Writing Coach Podcast 228 Archives: Anti-racist reporting

WCP228 Archives: Anti-racist reporting

Black lives matter, today and every day. This is not always reflected in the media. Today we look at how an anti-racist approach to reporting helps us get closer to the real truth of what is happening in the stories you cover.

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Black lives matter, today and every day. This is not always reflected in the media.

Today we look at how an anti-racist approach to reporting helps us get closer to the real truth of what is happening in the stories you cover. An anti-racist approach works both in stories that explicitly cover racism, as well as so-called softer stories where you may not have initially identified a racial angle. This process will require you to confront biases in society as well as within yourself.

In No Name in the Street, James Baldwin wrote, “Well, if one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected—those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most!—and listens to their testimony.”

Listening is the foundation of good reporting, and anti-racist journalism that challenges the status quo.

Get quiet enough in your own head to listen to your own responses to what’s happening. Ask yourself how you’ve chosen the people you’re interviewing (see Baldwin above if you don’t like your answers). Listen closely to what the people you’re talking to have to say.

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