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TPM Staff Racial Diversity
The fact that purely political circumstances have forced Obama to
address the nation relative to the matter of race, and to answer for
the remarks of the pastor of his church is sickening. The whole episode
illuminates an appalling double standard.
No Caucasian candidate, past or present, has been called to
answer for the bigoted remarks of their pastors or clerical supporters.
Candidates have been occasionally called to repudiate such comments,
but never to answer for. But, then again, the bigoted comments of such
prominent republican clerical lunatics, as Pat Robertson et al, have
not been aimed at the Caucasian power elite.
The episode clearly illustrates the racism which continues to permeate USA society.
The episode has raised in my mind the question of the racial
makeup of the staffs of the “progressive” blogs and online media sites
I frequent, including TPM.
The TPM home page lists thirteen staff members, of whom two
are female, based only upon a reading of the names. There is, of
course, no way to determine from the names how many of the staffers are
not Caucasian, but I’m guessing none. I am supposing that similar
situations exist, generally, at other leading progressive media
outlets.
It seems to me that one of the primary tenets of modern USA
progressivism is the promotion of equal opportunity regardless of race,
religion, sex, sexual preference, disability, or other human
characteristics.
Perhaps TPM and other “progressive” media outlets should
address the deficiency of equal employment opportunity within their
operations. Surely in places such as Washington D.C. and NYC there is
no shortage of qualified non-Caucasian candidates from whom to choose
to bring more diversity to TPM. Likewise other progressive media
outlets, wherever they may be located. Such as have done “main stream,
corporate” media outlets.
Comments (26)
Great point of introspection.
March 18, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Calling on the liberal blogosphere to talk about the lack of diversity in their own pages is an uphill battle. These are the people who's first response is: "Markos is Latino!"
How much more diversity do you need? Really?
Even when I was working on YearlyKos '06, the diversity was an issue that no one wanted to address. I gave Gina a list of bloggers of color and none of them were contacted. One of the black bloggers who wound up doing a workshop joked that he should have had his name printed in the program as Token, since he was called at the last minute. Never mind that I had his name on the list from 14 mos. previous. It wasn't until a white blogger mentioned him that he was contacted.
Look at last year's YK. It was Kid Oakland who bumped up the diversity pool there. If it wasn't for his efforts many of the black, Latino, Asian poor, rural, and young bloggers who attended wouldn't have been able to go. These Big Boys of Blogging don't care about diversity, they don't even pretend to.
March 18, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was going to mention Kos in my post but, given that I gave up on its shrillness long ago, I don't enough about the operation to comment.
March 18, 2008 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
FWIW, there is also the Blogging While Brown convention coming up in Atlanta on July 25 - 27.
March 19, 2008 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ageism. I don't think Josh Marshall has ever hired anyone older than himself.
March 18, 2008 7:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well... be fair... can he afford to hire anyone older than himself? His staff consists of younger up and coming journalists. They're making a living but they live here in NYC. I doubt they're really raking it in and all of them probably worry about paying rent every month.
March 19, 2008 12:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great post. Josh Marshall needs to bring TPM into the fold and join the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) or Unity Journalists of Color.
The Markos Moulitsas point by fabooj is a good one. Moulitsas has been absolutely disgusted by the racist junk (a la Bill Clinton Jesse Jackson comments and Geraldine Ferraro) and has been quite vociferous about it. I think much of that is a minority empathizing. I empathize.
March 18, 2008 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I am supposing that similar situations exist, generally, at other leading progressive media
outlets."
It seems that many people get their start through college and post-college internship programs. Many of these are unpaid or pay very little. I would think that many young people of color are looking for jobs that will pay a living wage and help pay off that college debt. And fewer minorities families are able to subsidize these kids' living costs, especially in high-cost cities like NYC and DC.
March 18, 2008 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Permit me to add that I appreciate immensely what the folks at TPM do. I have found TPM to be the most reliable, most even handed, and most unbiased source of information relative to the ongoing campaign. And I think that Josh Marshall deserves tons of credit for his accomplishment in parlaying his blog into an award winning online media outlet. Never have I detected even a hint of bigotry here.
I am one who shared a dorm room in 1968 with an 18 year old African-American fellow from North Carolina whom I often found crying in our room, from his home sickness and alienation amongst an only recently marginally less than all Caucasian student body.
I shared a roach infested one bedroom apartment in Wash. D. C. with an African-American during much of 1970.
And I shared a tent in a Cuban sugar cane cutting camp in 1970 with Black Panthers from L. A. whom treated me, a wet behind the ears 20 year old, middle class Caucasian kid, with great kindness, and often tenderness.
None-the-less, I recognize the racism that resides within me. Evidenced, for instance, by the anxiety I noticed years later while approaching a group of young African-Americans on the street in Seattle, and such. And I don't think I am at all unique in this respect.
Racism continues to be the great contradiction in USA society that must be addressed straight on. And I think Obama did that today. He pulled few punches, a characteristic I find very refreshing in Obama, the honesty in telling us what we may not want to hear.
I just think that the progressive blogs would really benefit from the perspectives of a more racially diverse staff, particularly relative to reporting on the racial undercurrents of the current democratic campaign.
For example, whoever it was amongst the TPM staff who judged that Obama did not bring his A game today, or something to that effect, I think perhaps lacks the understanding of what it might take for an African-American candidate for president to stand up to USA voters and media and say the things Obama said today. Kudos to Josh for dissenting.
Perhaps an African-American staffer could have provided a different perspective.
March 18, 2008 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Chris,
Thank you for your post and for the courage in this comment, recognizing the racism within. I feel the same way about myself. In the deepest sense of the word, I think we’re all racists, whether or not we engage in obviously bigoted behavior. I think of myself as a recovering racist (as well as a recovering misogynist, homophobe, etc.). It’s nothing to beat oneself up about, but rather, as you suggest, something to motivate us all to do better. Very well said.
With that framework in mind, even a great blog like TPM has room to grow, as you and others here have suggested. I hope Josh reads your post and takes it to heart in the supportive yet challenging spirit with which you offered it.
March 19, 2008 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for raising this point. The lack of Asian Americans at YKos and on the big blogs is especially noteworthy. It wasn't too long ago that Asian Americans were stereotyped as the ultimate nerdy computer whizzes. It's amazing how quickly they were pushed aside once the Internet became recognized as an instrument of economic, social and political power.
March 18, 2008 9:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Frankly, there is little excuse these days for having a workforce that is not diverse. The internet has made it darn near impossible to say "you can't find qualified people," because the world is now a mouse click away. There are minority bloggers who can write and work from their hometowns, they hardly need to be in the next cubicle.
Now, we should also be reading and commenting at minority blog, too. Not that we're trying to dilute their audience or change their message, but as a show of support and importance. I like Kos and HuffPo and Politico and TPM, but shouldn't we periodically drop in at some of the other neighborhoods? I say that as a challenge not just to you, but to myself as well. I need to practice what I seem to be preaching.
March 18, 2008 9:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Chris Brown:
Well played.
And yes, I too agree with your wake up shot across TPM's bow.
March 18, 2008 10:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Funny that you should mention this. I'm co-organizing, with Aaron Barlow, a conference on "race and new media" here in NYC May 3-4. It's going to be a mix of artists, academics, bloggers, architects, musicians, and community members, with participation from folks from Harvard, Columbia, CUNY (host institution), etc. We're still very open to participants. This will be very round-table, not trad academic dullness. If you know of any good people or are one yourself, write: annieseaton@post.harvard.edu or raceandnewmedia@gmail.com
Also write if you know of any good bloggers to invite, and this is a pan-racial event. Everybody needs to discuss race (obviously). Not just POC's.
March 18, 2008 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only problem I see is without a diverse staff you are more likely to run into issues of ignorance about how something will play or what its real relevance is to the groups not represented. This causes thoughtful people to tread carefully.
I really like how Josh specifically goes out of his way to point out when he might be out of his depth on an issue and I respect that. Someday it might happen without him realizing and I'm prepared to overlook that as I have a lot of understanding for people trying to do the right thing even if they fail sometimes.
March 18, 2008 10:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course Josh would love to hire minority bloggers but he can’t compete with more attractive employers who provide better benefits and pay and who are also trying to get minority employees on board.
March 18, 2008 11:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, nice catch. You would have thought they'd at least have one person of color on the staff. Of course, this isn't a problem unique to TPM. The blogosphere in general is almost completely white. I've long suspected that is what led to much of the initial resistence to Obama, but that's for the history books.
March 18, 2008 11:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
TPM has a great staff. I'm not saying whether or not this issue is right or wrong. It has its merits. But TPM has a great staff. Can't stress that enough.
March 19, 2008 12:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree that the double standard for Obama on this matter is outrageous.
On the matter of diversifying TPM staff I think that's nice in the abstract, but we're not talking about the New York Times here. What difference do you really think it would make in what the site does or produces? I serously doubt that if say half of TPM staffers were black, that the product on these pages would look any different at all simply because of what the site is trying to do. This is not an advocacy site per se as many blogs are. This site is what I would term an "informed news site" where they report the news but they don't pretend that they aren't liberals and they don't pretend that it is always impossible to discern between fact and fiction when it comes to politics and government as corporate media does.
March 19, 2008 2:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
"This site is what I would term an "informed news site" where they report the news"
Having a more diverse staff might result in different "news" being reported and commented on.
March 19, 2008 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a white Southern lawyer who has shared offices with African-American colleagues since 1971, I agree completely with the comments on perspective. The blogs operated by white progressives all missed the boat on the Jena 6 for months. Even The Nation got hoodwinked by local good-old-boy news coverage.
The use of a noose to intimidate African American students at the high school in Jena was almost totally missed by both the white bloggers and the MSM until after the copy-cat incident at the University of Maryland that occurred after the mass march and demonstration in Jena.
March 19, 2008 5:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
well, I'm not just co organizing a conference on race and new media, I'm an african american harvard phd/wellesley undergrad degree...and I didn't get there via affirmative action, and have the standardized test scores to prove it...I've experienced so much racism on the job market...as have many of my "highly qualified" black friends. Fact is: "they" are just not looking for "us." Hopefully Obama's exposure will change that, but it's really so endemic to the American Way...For some reason, that kind of economic discrimination is really hard-wired.
March 19, 2008 7:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting post. I tend to watch "Morning Joe" for about an hour before leaving for work. I find it fascinating that an all Caucasian trio is the norm. John Ridley, a Hollywood screenwriter, comes in occasionally, but rarely provides anything that challenges the status quo. When I compare Ridley to David Shuster, for example, Ridley really fails the test. Shuster questions Conventional Wisdom and makes excellent points. Ridley merely seems to agree with what has already been said. There is no one to provide the viewing audience with a different perspective.
On night-time cable news, it is All White-All Night. We truly are in a sad state of affairs.
March 19, 2008 8:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's a great question, Chris. I (white Jewish girl from preppy CT) have been aware of racial discrimination all my adult life. But it wasn't until I attended law school at Queens College (yes, dreary Queens, New York) that I got schooled on things like students getting stopped by police in white Queens neighborhoods for driving while black without so much as a weave in traffic or a broken taillight. About 1/3 of our students were black, 1/3 hispanic or asian, half female...after years in rural southern Utah it was quite an education.
I still fight the covert racism I grew up with in white-bread CT. For instance, I live in a locked building where we're constantly admonished not to let in people who doesn't have a key or who you aren't certain lives there. We've got lots of college students of all races there. Last night while I was checking mail a white college student at the entrance gazed sadly at me, wanting to be let in. Reflecting on how she's just like any black, asian, latino, or whatever who may or may not be visiting a friend, I didn't let her in, even though a secret thought sat in the part of my unconscious I'm still training telling me she looked like an ordinary white SLC kid. It's a step, not big enough, but still a step, and a lot more than most white people take.
Because most white folks don't confront these things. Most without direct connection to non-white communities think we live in a race-blind society where affirmative action is punishment for being white, and get offended when people of color are so "sensitive" about covertly racist comments. Just as some women get ticked about covert (and too often overt) discrimination or misogyny, and many hispanics I know are ever-so-mildly offended at chihuahuas with Mexican accents hawking tacos.
So bloggers and us internet trash who post here, who tend to be white or perhaps slightly off-white, can't imagine why anyone might relate to the sources of Wright's rage. It's the old walking a mile in someone's shoes. Painful to do, but the blisters can be worth it.
March 19, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
eliyah,
Thanks for your insight.
March 19, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
No problem, except I'm embarassed by my verbal diarrhea. I've spent a lot of time hating and rejecting religion in any form, so in a way I relate to those who don't get it.
March 19, 2008 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
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