Prior to 2001, I worked at two nationally known media organizations—The Baltimore Sun and Gannett news service in Washington, D.C.—on contract. When I sought to make my relationships permanent, I was steered to smaller markets, which essentially pulled my career into a downward trajectory.
I returned to Washington in January 2001 with a new job, in a different field. Then the recession hit, resulting in a layoff six months into the new year. For a myriad of personal reasons, I was forced to seek shelter with my parents, who lived in another state.
Around the time I left The Sun, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), which has long advocated increased diversity in newsrooms across America, was criticized for not having met its stated goals for achieving newsroom parity — that is, hiring black women like me. The organization avowed in 1978 that by the year 2000, the nation’s daily newspapers would fully reflect America’s racial and ethnic diversity. In 1998, however, the ASNE revised its goals aiming for greater equanimity by 2025.
The media situation has gotten progressively worse for black journalists as newsrooms continue to shed staff at an alarmingly high rate.
Fast forward to 2019 and little has changed. In fact, the situation has gotten progressively worse for black journalists as newsrooms continue to shed staff at an alarmingly high rate. From 1997 to 2013, the number of black journalists in the United States dropped by more than 1,200, or 40 percent—a stark and disturbing reversal given America’s increased racial diversity and the proliferation of digital websites focused on generating analysis, content, and news for existing, new and younger audiences.
Many of the newly elected members of the 116th Congress — the most racially diverse in U.S. history — prattle on about progressivism. Well, I challenge them to immediately put forth economic policy and a legislative bill specifically designed to aid black women and girls.
Last year, organizers of an inaugural black women’s summit, called Power Rising, came up with a plan to focus on five areas or “pillars”: business and economic empowerment; culture, community, and society; education, technology, and innovation; health and wellness; and political empowerment. A convening of black female thought leaders, educators and experts to work with the new Congress to craft specific economic policy to address this group would be a start.
It is imperative — especially during March, which is Women’s History Month — that society address the intersections of sex, gender, race and economic inequality that have blocked black women’s upward mobility. As civil rights activist Dorothy Height once said, “There is no way to advance the issues of the black community without black women.”
Interestingly, white women have been the primary plaintiffs in major Supreme Court cases regarding affirmative action and the greatest beneficiaries. Yet a 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study found that nearly 70 percent of white women are actually opposed to affirmative action.
Unsurprising, a 2015 workforce survey by the Center for Talent Innovation found 22 percent of black women compared to 8 percent of white women aspire to hold a leadership role as an executive within their company or organization, but feel held back from achieving their professional goals based on the unique challenges they face.
These include being undervalued, a lack of mentorship, and feeling pressure to conform to traditional white male standards rather than being accepted as their authentic selves.
Albert Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Nor can those presenting or working on the solutions be representative of one mind, socioeconomic class, gender or geographic background.
This column was produced for the Progressive Media Project, which is run by The Progressive magazine, and distributed by the Tribune News Service.