The Boston Globe asks “Why Should a Journalist’s Race Matter?”

It’s just strange how some biases are perceived as objective.

I do agree with Jacoby on one thing – we need more quality journalists. Reporters like Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair do journalism a grand disservice. A bad journalist is a bad journalist, regardless of color, and we need more people – of all races – who take the idea of the news and the public trust seriously.

We need more reporters who are engaged and informed, and are willing to challenge themselves on their own biases. But until that day comes, what is the solution?

Would a white journalist, like Jacoby, be able to tell with conviction Cory Booker’s story? Booker, the current mayor of Newark, has a story layered with racial nuance. In The Breakthrough, Ifill notes that “In order to move into Harrington Park, his parents, a pair of IBM executives, hired a white couple to pose as them.” (p. 142) Now, an informed white writer (or a writer who knows their beat, and has been reporting in the area for the years which is another dying breed) would probably be able to piece that together, either from background knowledge or doing further research. And an informed white writer would be able to paint a picture of some of the intra-racial tension Booker faced, from being perceived as “too light” to be black, of the static he received for having grown up in the suburbs, away from the city, or for his top-tier education.

An informed, curious, white writer could conceivably write that story.

But a white writer who is convinced racism is in the past, has a negligible effect on modern life, and subscribes to the “only racists bring up race” school of thought can never tell that kind of story. Their bias prevents them from seeing what is there.

And so, Jacoby’s op-ed actually makes my case for me. In his insistence to do away with talking about race, he notes:

“Washington journalism will not be improved by seeking out “journalists of color,” but by seeking out journalists of integrity, talent, and thoughtfulness.”

I wholeheartedly agree.

Especially on the thoughtfulness aspect. Journalists who understand the inequities in society that revolve around gender, race, class, sexuality, gender orientation, and ability – even if they don’t fully understand or live that experience – will produce better, more nuanced pieces that speak to a large segment of the population. Journalists who deny these inequities become editors who deny these inequities who reject pieces that explicitly deal with this bias and support pieces that validate their worldview.

And while that continues to happen, we will continue to have the same boring op-eds airing asking “Why Should a Journalist’s Race Matter?” when the subtext is really “I’m tired of talking about race” instead of having a more productive conversation asking “why haven’t these issues of inequality been resolved?”

(Photo credit: NY Mag)

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