Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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Diversity
A call for courage on the editorial page
To The Seattle Times’s publisher, pursuing racial
equality and correcting past inequities should be one area where editorial
pages should lead and be bold
By Frank A. Blethen
Adapted from a speech Blethen gave in September to the National Conference
of Editorial Writers upon receiving NCEW’s Ida B. Wells Award.
The more I read about Ida B. Wells, the more I realized that there was
one personal trait that seemed to dominate the actions of this complex
woman and journalist: Courage.
Courage to pursue fairness and equality in a world where the response
was often violent and where few listened to a black voice, let alone a
female one.
More about courage — specifically editorial courage — later. First,
I’d like to share some thoughts on our industry’s attitude towards diversity.
In our efforts to narrow the divisions in our society, it’s important
to have some sense of change and progress.
It’s easy to forget that America’s "melting pot" represents the largest,
and most continuous, mixing of racial, cultural, class and societal differences
the world has ever experienced. And in spite of our problems, we’re still
pushing to create equality within a democratic framework. This is noble,
worth pursuing and sets an example for the rest of the world.
However, it wasn’t that long ago that the laws, attitudes, and customs
of our country said that white men owned their wives and children. That
they owned people with black skin. That people with yellow or red skin
had no rights.
Much has changed in the last 50 years, but the journey to fairness and
equality has just begun. The vigor with which we pursue this journey will
depend, to a major degree, on our nation’s newspapers and our editorial
pages. Editorial page editors are key to how well newspapers and society
deal with fair play and equality.
And how about the owners and managers of our newspapers?
While the new generation are more educated and professional than their
predecessors, there is concern as to whether they fully understand, embrace
and support our most basic journalistic values.
The business school mentality of "building asset value" and pursuing
quarterly profit increases is making the newspaper business seem like any
other. It has beaten down our journalistic passion.
The mentality has made too many of our newspapers boring — and even
worse — timid. Nowhere is this more evident than on editorial pages.
The fact that there are newspapers that have chosen not to make editorial
endorsements and then come up with cockamamie rationalizations to support
that decision, underscores the need for us all to return to editorial courage.
We need editorial courage and aggressiveness in many areas, but none
is more important than what the Ida B. Wells Award stands for — diversity.
Right now our nation is going through one of the goofiest, most unenlightened
and one-sided discussions imaginable. And where are our editorial pages
and our editorial passions in this discussion? Sadly, for the most part,
on the sidelines.
I’m referring, of course, to affirmative action.
The affirmative action debate will go a long way toward determining
if we enter the next millennium as a more fair and just society or if we
go backward.
Any editorial writer worth his or her salt knows the statistics: People
of color are not participating in our economy to the same degree as white
people.
While there has been progress, it hasn’t been enough and there are signs
it has plateaued or even worse, regressed.
Disadvantage starts in preschool and runs through high school, with
substandard schools and lack of access. It accelerates at the college level,
where we’re now starting to go backward in making access and the American
dream a reality.
Then it lands at our doorstep — the workplace — where due to lack of
education, access and preparation, people of color share disproportionately
in unemployment and low-income jobs.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that in access to education and
the workplace, there has been and continues to be an uneven and unfair
playing field.
We have two simple choices. We can:
-
Perpetuate inequity and the consequences that come with it, or
-
Aggressively practice affirmative action — or whatever the appropriate
title should be — and create a level playing field and a fair and just
society for all of our members.
I’d like to challenge you to take a deep look inside yourself and ask whether
you exercise editorial courage in the area of diversity.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if editorial pages across the country could
emulate Ida B. Wells’ boldness in pursuing fairness and equality?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they could use diversity to renew editorial
courage and to chase the blandness and corporatese out of our editorial
pages?
Blethen is publisher of The Seattle Times.
