Racial diversity in the media a one-way street

Professor Henry Gates on the left

[caption id="attachment_17997" align="alignleft" width="800"] Professor Henry Gates, left, founder of The Root[/caption]

Carol Forsloff — The Root headlines that CNN's new hires are all white. But in the world of journalism, while African Americans seek opportunities within the mainstream media, asking for inclusion in such high-profile outlets as CNN, African American media appears to retain an all-black reporting staff, making diversity in the media a one-way street, as The Root itself hires predominantly, if not exclusively, African Americans.

Not long ago this reporter noted The Root had restated an article I had  written about whether integration had helped or hurt African American children. The article was based on an extensive interview with an African American woman in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The restated article had minor commentary on the content of the article, but the bulk of The Root's offering was predominantly a rewrite of the original. This is often done in the media, especially when the article in question is on a citizen journal site, like Digital Journal.

The original article, however, was written by this professional journalist, who at the time was supervising interns in journalism and who had previously been an instructor in the journalism department at the university in Natchitoches. Since The Root had favored the article sufficiently to include its thesis in another article by an African American reporter, it seemed reasonable that the quality of the writing and ideas from this reporter might be of interest to The Root. So I wrote to the management of The Root and asked about the possibility of writing articles for it, mentioning at the same time the original article I had written on integration and African American youth.

I received no answer, despite several inquiries. In reviewing both The Root and The Grio, both African American publications, in neither have I seen Caucasian writers included as ordinary staff writers.

So has integration brought more inclusion across racial lines? In many areas, the problem of separation remains, but whereas white groups that reject people of color are publicly chastised, it is common for African American groups not to include whites, whether that is in the media or the local beauty contest.

Racial diversity within an organization may be the goal for the African American journalist, as The Root maintains; however, that one-way street is evidence that the foundation of integration remains unstable. So while the conversation at the Supreme Court is on voting rights, and African Americans seek to maintain racial diversity, perhaps the "street divisions" when it comes to race, within the African American community,  need to be revisited as well.