I like to think I surround myself with fairly enlightened people including those folks who are just acquaintances. The fact is that at least half of them lead with ethnicity and/or race descriptors when describing someone I don’t know when that fact has nothing to do with the story. Those times when I’ve asked why the fact the person was black, Puerto Rican, etc. is important to the story have been met with a range of responses. Befuddlement as to why I should ask the question. Embarrassment because the person wasn’t really conscious of how they spoke. The “Well, you know” response based on the assumption that I share the same filter. The angry, “So your calling me a racist/bigot”. The “You’re so PC” shot which I usually take as a compliment.
It’s not like I haven’t been guilty of some of these things but helps to be aware that it’s a lifetime job to be conscious of the biases, assumptions and filters we carry and how they can be triggered by dog whistles and short hand comments. Harder still is challenging yourself and others with questions like the one above but it’s one way to get this stuff out in the open.
I’m not excusing this but when it’s so systemic, it’s sometimes hard to break off your own piece to chew on. But yeah, why IS it important to say, “My friend, who’s Black.” Is that our way of signaling we have Black friends and so we are enlightened? Because that just sucks.
"We will bend ourselves into cosmic pretzels to continue the lie that this is behavior not often seen among white people." This is so true. I was raised in CT and the town I grew up in is still 99% white.
How do we demand better from reporters and the media in general? How do we turn the public discussion toward honesty and truth, and eliminate racist and bigoted confirmation bias? It seems nearly impossible to keep up with the blast of warped public messaging with one on one conversations, though I don't intend to stop.
As the old song goes, money changes everything. As corporations took over more and more of the media, dissenting voices got smoothed out. If you've never seen this, it's a little bit chilling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksb3KD6DfSI
It CAN seem overwhelming. For what it's worth, I think that for one, those of us inside particular groups (journalists, etc.) need to be proactive about this. Trust that students who come out of my journalism classes know about bias and we train them to walk away from bias. Meanwhile, call it out. Send a letter to the editor. Go on social media, as we're doing here. Suggest that we do better. Again, this is not about any one reporter. This is bigger than any one reporter or editor. This is systemic. Those of us in the system need to hear from those outside the system or we'll just keep repeating this over and over again -- as you can see.
All good ideas. The overwhelming part is the systemic nature of it. Biased and racists messaging comes from every direction.
One thing I've learned from the pandemic is, rapid change is possible and what seems impossible may not be. Look how our whole world adapted and changed, and mostly did things to keep each other safe. And when people focused and worked together, we responded and created new ways of doing things. Big changes in a short amount of time are not impossible. With leadership, and collective focus and commitment, maybe there is hope we could also put an end to systemic racism.
I like to think I surround myself with fairly enlightened people including those folks who are just acquaintances. The fact is that at least half of them lead with ethnicity and/or race descriptors when describing someone I don’t know when that fact has nothing to do with the story. Those times when I’ve asked why the fact the person was black, Puerto Rican, etc. is important to the story have been met with a range of responses. Befuddlement as to why I should ask the question. Embarrassment because the person wasn’t really conscious of how they spoke. The “Well, you know” response based on the assumption that I share the same filter. The angry, “So your calling me a racist/bigot”. The “You’re so PC” shot which I usually take as a compliment.
It’s not like I haven’t been guilty of some of these things but helps to be aware that it’s a lifetime job to be conscious of the biases, assumptions and filters we carry and how they can be triggered by dog whistles and short hand comments. Harder still is challenging yourself and others with questions like the one above but it’s one way to get this stuff out in the open.
I’m not excusing this but when it’s so systemic, it’s sometimes hard to break off your own piece to chew on. But yeah, why IS it important to say, “My friend, who’s Black.” Is that our way of signaling we have Black friends and so we are enlightened? Because that just sucks.
"We will bend ourselves into cosmic pretzels to continue the lie that this is behavior not often seen among white people." This is so true. I was raised in CT and the town I grew up in is still 99% white.
Speaking as someone who came from a similar town in Missouri, it really DOES feel like I’ll spend the rest of my life catching up.
How do we demand better from reporters and the media in general? How do we turn the public discussion toward honesty and truth, and eliminate racist and bigoted confirmation bias? It seems nearly impossible to keep up with the blast of warped public messaging with one on one conversations, though I don't intend to stop.
Good question. It seems to me that big money has altered the course of US news.
As the old song goes, money changes everything. As corporations took over more and more of the media, dissenting voices got smoothed out. If you've never seen this, it's a little bit chilling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksb3KD6DfSI
It CAN seem overwhelming. For what it's worth, I think that for one, those of us inside particular groups (journalists, etc.) need to be proactive about this. Trust that students who come out of my journalism classes know about bias and we train them to walk away from bias. Meanwhile, call it out. Send a letter to the editor. Go on social media, as we're doing here. Suggest that we do better. Again, this is not about any one reporter. This is bigger than any one reporter or editor. This is systemic. Those of us in the system need to hear from those outside the system or we'll just keep repeating this over and over again -- as you can see.
All good ideas. The overwhelming part is the systemic nature of it. Biased and racists messaging comes from every direction.
One thing I've learned from the pandemic is, rapid change is possible and what seems impossible may not be. Look how our whole world adapted and changed, and mostly did things to keep each other safe. And when people focused and worked together, we responded and created new ways of doing things. Big changes in a short amount of time are not impossible. With leadership, and collective focus and commitment, maybe there is hope we could also put an end to systemic racism.