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Where Are the Teachers of Color?

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Backgrounds of Instructors, Students out of Balance

Secret Service Seeks to Vet Convention Reporters

Obama: Coverage Emphasizes ‘Spectacle,’ ‘Circus’

Chicago Tribune Finds Police Lie Without Penalties

Linguist Defends N-Word Ending in ‘A’

‘Felon’ Labeled ‘The Other F Word’

Las Vegas Review-Journal Staffer Fired as Disloyal

Research Fellowships Named After Dori J. Maynard

News & Observer Warns on Anti-LGBT Law

Nominate a J-Educator Who Promotes Diversity

Short Takes

Mark Gail, a freelance photographer and photo editor formerly of the Washington Post, leads a J-Camp class in 2014 at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Boston. Neal Justin, a co-founder of the program, sponsored by the Asian American Journalists Association, said he was surprised by the inspiration students find with instructors of color. (Credit: Justin Seiter/AAJA)

Backgrounds of Instructors, Students out of Balance

The U.S. Department of Education Friday reported “a lack of racial diversity among teachers at public elementary and secondary schools across the nation. Less than one in five U.S. public school teachers — 18 percent — are individuals of color, while approximately half —49 percent —  of public elementary and secondary school students are individuals of color.

“Since teachers of color can be positive role models for all students in breaking down negative stereotypes and in preparing students to live and work in a multiracial society, this diversity gap suggests that the U.S. public school system is not reaping the known benefits we could experience if we had greater diversity in the teacher workforce.”

The findings in “The State of Racial Diversity in the Educator Workforce,” [PDF] released in conjunction with a National Summit on Teacher Diversity held at the department, bear directly on efforts to produce more journalists of color.

The reading, writing, speaking and critical thinking skills essential to becoming a journalist are nurtured in school. Students of all races need to be knowledgeable about an increasingly multicultural world.

Neal Justin, a co-founder of J-Camp, the Asian American Journalists Association’s national multicultural journalism program for high school students [video], told Journal-isms that over 16 years he has seen a difference when students of color have a chance to be with students like themselves.

Neal Justin

But, he said, “having a professional staff” with members of color “is as inspiring as anything. That’s one of the big surprises to me. I didn’t expect that to be one of the headlines,” Justin said by telephone.

“They’ve got a lot of questions,” Justin, television critic of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, said of the program’s 15- and 16-year-olds. “Every little bit of encouragement helps. In this case, being the same color you are can play a pivotal role.”

The report put it this way:

“Diversity is inherently valuable. We are stronger as a nation when people of varied backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives work and learn together; diversity and inclusion breed innovation. Groups of more diverse problem solvers have been found to outperform groups of less diverse problem solvers, and companies with more diversity in their leadership also tend to be top financial performers.

“Research shows that diversity in schools, including racial diversity among teachers, can provide significant benefits to students. While students of color are expected to make up 56 percent of the student population by 2024, the elementary and secondary educator workforce is still overwhelmingly white.

“In fact, the most recent U.S. Department of Education Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), a nationally representative survey of teachers and principals, showed that 82 percent of public school teachers identified as white. This figure has hardly changed in more than 15 years; data from a similar survey conducted by the Department in 2000 found that 84 percent of teachers identified as white. [In addition, black men make up only 2 percent of the teaching workforce nationwide.]

“Improving teacher diversity can help all students. Teachers of color are positive role models for all students in breaking down negative stereotypes and preparing students to live and work in a multiracial society. A more diverse teacher workforce can also supplement training in the culturally sensitive teaching practices most effective with today’s student populations.

“In addition to providing social advantages for all students, the racial diversity of the teaching workforce can help to close the achievement gap, emerging research suggests. Both quantitative and qualitative studies find that teachers of color can improve the school experiences of all students; further, teachers of color contribute to improved academic outcomes while serving as strong role models for students.

“One report suggests, that compared with their peers, teachers of color are more likely to (1) have higher expectations of students of color (as measured by higher numbers of referrals to gifted programs); (2) confront issues of racism; (3) serve as advocates and cultural brokers; and (4) develop more trusting relationships with students, particularly those with whom they share a cultural background. . . .”

A news release also noted, ” Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) enroll a small proportion of individuals who are preparing to be teachers (2 percent), yet a significant percent of all African American teacher candidates attend HBCUs (16 percent). In addition, alternative routes to teacher certification tend to enroll more racially diverse populations of candidates than traditional teacher preparation programs.”

Secret Service Seeks to Vet Convention Reporters

“The United States Secret Service — the agency that protects the president, foreign dignitaries, and various government officials, among other critical duties — has assumed an expanded new power that has Washington journalists up in arms,” Lloyd Grove reported Thursday for the Daily Beast.

“The law enforcement agency — whose once-pristine reputation has been tarnished in recent years by scandal, congressional investigations and, more to the point, aggressive investigative reporting — is for the first time ever running background checks on thousands of journalists who want to attend this summer’s Republican and Democratic Party nominating conventions.

“Journalists who don’t pass muster — in what several complain is an inscrutable security screening process for which there are no plainly established criteria, and from which there is no appeal — will be denied credentials to cover the GOP’s July 18-21 conclave in Cleveland, at which reality show billionaire Donald Trump is expected to be nominated, and the Democrats’ July 25-28 meeting in Philadelphia, at which former New York senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton will likely be named the standard-bearer.

“ ‘I personally think it’s the government deciding who can and can’t be a journalist, and I don’t think the First Amendment allows that,’ said Newark Star-Ledger Washington correspondent Jonathan D. Salant, a member and former chairman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents, the organization which represents the interests of the four media galleries on Capitol Hill (daily press, periodical press, photographers and broadcasters) and has run the credentialing process for political conventions — without Secret Service interference — since 1912. . . .”

Obama: Coverage Emphasizes ‘Spectacle,’ ‘Circus’

“ In a biting critique of the presumptive Republican nominee, President Obama said Friday that Donald J. Trump should be subjected to serious scrutiny and not be allowed to treat the presidential campaign like ‘a reality show,’ ” Michael D. Shear reported Friday for the New York Times.

Shear also wrote, ” ‘What I’m concerned about is the degree to which reporting and information starts emphasizing the spectacle and the circus,’ he added, ‘because that’s not something we can afford.’

“Taking questions from reporters at the White House for the first time since Mr. Trump became the presumptive nominee on Tuesday, the president chided the news media over its coverage of the campaign, saying it had not yet focused on serious issues.

” ‘One thing that I’m going to really be looking for over the next six months is that the American people are effectively informed about where candidates stand on the issues, what they believe, making sure that their numbers add up, making sure that their policies have been vetted and that candidates are held to what they’ve said in the past,’ Mr. Obama said. . . .”

Chicago Tribune Finds Police Lie Without Penalties

A Chicago Tribune investigation has documented “more than a dozen examples over the past few years in which police officers, according to judges, gave false or questionable testimony — but experienced few, if any, repercussions,” Steve Mills and Todd Lighty reported Friday for the Tribune.

(Credit: Chicago Police Department)

“It happened in court hearings that involved a $50,000 brick of cocaine and a $30 bag of heroin. It happened in gun cases in Cook County court and money-laundering hearings in federal court. It happened with big issues, such as whether the officers had witnessed a crime as it occurred, and with smaller details, such as the direction they were driving on patrol. And it happened with defendants who had a string of convictions and those who had no previous arrests,” they wrote.

“Officers come to court well aware they have a built-in advantage because so many cases come down to their word against that of a defendant. As a result, they can testify with little fear of prosecution or discipline. The Chicago Police Department and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office almost never hold
officers accountable in spite of claims they have a zero-tolerance policy for officers who do not tell the truth.

“The issue so erodes trust in the criminal justice system that the U.S. Department of Justice, as part of its civil rights investigation into the Police Department, has asked the Cook County public defender’s office to refer cases with evidence that officers testified falsely, the Tribune has learned. . . .”

Mills and Lighty also wrote, “The state’s attorney’s office, in response to inquiries from the Tribune, said Thursday that its Professional Standards Unit has begun a review of several cases to determine whether officers committed perjury. . . .”

Linguist Defends N-Word Ending in ‘A’

Comedian Larry Wilmore, whose use of an “N word” variation in addressing President Obama at last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner drew strong denunciations along with some cheers, would be pleased with the views of linguist John McWhorter.

John McWhorter

“Words change — and ones referring to race are not somehow exceptions to that,” McWhorter, an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and frequent op-ed columnist, wrote Tuesday for Time magazine.

“For example, the word ‘holiday’ comes from ‘holy day.’ Yet we don’t find it odd that holidays like the Fourth of July, Arbor Day and Valentine’s Day don’t involve any especially religious observances. Today we also most readily think of ‘wit’ as intelligent humor, which came from the earlier meaning ‘knowledge.’

“Yet we don’t insist that calling someone ‘witty’ is the same as saying that someone uses their ‘wits’ — even though the two words sound exactly the same.

“And did you know that ‘hussy’ started out as ‘housewife’?

“The N-word is also two words with two different meanings. ‘Nigger’ is a slur used against black people. ‘Nigga’ is a word that developed from ‘nigger,’ but has a different pronunciation and also a different meaning. ‘Nigga’ means ‘buddy.’ To insist that to say ‘nigga’ is the same thing as saying ‘nigger’ is like saying that ‘holiday’ is to say ‘holy day,’ or that ‘hussy’ is to say ‘housewife.’ . . .”

McWhorter concluded, “Let’s police the use of the N-word as a slur, but not a word that started from it but now means ‘friend,’ and not people only talking about, rather than using it. This practice will be not only just, but will have a chance of working out.”

McWhorter did not address the use of the word by black people where it is not meant to mean “friend,” as in Chris Rock’s 1996 routine that he has since said he regretted.

A campaign flier from the 2013-14 SF Fair Chance campaign. On March 4, 2014, San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee signed into law the Fair Chance Ordinance, prohibiting discrimination against formerly incarcerated people in public and private employment, and in affordable housing. (Credit: prisonerswithchildren.org)

‘Felon’ Labeled ‘The Other F Word’

“The other day Margaret Love, a veteran clemency lawyer, scolded The New York Times for this front-page headline: ‘Virginia Governor Restores Voting Rights to Felons.’ She applauded the news — some 200,000 Virginians, most of them African-American, recovered their voting rights under Governor Terry McAuliffe’s executive order — but she deplored the word ‘felons,’ ” Bill Keller wrote April 27 for the Marshall Project, which covers criminal justice issues.

” ‘This ugly stigmatizing label has been broadly criticized as counterproductive to reintegration efforts, perpetuating stereotypes about people with a criminal record and encouraging discrimination against them,’ she wrote in a blog post. ‘While the Governor himself was careful with his language, not a single major newspaper reporting on his action could resist including the word in its headline. . . .”

Keller concluded, “What I tell my staff is to minimize the use of labels when referring to an individual; individuals have names, and nobody should be defined solely by the worst thing he or she has done. (And Margaret Love is probably right that reducing people to epithets makes it harder for them to assimilate and live within the law.)

“But it’s appropriate and often unavoidable to use labels when writing about measures or events that affect whole categories. In our morning newsletter, our summary of the Virginia news was: ‘Reversing 150 years of felony disenfranchisement, Virginia governor restores voting rights for more than 200,000 ex-offenders.’ Love doesn’t love ‘ex-offenders’ either, but I can live with it.

“Language usage in the mainstream media evolves, and the creative dynamics of the internet seem to have accelerated the process. The New York Times didn’t begin using the word ‘gay’ until 1987; today it freely uses the word ‘queer,’ which not long ago was described in the paper’s style guide as ‘an offensive slur,’ but which has been reclaimed by a younger generation.

“Likewise, words that not long ago were used without qualms may come to be regarded as demeaning: ‘colored,’ ‘illegals.’ ‘Felon,’ which makes the person synonymous with the crime, is such a word. Likewise ‘convict.’ I’m less troubled by words that describe a temporary status without the suggestion of irredeemable wickedness — ‘inmate’ and ‘prisoner’ and ‘ex-offender’ — but ask me again a year from now.”

Las Vegas Review-Journal Staffer Fired as Disloyal

“The Las Vegas [Review-Journal], a prominent Nevada newspaper that’s been in a state of tumult ever since its sale to controversial casino magnate Sheldon Adelson late last year, has now informed employees that they risk being fired for disloyalty,” Peter Sterne reported Thursday for Politico Media.

Stephanie Grimes

“Las Vegas Review-Journal editor J. Keith Moyer allegedly threatened to fire disloyal staffers during an editor’s meeting last week, where ‘the importance of company loyalty’ was discussed, according to a note sent to editors at the newspaper. One week later, R-J features editor Stephanie Grimes was let go from the paper.

“Grimes, who was present at the editor’s meeting last week, told POLITICO that Moyer ended the meeting by talking about John L. Smith, the former R-J columnist who publicly resigned in protest after being told that he could not write about casino owners Steve Wynn or Sheldon Adelson, whose family secretly purchased the paper in December.

“According to Grimes, Moyer said that his job was hard enough without R-J reporters and editors tweeting and retweeting critical comments about the R-J and Adelson. Grimes has been one of the most outspoken critics of Adelson’s influence on the R-J, and she regularly live-tweets staff meetings at the paper. . . .”

Sterne also wrote, “In a Medium post published on Thursday afternoon, Grimes wrote that she got the sense that Moyer believed she was too young to lead the features department.

” ‘I’ve known this was coming from day one. A hyper-conservative middle-aged white man walks into a newsroom and finds a 26-year-old mixed-race woman in charge of an entire department? The humanity! Keith never made me feel welcome in his newsroom and made it clear in every conversation that he didn’t trust me,’ she wrote.

“In the end, though, she believes that she was fired for disloyalty. . . .”

Grimes told Journal-isms by email on Saturday that she is Hispanic, Native American and white, but added, “I should also make it clear that I don’t think race specifically had anything to do with it — the RJ just doesn’t have a history of having a diverse management team so I’m not exactly your traditional editor.”

“In a statement, Moyer defended the social media policy,” Sterne wrote.

” ‘Most every major news media organization in the United States has developed a “social media” policy. I am unaware of even one that encourages “disloyalty” or rewards staffers who would seek to damage the brand of the company for which they work or to trash their fellow journalists. We are developing a social media policy for our newsroom that will not be all that different from most others, many of which can be readily viewed at the American Society of News Editors’ website,’ he said. . . .”

Research Fellowships Named After Dori J. Maynard

“The Center for Investigative Reporting and The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education are pleased to announce the launch of the Dori J. Maynard Senior Research Fellows program,” the Center’s Reveal reported Friday.

“Continuing and deepening the work of both organizations, the program is designed to bring together researchers from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to examine the intersection of race, power and media. Their research will be a resource for media organizations, academic institutions, foundations and others.

“The program is named for Dori J. Maynard, the late president and CEO of the Maynard Institute who worked tirelessly to push the news media to accurately reflect the diversity of the nation. She died Feb. 24, 2015, in her home in Oakland, California, after a battle with cancer. She was 56.

“The fellowship will be led by Lindsay Green-Barber, Ph.D., CIR’s director of strategic research. . . .”

The first cohort of senior fellows is Meredith Clark of the Mayborn School of Journalism at University of North Texas; Jana Diesner, assistant professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s iSchool and affiliate at the Department of Computer Science; and Laura K. Nelson, postdoctoral research fellow in the Management and Organizations Department in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and affiliate at the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems.

News & Observer Warns on Anti-LGBT Law

“Now it’s official. The state of North Carolina and its governor are breaking the law,” the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., editorialized on Wednesday.

“The U.S. Justice Department delivered that verdict Wednesday in a letter to Gov. Pat McCrory regarding the legality of House Bill 2, the anti-LGBT law that includes a measure preventing transgender people from using public facilities that align with their gender identity.

“In the letter, Valita Gupta, principal deputy assistant attorney general, told the governor, ‘The Department of Justice has determined that, as a result of compliance with and implementation of NC House Bill2, both you and the state of NC are in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.’

“That determination means millions of dollars, perhaps billions of dollars, in federal funding to North Carolina may be suspended unless the state repeals or significantly amends HB2. McCrory has until Monday to say whether the state will comply or defy.

“The governor and the reckless Republican leaders of the General Assembly, Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, to this point have chosen defiance. They’ve ignored calls for HB2’s repeal from hundreds of corporate CEOs, local chambers of commerce, religious leaders and town and city governments, and they’ve scoffed at companies, conferences, entertainers and other state governments that are boycotting North Carolina in protest.

“Now they face the U.S. government. Is that enough to make them see the folly of risking so much for a foolish and unenforceable law that addresses a problem that doesn’t exist? Even the likely GOP presidential nominee, Donald Trump, has said HB2 is a mistake that shouldn’t have happened and should be abandoned. . . .”

In a follow-up editorial on Thursday, the newspaper excoriated Moore, who said he would not meet the U.S. Department of Justice’s deadline for responding to its warning about HB2.

Nominate a J-Educator Who Promotes Diversity

The Association of Opinion Journalists, formerly the National Conference of Editorial Writers, annually grants a Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship — actually an award — “in recognition of an educator’s outstanding efforts to encourage minority students in the field of journalism.” The educator should be at the college level.

Julian Rodriguez

The final selection will be made by the AOJ Foundation board and announced later this year, when the presentation will be made.

Since 2000, the recipient has been awarded an honorarium of $1,000 to be used to “further work in progress or begin a new project.”

Past winners include James Hawkins, Florida A&M University (1990); Larry Kaggwa, Howard University (1992); Ben Holman, University of Maryland (1996); Linda Jones, Roosevelt University, Chicago (1998); Ramon Chavez, University of Colorado, Boulder (1999); Erna Smith, San Francisco State (2000); Joseph Selden, Penn State University (2001); Cheryl Smith, Paul Quinn College (2002); Rose Richard, Marquette University (2003).

Also,  Leara D. Rhodes, University of Georgia (2004); Denny McAuliffe, University of Montana (2005); Pearl Stewart, Black College Wire (2006); Valerie White, Florida A&M University (2007); Phillip Dixon, Howard University (2008); Bruce DePyssler, North Carolina Central University (2009); Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia University (2010); Yvonne Latty, New York University (2011); Michelle Johnson, Boston University (2012); Vanessa Shelton, University of Iowa (2013); William Drummond, University of California at Berkeley (2014); and Julian Rodriguez of the University of Texas at Arlington (2015) (video).

Nominations may be emailed to Richard Prince, AOJ Diversity Committee chair, richardprince (at) hotmail.com. The deadline is May 20. Please use that address only for AOJ matters.

Short Takes

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