COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
2020 was transformative. For me, for my staff and for my community.
As the Black Lives Matter movement spread across the country, I truly recognized the lack of diversity around me. As a mostly-white newspaper staff in a mostly-white suburb, our publication needed a major reality check.
I took it upon myself to do better as a person and as a leader. I had the uncomfortable conversations and admitted my own ignorance. I educated myself more than I ever had before. And I carefully considered what a "commitment to diversity" should mean for The Harbinger.
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EDUCATING MYSELF
We were met with complaints from Black students at my school when we started to cover BLM in the summer. Their main point held consistent: we will never understand what they go through, so we need to educate ourselves on the systematic struggles before we cover it in depth. Here are some of the main ways I educated myself on the injustices in our community:
LISTEN
READ
WATCH
Taking a step back to listen was the key piece in my education this summer. My Co-Editor and I got the opportunity to speak with a Black New York Times reporter who gave us his insight on how to report such an important movement. We also held several FaceTime calls with Black students at our school to learn from their perspective and hear how they think we should cover the movement, which we took into account later while writing our package.
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I read countless articles from different news sources to keep updated with what was going on in the world and learn perspectives I hadn't before. Whether it was reading about protests or reading about our neighborhood's history of discrimination, I learned more with each article I clicked on. And with that, I was better prepared to cover these topics.
Documentary recommendations filled my social media promising a deeper understanding of America's systematic racism, so I spent a lot of time watching those. The NSPA Code of Ethics says to "pursue a panoramic vision of issues and events," and that's exactly what these documentaries helped me do.
GETTING INTO THE ACTION
When a peaceful march and rally went through the streets of my neighborhood, I listened intently to what everyone discussed. The guest speakers further opened my mind to the inequality in our specific suburb and encouraged me to take a stand. Since I know my rights as a journalist, I covered this event and considered how I could inspire change, which I ended up doing with a BLM package later in the year.
Our community was relatively calm throughout the BLM movement this summer, so I did not experience the same violence that I heard about on national news. It was important for me, however, to realize the message these protests were fighting for — which I saw a part of while experiencing the action in my community.
*photos by Riley Atkinson
OUR COVERAGE
Our main coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer was a news story about the protest in our community. We waited until the school year began to publish more developed coverage, which increased the number of readers we would reach and gave us time to carefully consider what we should discuss.
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Since our staff mostly consists of white students, my Co-Editor and I had conversations with Black students at our school to get their feedback on how we can cover this well. Here's a look at how we accomplished that:
GUEST WRITERS
The conversations we held with a few students at our school helped us to understand how voiceless the Black people in our community feel. So when we put together our Black Lives Matter special section, we made sure to include guest writers to tell their story.
HOLDING OUR COMMUNITY ACCCOUNTABLE
Since our school and community consist of mostly white people, our main goal with the Black Lives Matter special section was to bring attention to the systematic struggles many of us hadn't considered before.
I wrote a story about the importance of shopping at Black-owned businesses in our community, which ended up inspiring several people to be more intentional with their shopping — they never considered it much before.
FEATURING DIVERSE STUDENTS
That BLM package is not where our diverse coverage stopped. We actively seek out all kinds of people to feature to ensure everyone is included. In the past month, I've covered a Black alum who is working in the modeling industry, and I helped with a story that covers how a local baseball team paired up with the Negro League Baseball Museum.
But race is not the only diversity we should take into account, we also consider how we can cover differing genders, cultures and opinions. We've covered everything from transgender students at our school to an Irish dancer's culture — everyone is important to include.
CONTINUING COVERAGE
We are currently in the works of a follow-up package for our BLM issue. The main goal is to continue holding our community accountable and providing resources for our white peers to learn. My story is specifically about how our district plans to incorporate more diversity into the curriculum.
I got the opportunity to interview our school district's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Coordinator about his plans, as well as a few teachers who have incorporated more diversity into their curriculum. I also spoke with a student of color at my school to hear her experiences and share her story, which opened my eyes to the district's troubling past. Here's a few excerpts from my 30-minute interview with that student:
MOVING FORWARD
The main point I want to extend into the future is accountability.
Our staff needs to be held accountable for welcoming diversity into the publication. Our school needs to be held accountable on their journey to become more inclusive. Our community needs to be held accountable to take action against systematic racism.
Journalism has the power to keep everyone accountable, and my co-editor and I plan to continue covering BLM through a follow-up special section in late March. This year taught me how important it is to ask the question,"Who's voice isn't being heard?" and ensure we include those people in our coverage.
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We also decided as a staff to conduct sensitivity training every semester going into the future to ensure our mostly-white staff remains educated and considerate while reporting. After a year of listening, learning and growing, I feel that I can help others do the same to continue making an impact.