In moments like these, people make assumptions. It becomes all the more important for media to challenge those assumptions and keep our prejudices in check. In that, too many failed.
The blogespehre was once a place where people of color could go to escape the racism of mainstream media. But the same forces that created online opportunities for bloggers of color are now devouring them.
You need not be white or a guy to act a fool in public, says stand-up comedian W. Kamau Bell. So here are some warning signals that you might be “getting all Gene Marksy up in here.”
Despite all the controversy, Gene Marks still thinks that if poor black kids in Philadelphia study hard and apply to the best schools they’ll turn out fine.
The lesson of Gene Marks’s “If I Were a Poor Black Kid” column: If you don’t have firsthand knowledge of structural inequality, you have to put in time and rigorous research to write about it. Or you could just stay in your lane.
Turns out the kid who supposedly bragged about wanting to have a gun when he grows up really said he wants to be a police officer. The station acknowledges “mistakes were made.”
So why do so many of his journalism colleagues still insist on using the slur to describe him? Monica Novoa explains why it is long past time for news media to Drop the I-Word.
