘The Language of Immigration Reporting: Normalizing vs. Watchdogging in a Nativist Age,’ also found an increase in quotes from extremist anti-immigrant groups in trusted news outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and USA Today. In a post-El Paso America, the words we choose have real consequences in people’s lives. . . .”

Vanessa Tyson, one of two women accusing Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault in 2004, demanded his resignation during an interview April 1. (Credit: CBS News)

Virginia’s Lt. Gov. Sues CBS Charging Defamation

“Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax filed a $400 million defamation lawsuit Thursday against CBS, saying the network recklessly disregarded the truth and hyped what the Democrat says are false sexual assault allegations against him,” Laura Vozzella reported for the Washington Post.

“Two women alleged in early February that Fairfax had sexually assaulted them in separate incidents in the early 2000s. One was a classmate at Duke University and the other a woman who met Fairfax at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Fairfax insisted that both encounters were consensual.

“Both women gave interviews to Gayle King that aired on CBS This Morning in early April. The suit, filed in federal court in Alexandria, claims that CBS failed to ‘follow up on leads that would demonstrate the allegations to be false.’ . . .”

Vozzella also wrote, “CBS News released a statement: ‘We stand by our reporting and we will vigorously defend this lawsuit.’ . . .”

Debra S. Katz and Lisa J. Banks, attorneys for Vanessa Tyson, one of the accusers, called Fairfax’s suit “yet another desperate stunt by Mr. Fairfax to preserve his political career at the expense of survivors of sexual assault.”

Attorney Nancy Erika Smith, representing accuser Meredith Watson, said, “We look forward to everyone testifying under oath, now that this matter is in court.”

Eritrea Ranked World’s Most Censored Country

“Eritrea is the world’s most censored country, according to a list compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists,” the press freedom group reported Tuesday. “The list is based on CPJ’s research into the use of tactics ranging from imprisonment and repressive laws to surveillance of journalists and restrictions on internet and social media access.

“Under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek and receive news and express opinions. These 10 countries flout the international standard by banning or severely restricting independent media and intimidating journalists into silence with imprisonment, digital and physical surveillance, and other forms of harassment. Self-censorship is pervasive.

“In the top three countries — Eritrea, North Korea, and Turkmenistan — the media serves as a mouthpiece of the state, and any independent journalism is conducted from exile. The few foreign journalists permitted to enter are closely monitored.

“Other countries on the list use a combination of blunt tactics like harassment and arbitrary detention as well as sophisticated surveillance and targeted hacking to silence the independent press. Saudi Arabia, China, Vietnam, and Iran are especially adept at practicing these two brands of censorship: jailing and harassing journalists and their families, while also engaging in digital monitoring and censorship of the internet and social media.

“The list addresses only those countries where the government tightly controls the media. . . .”

Short Takes


(Credit: Time)

Monica Morales is the only reporter in New York to make covering public housing a full-time beat. (Image via PIX11)

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