Articles Feature

College Named for Ifill Gets White Male Dean

by richard02126

Some Alumnae Want Search Process Reopened

Trump Tells ABC’s Cecilia Vega She’s ‘Not Thinking’

Clarence Thomas Accuser Sharing Her Story Again

African Americans Played Role in Convicting Cosby

Free of ESPN, Jemele Hill Joins the Atlantic

White House Press Slow to Look Like America

Reporting While Black and Ignoring the Side-Eye

After Stories, Police Revisit Immigrants’ Treatment

‘Yellow’: Too Noxious for Asian Americans?

Short Takes

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"We believe this moment is an opportunity to elevate the conversation about inclusion, equity, and diversity on our campus," leaders of Simmons University said. (Credit: Simmons University)
“We believe this moment is an opportunity to elevate the conversation about inclusion, equity, and diversity on our campus,” leaders of Simmons University said. (Credit: Simmons University)

Some Alumnae Want Search Process Reopened

When Gwen Ifill’s alma mater, Simmons University (until last month known as Simmons College), announced in November 2017 that it would name its College of Media, Arts and Humanities after the late PBS journalist, among the proudest were Ifill’s sisterhood of black female journalists.

Gwen Ifill (credit: Simmons College)
Gwen Ifill (credit: Simmons University)

Simmons had apparently become the first majority-white college to name a school after an African American journalist.

In April, the Boston women’s school announced the Ifill college’s first dean.

The choice did not go over as well as administrators expected, Regina Pisa, chair of the Board of Trustees, and President Helen Drinan acknowledged to the college community on Thursday.

“Over the past several weeks, we have had a number of difficult conversations with members of our Simmons community who are dismayed that we did not select as the inaugural dean of the Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts, and Humanities a woman of color,” they wrote.

“Classmates, friends and faculty from Ms. Ifill’s student days — and some who came to know her in her adult life — have expressed deep hurt and disappointment. Indeed, some have requested that we remove the new dean and re-open the search. . . .”

In fact, Deirdre Fernandes reported Tuesday in the Boston Globe, “Simmons University has postponed a gala and series of events to launch the Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts, and Humanities in the face of criticism that a school named in honor of a pioneering black, female journalist named a white man as its first dean. . . .”

She added, “Simmons had planned two days of festivities in mid-October to celebrate Ifill’s contributions and to raise money for student scholarships. Ifill’s former colleagues, including Judy Woodruff, her co-host on ‘PBS NewsHour,’ and television reporter Sam Donaldson, were slated to attend and family, friends, and colleagues were scheduled to talk about issues of politics and media.

“After talking to Ifill’s family members, Simmons decided to postpone many of the events and instead hold a ribbon-cutting for the college and host a private dinner in Ifill’s honor, Drinan said. . . .”

Michele Norris, a former NPR host and a close, longtime friend of Ifill’s, told Fernandes, “In the three decades I knew Gwen, she was always, always, concerned about making sure that women, and women of color, who were qualified for certain jobs, got a shot at those jobs.”

Chosen as dean was Brian Norman, described at his April appointment as “a scholar of American and African American literature, professor of English, and academic administrator who most recently served as Associate Vice President of Faculty Affairs and Diversity at Loyola University in Baltimore, MD. He has taught a wide range of courses in literature and culture, and he founded Loyola’s program in African and African American Studies. His research projects engage with questions of identity, belonging, justice, and the relationship between literature and social change. . . .”

The administrators’ message continued, “We understand the disappointment that the inaugural dean of the Ifill College is not a woman of color, as that would have been one way to honor Ms. Ifill’s legacy. However, it is not appropriate to terminate our new dean who was selected through a deliberative search process with a national firm and community engagement. Instead, we should direct our energies to continuing to identify ways we can honor Ms. Ifill’s legacy.

Brian Norman
Brian Norman

“From the moment he was a candidate, Dean Norman has been thinking deeply about the promise and responsibility of naming a college in Ms. Ifill’s honor and has already begun working with faculty and others to advance her legacy through public engagement, student mentoring, faculty diversity, public programming, and other initiatives.

“One such initiative was to be the first annual Ifill Symposium, bringing together faculty, students, community partners, alumni and luminaries into conversation around big questions Ms. Ifill herself would be asking of the world today. We have postponed that new tradition until next year.

“We believe this moment is an opportunity to elevate the conversation about inclusion, equity, and diversity on our campus, and to think through best practices in creating an inclusive and equitable experience for all members of the Simmons community. . . .”

Pisa and Drinan outlined steps they would take to increase diversity at the university and declared, “We understand these actions will not satisfy completely some of our alumnae who are disappointed in us. And we agree that the effort around inclusive hiring is important, but what counts more are the results. We are committed to ensuring that all voices are heard and all perspectives valued. This will make Simmons University a place that all of us can be proud of.”

Separately, Simmons was ranked No. 1 in Massachusetts in a new report weighing how equally women were represented in the president’s office and among leadership positions, Grank Welker reported Monday for Worcester (Mass.) Business Journal. Simmons was followed by Smith College, a women’s liberal arts school in Northampton.


(Credit: CNN)

Trump Tells ABC’s Cecilia Vega She’s ‘Not Thinking’

“President Donald Trump insulted a female reporter for ABC News on Monday during a Rose Garden news conference, telling her that she ‘never’ thinks even before she had a chance to ask her question,” Alex Wayne reported for Bloomberg.

“As the reporter, Cecilia Vega, turned to retrieve a microphone to ask Trump a question, Trump joked ‘she’s shocked that I picked her. Like in a state of shock.’

“Vega responded, ‘I’m not, thank you Mr. President.’

“Trump appeared to misunderstand her. ‘That’s OK, I know you’re not thinking, you never do.’

“ ‘I’m sorry?’ she responded.

“ ‘No, go ahead. Go ahead,’ Trump said.

“In a transcript released later Monday, the White House quoted Trump differently, saying he said ‘I know you’re not thanking.’

“Vega tried to ask a question about the FBI investigation of sexual assault allegations against Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, but the president initially insisted she ask about trade. He returned to Vega later for a Kavanaugh question. . . .”

In a July discussion of “Latinos & the White House: The Unique Challenge of Covering the Trump Administration” at the annual conference of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Vega recalled that her mother asked why she would want such an assignment. “You’re Mexican, a journalist and a woman, the three things he hates,” her mother said.

Vega said she replied, “What better place to be than sitting in that front row?”

Angela Wright-Shannon (Credit: Charlotte Observer)

Clarence Thomas Accuser Sharing Her Story Again

A freelance journalist who accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment nearly three decades ago said she sees some similarities with current high court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, whose “fate hangs in the balance amid an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations,” Terry Collins of the Grio reported Saturday.

Like Anita Hill, Angela Wright, now Angela Wright-Shannon, is resurfacing in the news media in connection with the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh. She “worked for Thomas when he chaired the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the 1980s. During a recent interview with Vice News, she expressed empathy for Christine Blasey Ford, a California college professor who testified Thursday that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her,” Collins wrote.

The website added, “Wright was an assistant metro editor at the Charlotte Observer when was subpoenaed to testify during Thomas’ confirmation hearings 27 years ago. She told Senate investigators that when she worked as the EEOC’s public affairs director, Thomas was lewd and crass. She said he was pressuring her to go out with him. Wright said Thomas also asked about breast size and showed up at her apartment uninvited. . . .”

Before the explosive testimony Thursday by Ford and Kavanaugh, Wright-Shannon was also interviewed by the Charlotte Observer and the New York Times. The Times’ Susan Chira asked Wright-Shannon, “Why didn’t you volunteer to testify — you had said you were upset watching Anita Hill get vilified?”

Wright-Shannon replied, “I didn’t want to get involved in that process. My opinion was that the F.B.I. should have properly vetted him to start out. If they’d properly vetted him, they would have talked to me. I would have told them about the man I experienced. I wanted to be a journalist, I didn’t want to be the news. I had info I thought was pertinent. I didn’t mind giving them a statement. It was a fine line for me to try to walk, wanting to be an impartial journalist and having an experience in a news story that was relevant.”

Wright-Shannon also said, “In pretty much every environment I worked in Washington, there was somebody there who made inappropriate remarks. I had a member of Congress call me to tell me that he’d like to take me out. . . .”

Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the Senate’s only black Republican, announced Monday that he would vote for Kavanaugh “barring the discovery of any new information by the FBI investigation.” Scott wrote, “This is not an easy decision, but the available evidence leads me to it. Even though this was not a criminal trial, I believe the freedoms granted by the constitution regarding proving guilt must still apply.”

African Americans Played Role in Convicting Cosby

“This time, Bill Cosby messed with the wrong woman,” Colbert I. King wrote Friday for the Washington Post. “Now he’s living out his days in service of a three-to-10-year prison sentence for sexual assault in the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix in Collegeville, Pa.

First broke the story
First broke the story

“Cosby, 81, should have figured out what he was up against when, the day before his case went to the jury in April, he was caught chuckling and smirking at the defense table. Assistant District Attorney Kristen Gibbons Feden, a 35-year-old African American graduate of Temple Law School, and an expert in sex crimes, was having none of it.

“Feden exploded, reported Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia, who was in the courtroom:

“ ‘He’s laughing like it’s funny!’ Feden said Tuesday in a booming voice, stalking toward the comic legend and extending a long, slender, accusatory forefinger. ‘But there’s absolutely nothing funny about stripping a woman of her capacity to consent.’ . . .”

King also wrote, “Not only was it an African American prosecutor who pressed charges against Cosby. African American women were among Cosby’s accusers.

“And it was Harry Hairston, an African American investigative reporter from NBC10 in Philadelphia, who went on broadcaster Joe Madison’s radio show in November 2014 and discussed how he first broke the story of women’s accusations of sexual assault against Cosby. . . .”

Free of ESPN, Jemele Hill Joins the Atlantic

Jemele Hill (Credit: ESPN)
Jemele Hill (Credit: ESPN)

“As of Sept. 14, Jemele Hill is officially free of ESPN — and yes, ESPN is now free of Jemele Hill,” James Andrew Miller wrote Monday for the Hollywood Reporter.

“Even though Hill, the often outspoken anchor and reporter, had more than two years left on her contract and management dangled a couple of arguably unrealistic opportunities that would allow her to stay, both parties basically acknowledged that their past together prohibited a future.

“The more than $5 million buyout Hill is due will be paid in a series of tranches this year and next — suggesting savvy tax planning on her part or a ‘be careful what you say’ warning from her former employer. Nevertheless, true to her DNA, Hill isn’t pulling any punches.

“ ‘It just kind of became obvious to me that the relationship — as good and as fruitful and as beneficial as it was — had really run its course,’ Hill, 42, says now. . . .

“But perhaps the most provocative aspect of Hill’s new life is that she will be joining The Atlantic as a staff writer beginning in October, and will be writing for both the magazine and TheAtlantic.com.

“There’s a warm welcome waiting for her from editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. ‘She’s interested in something I’ve been preoccupied with for a long time, which is the intersection of sports and race and politics. I think it’s one of the best beats in America,’ Goldberg says. ‘When I saw that Jemele was leaving ESPN, and when I realized, in reading more about her, that she is, at heart, a reporter, I thought it was a perfect match. Because I want to cover this subject in a serious way.’

“Asked how life at The Atlantic may differ from Jemele’s days at ESPN, Goldberg responds instantly.

“ ‘Put it this way, my journalistic interests are somewhat different than Disney’s,’ Goldberg says. ‘Let me be diplomatic. I’m not sure that, as a consumer of ESPN products, I’m not sure that ESPN is particularly interested, especially in television, in standing at the intersection of sports and culture and race and gender and politics. It can be a pretty dangerous corner for some people. But that’s exactly the intersection that I want to be at.’ . . .”

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders presides at a White House briefing (Credit: (Ricky Carioti/ Washington Post)
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders presides at a White House briefing. (Credit: Ricky Carioti/Washington Post)

White House Press Slow to Look Like America

“The New York Times hired its seventh reporter to cover the White House last month, giving the newspaper one of the largest contingents of correspondents on the beat,” Paul Farhi reported Sunday for the Washington Post. “Aside from being top-flight journalists, the crew shares a common trait: All seven are white.

“That’s not exactly unusual around the White House press briefing room these days. The press corps that covers the president has long been overwhelmingly composed of white reporters. The White House reporting staffs of the largest and most prominent outlets, particularly newspapers and newswires, tend to be the least racially diverse of all.

“Does it matter?

“Does racial background affect how a reporter covers a story? Or is it just one factor that determines how a journalist sees the world, the way age, gender, education, religious affiliation, regional and economic background, ideological leanings, or military service might?

“News organizations have declared their intention to diversify their staffs since at least the late 1960s, after the Kerner Commission report on the causes of the urban riots of that decade attributed some of America’s racial divide to a highly segregated media. Newsroom recruiters often say the underlying goal of greater diversity isn’t simply numeric, but journalistic: People from different backgrounds see the world differently and can offer these perspectives to readers and viewers.

“The result of these efforts has been mixed, however. The number of women in journalism is gradually approaching parity with that of men and has more than doubled as a percentage of all professional reporters over the past two decades. But overall, newsrooms have only slowly become less white, lagging far behind changes in the general population.

“Minority journalists accounted for 16.6 percent of the workforce in 2017, compared with 11.3 percent in 1997, according to surveys by the American Society of News Editors. By contrast, the U.S. population as a whole is 39 percent minority, including white Hispanics and Latinos, according to the Census Bureau.

“As the Times’s hiring showed, the White House beat — arguably the beat with the highest profile — may be among the most resistant to change. . . .”

Reporting While Black and Ignoring the Side-Eye

John W. Fountain (Credit: Tamara Bell/Pioneer Press)
John W. Fountain (Credit: Tamara Bell/Pioneer Press)

“Guilty. I am guilty of driving, walking and breathing while black,” John W. Fountain wrote Sept. 22 for the Chicago Sun-Times. “And like many of my African-American journalism colleagues, I have also borne, in the heat of the night, the weight of ‘reporting while black.’

“I have carried that weight of the skin I am in. The awareness that there were those who believed that because I am black I was somehow ‘less than,’ not up to snuff, as a journalist.

“And yet, by the time most of my black colleagues and I arrived at our first big-city daily, we were college-degreed and interned to the hilt. I learned to persevere and extracted lessons for me. Lessons I share today with my journalism students.

“I also learned that to speak out in the newsroom as a black man about matters of race, or even to advocate on my own behalf, was to risk being labeled a whiner, a malcontent. To risk not receiving choice assignments and promotion. I chose: ‘To thine own self be true.’

“As a black journalist, I got the sense that my talents and voice, no matter how celebrated beyond the newsroom, were not as valued internally as my white counterparts’. The sense that as a black journalist I was always subject to the side-eye. . . .”

It’s an observation made not just by black journalists.

Jose Antonio Vargas, the Filipino-born journalist who learned he was undocumented, told a Washington audience two weeks ago that during his five years at the Washington Post, “a lot of people” in the newsroom would look at him as if to say, “What are you doing here?” However, he said black women were protective of him. He names them in his new book, “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen.”

After Stories, Police Revisit Immigrants’ Treatment

“At the behest of county lawmakers, the Suffolk County Police Department said Thursday it will look into what went wrong when Latino families came to the department in 2016 and 2017, desperate for help finding teenage children who had disappeared, only to have their concerns ignored and their children labeled runaways,” Hannah Dreier reported Friday for ProPublica.

“It turned out that many of the missing had been murdered by members of the gang MS-13, some of them buried in Suffolk County woods known as the gang’s ‘killing fields.’

“The county executive and the head of the Police Department also have agreed to meet with advocates for immigrant and Latino Long Islanders in the coming days.

“The developments came in response to radio, text and video reporting from ProPublica, Newsday and This American Life that outlined how police bias against Latinos hindered the department’s ability to stop a wave of MS-13 murders. . . .”

(Credit: LA Johnson/NPR)
(Credit: LA Johnson/NPR)

‘Yellow’: Too Noxious for Asian Americans?

“I‘m on the phone with an associate history professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, named Ellen Wu,” Kat Chow wrote Thursday for NPR’s “Code Switch. “We’re talking about skin color, identity and how people like us — Americans of East Asian descent — can describe ourselves.

“Wu and I agree that there are many words we could use: Asian American, East Asian, East Asian American. People with roots from South Asia or Southeast Asia sometimes refer to themselves as brown, which seems like a useful shorthand. But for a bunch of reasons, brown doesn’t work for East Asians. I’m wondering if there’s a parallel word for us.

“I pose this question, a little hesitantly: What about yellow?

“Wu sucks in a breath. Her gut reaction is No! The word, she says, is too fraught. Using it would be like painting our skin with a sickly, mustard sheen or writing a nasty word on our foreheads. ‘Yellow’ has long been considered noxious. To some, it’s on par with Chink, gook, nip or Chinaman.

“And yet. And yet. I sort of love yellow. The idea of calling myself yellow stirs in the pit of my stomach, the same place where bellyaches and excitement form. It feels at once radical and specific. Though it’s a slur — in fact, because it’s a slur — it’s the type of word that could force people to face its long, storied history of racism and resistance directly, every time they hear it.

“So, what about yellow? . . .”

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