Covering Racism So People Will Listen
Top Story: MLK Special Edition
For the last few years, newsrooms have been grappling with systemic racism inside their own organizations, while also trying to report on how systemic racism impacts so much of what we cover.
It’s a challenging topic to report on, as federal agencies, public institutions, and politicians are being warned by The Trump administration that a focus on racism and the toll it has played in the lives of so many Americans is aggressive, anti-patriotic, and discriminatory against white people.
To even focus on it, now can feel more like a political act, than a recognition of reality.
As we all tackle the challenges presented by dwindling trust in media and our own increased interest in covering rural communities (where we often communicate with more conservative audiences) finding ways to elucidate without alienating is important.
But, systemic racism can be hard to explain even to audiences receptive to hearing about it; as it is often hidden, coded, or buried inside procedures, policies, or a deficit in terms of outright concern for the traditionally marginalized.
While it can often feel important to name things, some of the best coverage about systematic racism doesn’t always rely on the term. Rather, it delves into data that is available to the public that presents as alarming and unfair. Often, this data is found with the help of local legal justice outfits, or FOIA requests
A lot of the best coverage relies on archives that help to put stories in historical context, showing how much discriminatory neglect can be baked into a community’s history.
Other powerful stories like this piece about the mortality rate of Black mothers and their babies start with alarming, and clearly discriminatory statistics and then go from there, unpacking why the disparity exists.
For more help on this topic, refer to the Investigative Project on Race & Equity, which offers trainings, story ideas, and insight.
Stories about systematic racism will present themselves to you when citizens identify wrong-doing themselves via lawsuits, marches or protests. But, uncovering violations yourself is one of the best ways to use your journalism skills and help keep the powerful in check and the powerless protected.
Some Reading:
Students’ Civil Rights took center stage last year.
How local grass-roots activism protects civil rights
When protesting makes you a “foreign actor”
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Executive Editor Kyle Spencer
Our Board of Advisors
Alex Aronson, executive director of Court Accountability
David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy
Connor Gibson, founder of Grassrootbeer Investigations
Maurice Cunningham, retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of Dark Money and The Politics of School Privatization.
Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, founder of Faculty First Responders and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe distinguished professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Ralph Wilson, founder of the Corporate Genome Project and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
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