After the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, journalists around the country have engaged in similar emotionally wrenching discussions about ingrained practices that have marginalized people of color.At the New York Times, more than 800 staff members signed a petition protesting the publication of an opinion piece by Sen. Tom Cotton calling for the military to be sent into U.S. cities at the height of the protests sparked by Floyd’s killing.
Today, The Times newsroom employs 502 journalists, but it is 61% white, even though Los Angeles County’s population is 26% white, according to 2018 census information. Latinos represent just 13% of the newsroom in a county where Latinos make up nearly half of the population. The paper’s composition of Asian American journalists mirrors the county’s population at nearly 15%. But the paper has just 26 Black journalists — 5.2% of its staff — while nearly 8% of county residents are Black.
“You cannot understand racial inequality until you’ve truly lived it,” Soon-Shiong said in an interview. “We cannot and will not tolerate racism. More importantly, this paper has an opportunity to not only address it, but address it in ways much more deeply and more inspiring than being accusatory. People of color should be given an equal shot.”
Frustration spilled into the open Tuesday in a union-organized effort to publicly share Black reporters’ accounts of mistreatment over past decades under the hashtag #BlackatLAT. Editors took turns apologizing for missing a golden opportunity to make the newsroom more inclusive as it added 110 journalists in the last two years.Turner said she recognizes how her hiring practices missed the mark, but she thought she would have opportunities to add more people of color — until the paper imposed a hiring freeze as ad revenue tumbled due to COVID-19 shutdowns. “I will do better,” Turner said.
One veteran Latina editor related her anger after learning that her two male counterparts were paid significantly more than she was for performing the same work. Another news editor recalled her feelings on her first day at The Times, when she arrived wearing a new blazer and pumps and carrying a brand-new briefcase. She stepped into the elevator and a white male business executive smiled and asked: “So are you the new cafeteria worker?” She replied: “No, I’m a news editor on the Business desk.
I guess we are just going to have to have a quota system for everything, regardless of qualifications.
Great story that could not have been easy to put together but feels significant! The new senior editor position should be Black or POC - there are enough White gatekeepers!
Good.
LA Times has 502 journalists. 61% are white. 5% are black. Those are really bad numbers. That’s not racial diversity. That’s racial bias.
So you admit you are racists against white and push communist narratives to destroy the black community? How big of you
You don’t sound woke enough at the LAT
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