No apology for use of racial slur in a headline

THE RACIAL SLUR used in a headline by the Washington Post for a story about Yao Ming's impact on the NBA has generated a bit of discussion among journalists that may, or might not be, of interest to other people outside of that profession but it is something journalists talk about all the time, or, at least they should.

Media critic Richard Prince found the article on AsAm News, which has permission to reprint my posts. As a better known writer than me, he has the access that our all-volunteer effort doesn't have.

RELATED: Washington Post changes use of racial slur in headline

Prince was able to get in touch with the Slot at the Washington Post that approved the controversial headline. Prince writes in his blog, Journal-isms:

As it turns out, according to Fred Barbash, who edits the Post’s “Morning Mix,” where the story appeared, the story and headline were written by a Chinese-American “who is quite sensitive to this issue.” She used the word “Chinaman” in her story as an example of the slurs to which Ming was subjected: 

“During a Rockets game in 2004, former basketball player and TNT broadcaster Steve Kerr also referred to Yao as a ‘Chinaman,‘ a derogatory term dating back to the mid-1800s, when Americans feared that the ‘Yellow Peril’ would dominate the labor force. (Kerr later apologized.). . . .

Barbash told Journal-isms by telephone, “I realize that some people find it offensive. I found it germane to the story and avoided sugar-coating it.”

Barbash messaged later, “Having now read this, it’s way off base. The ‘author herself’— Yanan Wang (not Wong — which copy editor let that through?) is quite familiar with the Asian American community in North America (she’s from Canada, her family immigrated from China) and wrote the headline, which was approved by me. It was changed long after we went to bed (we work all night) by someone else.” Headlines are changed sometimes three or four times in the course of their web life, Barbash said. 

There was no apology.

The offensive headline

Barbers got a little snarky there, eh? That doesn't bother me, but never mind.

The AsAm News got to see the strongly worded letter to the WaPo  from the Asian American Journalists Association that explained the AAJA's objection to the offensive term  that was used in the headline.

In a weakly worded explanation, a WaPo spokesperson responded:

“The story deals with the bigotry Yao Ming encountered and had to overcome. The headline was an effort to convey that, and the story also makes it clear that this is a derogatory term.

“During a Rockets game in 2004, former basketball player and TNT broadcaster Steve Kerr also referred to Yao as a “Chinaman,” a derogatory term dating back to the mid-1800s, when Americans feared that the “Yellow Peril” would dominate the labor force. (Kerr later apologized.) 

“In this case, the headline was modified to ensure clarity. Since there was no factual error, no correction was made.”

In other words, in the eyes of the Washington Post, no harm, no foul.

If that was truly the case, why was the offensive term removed in subsequent headline? WaPo's explanation and lack of an apology lit up the Twitterverse.

WaPo argues the headline was appropriate within the context of the story. But, I ask, once again, if the story was about an African/American athlete who overcame the bigotry aimed at him or her, would it be OK to feature the N-word in the headline? I think not.

The Washington Post generally does a good job on stories about Asian/Americans and I understand the pressure of deadlines and making quick decisions. However, it makes me wonder if less thought was put into the headline's potential to be offensive because it referred to Asians instead of another ethnic group. 

I have this sinking feeling that like this year's Oscarcast in which apparently everyone in the production thought it was OK to poke fun at Asians, in some sectors, it is still OK to offend Asians because people think, well ... we're quiet and, you know, we won't make a big fuss.

Is there even a chance for an admission of poor judgement - uh, even "a (racial slur)'s chance?" 

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Washington Post use of racial slur corrected

NO. REALLY?

Which Washington Post copy editor wrote this headline and what editor allowed it to go online?

Do we attribute this to an East Coast bias for journalists who are not used to seeing or hanging out with a lot of Asian/Americans?

Imagine if the racial slur for African/Americans - the dreaded N-word - was used instead of the derogatory slur against Chinese? Can you imagine the uproar from the community and the heads rolling at the Washington Post?

I've worked on the Rim and I've worked as the Slot in mainstream newsrooms. If I, as a copyeditor on the Rim wrote a headline like that, I'd get a terse email from the Slot or get taken to the hallway for a brief finger-wagging lecture on racial sensitivity.

What can you expect from a city that allows its NFL franchise use a racial slur for its mascot? That's why publishers and editors should try even harder to get minorities in their newsrooms. In this day and age, a gaffe such as this one is inexcusable.

At any rate, SOMEBODY complained. Perhaps the author, herself, Yanan Wong. Shortly after the April 5 headline appeared, the headline was changed to something more acceptable.

'Rafu Shimpo' in danger of closing

Rafu Shimpo photo

In this 1920 photo, the Rafu Shimpo staff put the finishing touches on the newspaper before deliver.

By Louis Chan
Reprinted from AsAmNews

A NEWSPAPER that has served the Japanese/American community for more than 100 years is in danger of closing.

In an urgent letter to its readers, Rafu Shimpo publisher announced the newspaper has lost $750,000 over three years. This year the deficit is projected to be $350,000.

“If the situation does not improve this year, The Rafu will be forced to close in December of this year,” states the letter to its readers.

“This would mean the end of a tradition that started in 1903, and would mark the extinction of Japanese/American daily vernaculars in the United States.

“The staff and management of The Rafu are passionate about their work. We feel that the Japanese/American community is stronger with an independent news publication. Every story is written with the belief that we make the community stronger by keeping it connected and informed.”

The newspaper has kicked off a subscription drive to pick up 10,000 new subscribers which would bring in approximately $500,000 in new revenue.

The possible closure of the paper is not an idle threat. In 2009, two Japanese/American publications shut down in the same year. Hokubei Mainichi, a bilingual newspaper out of San Francisco closed shop as did the Nichi Bei Times. The daily would reemerge a short time later as the Nichi Bei Weekly. It would no longer publish in Japanese, but continued publishing in English.

In December, the monthly magazine KoreAm Journal printed its final edition. It joined a long line of Asian/American publications that have shuttered including Asian Week, San Francisco Journal, East West, Yolk and A. Magazine.

Rafu Shimpo has been able to survive with help from the Komai family trust which has covered its losses, but the paper's management realizes that is not sustainable for the long run.

Ethnic newspapers report on issues and people that the mainstream media often overlook. It’s important for the community to rally around the Rafu if it would like to see it continue. Subscriptions are just $15 per month or $149 per year. Senior and student discounts are available.

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MSNBC questioned on diversity after reducing airtime of journalists of color

Is Alex Wagner's future at MSNBC shaky?

IS MSNBC the latest poster child for #JournalismSoWhite? Rep. Luis Gutierrez thinks so.

In an unusual move, the Chicago representative took to the floor of Congress on March 2 to ask publicly and for the record: what the heck is happening at MSNBC which seems to be trimming the air time of their journalists of color.

What precipitated his question was the resignation of MSNBC television host Melissa Harris-Perry but it also was spurred by the reduction in airtime given to Asian/American journalist Alex Wagner, whose mother is Burmese, and Cuban/American Jose Diaz-Balart.  

“Last week, ... MSNBC television host Melissa Harris-Perry was abruptly pulled from the airwaves without even a chance to say goodbye” on her weekend interview program, said Gutierrez.  “NBC said they wanted a show that was more about politics.”

The congressman also mentioned Alex Wagner, one of the very few Asian/American journalists who hosts a news program on one of the national networks. She lost her weekday show on MSNBC last summer and subsequently was supposed to be in line to host another show this spring. However, last week MSNBC announced that that proposed programming had been cancelled as it shifts its efforts to covering the political campaigns.

MSNBC had to let go Melinda Harris-Perry

People close to Harris-Perry compiled a list of other minorities who've been dismissed or assigned to lesser roles in the past year. Besides Harris-Perry and Wagner, the list includes program hosts such as Al Sharpton and Joy Reid, and African-American contributors and pundits such as Michael Eric Dyson, Touré, Karen Finney and Goldie Taylor. 

Also, veteran Cuban/American newsman Jose Diaz-Balart has seen his daily show frequently bumped in favor of election coverage and is reportedly excluded from the networks coverage of the Florida primary, even though he and his show are based in Florida.

Three other African/Americans who have appeared as panelists and pundits - Janet Mock, Dorian Warren and the Rev. Jacqui Lewis - now mostly appear on Shift by MSNBC, the network's little-viewed digital channel.

RELATED: New journalism needed for a new America

Indeed, Washington Post media writer Eric Wemple noted that in 2014, there were five journalists of color hosting weekday programs from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on the "left-leaning" network. Compare that to today, only two minority hosts remain, everybody else are Euro/Americans.

In interviews, MSNBC President Phil Griffin and Yvette Miley, the network's senior vice president of talent and diversity, say they have not stepped back from the network's commitment to presenting different faces and points of view.

"MSNBC has been a leader when it comes to diversity," said Griffin."We're in transition now, but that doesn't mean our commitment has changed. We're rebuilding, but our principles are unwavering."

The cutback of prominent journalists of color at MSNBC comes at a time when the news industry, broadcast and print, is being questioned about their lack of diversity in their newsrooms and studios.

Since the programming shakeups, there have been some minority reporters introduced but they lack the executive influence to drive the programming or determine the guests to interview.

RELATED: #JournalismSoWhite born out of #OscarsSoWhite

Filipino/American journalist Jose Antonio Vargas launched the #journalismsowhite hashtag on Twitter which trended nationally and has sparked lots of conversation about the power of diversity in the media. He is trying to fund an effort that would cover the issues that concern communities of color.

“This is not about quotas, window dressing or checking the diversity file," said Guiterrez. "Journalists of color bring a different texture, a different perspective on what issues matter and what should be discussed and debated on television.”

“The reality is that our nation has become more diverse,” Gutierrez stated, “and our television and our news media and our political institutions -- including the Democratic and Republican parties -- have not kept up.”

A new journalism needed for a new America

Jose Antonio Vargas launches a crowdfunding campaign for a new kind of media - #EmergingUS.

AS THE United States makes the rocky transition to a minority majority country we see the great institutions - political, judicial, educational, entertainment and others struggle to adjust to the new demographic because they know if they don't, they will quickly lose their usefulness and their credibility.

One of those institutions having trouble is the news media - from the way they view what makes the news down to the composition of its work force. Right in the middle is Jose Antonio Vargas, a Filipino/American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who happens to be undocumented.

Besides becoming one of the most outspoken advocates for immigration reform because of his immigration status, he is using his journalistic skills to force the news industry to change the way they perceive the news and especially how they cover communities of color.

Recently Vargas launched a crowdfunding campaign for #EmergingUS, a news agency he believes can fill the void in covering troublesome issues usually covered by the traditional media giants. All he needs is a million dollars.

RELATED: Jose Vargas will make you uncomfortable

“I cannot talk about Black Lives Matter and not talk about the immigrant rights movement, and not talk about the LGBTQ movement and not talk about income inequality, and not talk about working-class white people," Vargas said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "All of those issues are interconnected, yet for the most part in newsrooms, they’re thought of as separate.”

"The way most of the East Coast-based news organizations talk about these issues," he added, "doesn't reflect the reality that is happening across the country."

Recently he created #JournalismSoWhite when he challenged the major newspapers to assign reporters of color to cover the presidential campaigns, especially since race and immigration are such huge issues.

"Asian people in this country are actually more immigrant than Latinos are," said Vargas, who now lives in L.A. "But how do we cover immigration? Is it because we think Mexican, we automatically think Latino, and then we automatically think the border, and then we automatically think illegal?"

RELATED: #JournalismSoWhite challenges news media

#EmergingUS was born in the L.A. Times newsroom, but after publisher Austin Beutner was fired in September, Vargas was forced to seek other sources of revenue in order for #EmergingUS to continue as a video-heavy independent news service.

The other big issue is the demographic shift in the country's population where census experts predict that Euro Americans will become less than 50 percent by mid-century. How Whites adjust to their new status is a major story that is already showing up in the Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders candidacies, both of whom draw heavily from working class whites who feel their privileges and entitlement slipping away.

From the #EmergingUS website, these are some stories that will be covered:

• Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, the co-founders of #BlackLivesMatter, who appear together on camera to describe the origins of this modern-day civil rights movement 
• Americans who explain their complex relationships to the race categories on the U.S. Census – who has a box and who doesn’t? Are the boxes we check accurate? 
• Immigrants who respond to Donald Trump’s policy of re-admitting the “good immigrants” to America after his proposed mass deportation. Who gets to be a “good immigrant,” and who gets to decide? 
• White Americans are an emerging racial minority in many parts of the country; White students became a minority in K-12 public schools for the first time during the 2014-2015 school year.

RELATED: America's challenge is learning to live with itself

Since the crowdfunding campaign was launched 15 days ago, #EmergingUS has raised 13 percent of their goal, or over $136,180. If you would like to help, click here.

For Vargas and the rest of the journalists of #EmergingUS, diversity is not just a goal, nor is it a side issue that is covered in Black History Month or Asian/American Pacific Islander Heritage Month - it's life in the new America every day. And that's what mainstream media is missing in their story selection and news judgements.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

 

#JournalismSoWhite: Oscars' dilemma shared by the news media

THE LACK of diversity among Oscar's acting nominations has provided a lot of tsk-tsking and wagging fingers and plenty of grist for journalists and media watchers, but it has also prompted other professions to take a cold, hard look in the mirror.

Journalism has been wrestling with the lack of diversity among its own ranks for decades with little improvement to show for all its lofty intentions. The discussion about hiring more minorities in the media has been an on going  conversation limited to the industry but #JournalismSoWhite, launched by Asian/American journalist and immigration advocate Jose Antonio Vargas, has pushed the profession's ugly little secret to spill out of the newsroom and into the public realm.

I have often been the lone journalist of color in thousands of editorial meetings throughout my 28-year journalism career, which involved an ethnic community newspaper and four (or was it five?) different mainstream newsrooms under a similar number of ownership groups in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The only exception was my time spent at the Oakland Tribune under the late Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Robert Maynard, one of the country's strongest advocates for diversity in American newsrooms. He was the first African/American owner of a newspaper in a major city and he practiced what he preached. The Trib had one of the most diverse news staff in the profession. Editorial board meetings always had a wide range of perspectives where sometimes, there would be only one straight, white male in a room of 10 editors.

In the other newsrooms, most of the editors I worked with were Euro/Americans. It was hard not to notice my minority status in those meetings. Knowing that my experiences in my circuitous route to a journalism career was unlike the other writers and editors in the room, I always made it a point to offer news angles or assign stories that other editors might not have thought of. 

In news meetings, as we evaluated stories and their placement in the print newspapers, I always offered value judgements of stories that they might have passed over but which I thought might be of interest or importance to minority communities. In the diverse Bay Area, this perspective was invaluable from a business standpoint because our readership is as diverse as they come in the United States. 

It was a balancing act because I didn't want to be the "representative" of all minorities in those meetings. At the same time, I could not stand by and stay silent. "Uh, excuse me but with all due respect, ..." Kowtowing? I don't know, I thought I was being polite.

I'm not sure how the work environment is in television or radio, but in print, my minority status was hard to ignore. Being Asian in a leadership position was rare back then. Funny thing, the more management talked about increasing minority representation, compared to my time at the Maynard Tribune, the number of minorities in journalism seems to have declined as time passed. 

I hope it is different in the big city newspapers but newspapers in the suburbs, which until relatively recent have been the domain - or, should I say, refuge - of Euro/Americans remain largely white even as the suburban demographics are shifting with minorities seeking the American dream of home ownership. Today, the Beaver Cleaver neighborhoods - at least in the San Francisco Bay Area - are harder and harder to find and increasing the number of journalists of color becomes even more critical.

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, probably the best-known undocumented immigrant in the country, opened up a can of worms recently when he tweeted the following.

Vargas, who started the organization Define American in his quest for citizenship, is a Filipino/American who came to this country at age 13. It wasn't until he was in his late teens that he discovered he was undocumented. 

He won a Pulitzer while working with the Washington Post. He revealed his immigration status in a Huffington Post confessional. Since then, he has been in the forefront advocating for immigration reform, including a documentary about his situation and a TV doc "Dear White America." 

RELATED: Jose Vargas, an undocumented American

Continuing the #JournalistsSoWhite conversation, he tweeted these queries:

When candidates for the U.S. presidency are spewing anti-immigrant hate and hurling racist  statements against Asians, Latinos, African/Americans, Syrians, Muslims, etc. It becomes critical that our voices are heard amidst all the mischaracterizations and stereotypes but sometimes - like me - one can get tired of holding up the banner for diversity.

Maybe it becomes a case of burnout when journalists of color get tired of trying to explain themselves and the communities they came from to editors and management who -- despite their best intentions to diversify their staff -- still preferred to hang out with people who look like them, go golfing with them, joke with them, and share the same values and perspective that they hold. In other words, it was never a meeting in the middle. One always had to move into their enclave, talk like them, dress like them and let the everyday slights slide off one's shoulders. 

According to the American Society of News Editors' census released last summer, the percentage of racial minorities at newspapers was at 12.76 percent in 2014. With minorities making up 37.02 percent of the U.S. population, our newsrooms are not representative of the society we live in.

For every 100 employees in the media industry, 2.8 are of Asian descent according to the ASNE survey. 

RELATED: Find out how diverse the American newspaper industry is with our interactive.

Sadly, my anecdotal observation is also true, minority percentage of newsroom employment is on a downward track, falling to 12.76 percent in 2014. A year earlier it was 13.34 percent. ASNE president Chris Peck in a press release, hailed this as good news saying the stats shows employment of minorities as holding steady. I don't know about that; to me it looks like its is getting worse.

It may be too late for the newspaper industry. Minority journalists are finding a place for themselves in the new media platforms which have younger and more daring owners who are more open to the diverse ideas those journalists bring with them. There is a fear that newspapers are the dinosaurs of media. Their inability to change and adapt to the changing demographics and technology may be its undoing.

The tech industry has been under heavy fire for its lack of diversity and opportunities for minorities and women but compared to the print media, they are light years ahead. Google, for example, said this year that 60 percent of its overall staff is Euro/American. At Facebook, only 55 percent of the overall staff is white. Euro/Americans at Microsoft make up 59.5 percent of its overall staff. (Of course those numbers are misleading because the inequities come in the board room with minorities clustered in the lower paying jobs and women in supporting roles.) 

RELATED: Asians hit a bamboo ceiling in Silicon Valley

BuzzFeed founder and chief executive Jonah Peretti says that diversity is a priority for the company. “We care about diversity for moral reasons,” explains Peretti in not to employees “but we also know a diverse staff is a competitive advantage that allows us to recruit from the broadest possible pool of talent and have team members with a wide range of experiences and perspectives.”

The cynic in me says "I've heard this song before," but maybe the online news sites may be the proving ground for minority journalists in the future. The news outlets on the Internet have the advantage of not having the historic template that perpetuates the old boys' networks. 

I like to think that there will always be a place for good journalists. Computer skills don't automatically translate to good story telling. Digging for information, getting the facts straight and writing compelling stories are skills that will always be in demand, no matter the medium.

The Poynter Institute's Kristen Hale, whose article inspired this discussion, wrote: 

"Journalists love holding people and institutions accountable — we speak truth to power. That is our job. But given our own power, are we holding ourselves accountable? #JournalismSoWhite is meant to spark conversations, uncomfortable as they may be. I would like to think, and I hope, that the conversation that was started online can move to offline conversations in newsrooms across the country (and also in journalism schools, where the new generation of journalists are being trained). One of my favorite quotes about journalism came from the playwright Arthur Miller: 'A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.' Since #JournalismSoWhite, we are nowhere close to hearing everyone."

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