Last Updated: August 13, 1999
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Time Out
At The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., our weather icons are men.
Clouds, the snowman, even the sun and moon are guys. When our content audit
group realized this, we laughed. Then, we came across a drawing of Jesus.
Is Jesus a person of color? The conversation grew more serious. (We decided
he is.)
The 12-person committee marked up four editions of the paper one afternoon.
We marked bylines, quotes and photographs of women and men appearing in
the paper, as well as people of color. Later, at a newsroom brown bag lunch,
we talked about the marked-up papers and how we might better reflect our
communities. This was phase one of our Time Out activities. Phase two came
when James McBride, author of “The Color of Water,” flew to Spokane to
conduct sessions on “diversity and beyond.”
I am co-chair of the newspaper’s diversity committee, which was created
three years ago, partly in reaction to a journalist of color who left the
paper because she didn’t feel supported in the newsroom or community. We
wanted to explore how we could increase our understanding and appreciation
of diversity and get in better touch with minority communities.
Our mark-up revealed few surprises: We quote and write about more men
than women and people of color tend to show up more often on the sports
pages. But some progress peeked through. Because Washington legislators
are 42 percent female — the highest percentage in the country — women were
often quoted. And our photos depict men, women and people of color of all
ages — a bright spot.
We also pondered solutions. A call for mother-daughter look-alike pictures
in the features section resulted in all-white mom-daughter entries.
Some leaders in the community called us and asked what happened. We told
reporters that if they need sources in minority communities, to let committee
members know. We can help.
McBride conducted two newspaper workshops. His book is about being raised
by a Jewish mother and African-American father. He told staffers: “Racism
is really just personal problems expressed that way. So the more you work
those out, the better the newsroom will be.” Journalists of color must
realize that their jobs will be tougher, he said. He urged reporters to
“get out of the office and out from behind the wheel of your locked Honda,”
encouraging them to get to know people and neighborhoods and to report
about the authentic community experiences.
Later, at a lunch with McBride, two Japanese-American guests presented
the committee with 1,000 paper origami cranes to wish the newspaper good
luck on its diversity efforts.
What we’re learning is that it is worth the effort to explore issues
of diversity in an authentic way. But don’t forget to have fun!
Nappi is interactive editor of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash.
