Inside the Black Journalist-Led Revolts Rocking U.S. Newsrooms

Staff members’ demands helped end the tenure of James Bennet as Opinion editor of The New York Times. And they are generating tension at The Washington Post. Part of the story starts in Ferguson, Mo.

“It has never been my expectation that every piece the New York Times publishes will confirm my personal worldview, but it was also never my expectation The Times would run an op-ed calling for state violence.”

“African-American reporters at the time could actually tell you which riot got them hired.”

“If you want diverse newsrooms, hire folks, full time. Period. That fact that POC always need a trial run says it ALL.”

How do we move away from 50 years of lip service to sustained newsroom diversity? This survey, conducted by this collection’s curator Carla Murphy, points the way.

Nearly 80 Latino staffers at the @latimes sent a letter to the owner and managers demanding a newspaper that truly reflects the community.

“This was a hard choice, since I loved being a local science reporter. But STLPR’s leaders need to change the station’s toxic culture or journalists of color will continue to leave.”

So what next steps can we as an industry take?

Former public radio reporter Brenda Salinas and former public television producer Cecilia Garcia reflect on how far public media hasn’t come on “diversity” in the last forty years—and why.

How whiteness dilutes voices of color at public radio stations.

Gannett said it will “make its workforce as diverse as the country by 2025 and to [sic] expand the number of journalists focused on covering issues related to race and identity, social justice and equality.”

A hard look at journalism and how it has been complicit in upholding systemic racism.

In Canada, under the banner of diversity, racialized people are told to bring ourselves and our perspectives. But, if we bring too much of them, we get held back.

The broadcaster and historian argues racism has led to a ‘lost generation’ of minority ethnic people in the UK TV industry.

“It wasn’t like, I’m going to plot to take down Condé Nast,” says Tammie Teclemariam.

The first newsroom protests were tied to issues of racism and anti-Blackness, but they’ve expanded to the industry-wide problem of toxic leadership, and the dominance of white men and women in positions of power.