Scoop Jackson's article from Espn the lack of black sports editors

Please deal with the stats at hand.
That is too damn few black SE's in 2006. Period.

 

Here's a link to Norman Chad's column, which is very well done.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=451817

 

I'm going to bet that of these posts regarding Scoop's column, few have come from black writers and/or editors. That said, let me give you the take from a former black editor --- me.

I served the better part of three years at Galveston --- making me one of the few editors of color out there -- before being yanked from my position in favor of a (white) editor. I say this not to claim racism (the paper had its own agenda for sports, one that did not meld with my vision). I say it in the fact that I was the only black person on a news staff that had about 30-40 people and was the only voice when it came to subjects regarding race, sports or otherwise.

I am currently looking for a position, but it is hard, regardless of what you may think. In this day and age, people still look at color and with a name like mine, tend to get surprised when you see a black man. I have had several coaches who thought I was one of the writers, only to be embarrassed when they realized they were looking at the SE.

A good point is made when the fact the long hours and low pay are deterrants when trying to get minority writers. I have worked with youngsters and have told them about the benefits of being a writer, but most young minority writers are scared off for those reasons. Many of them don't want to make the sacrifice of starting at a smaller paper and working their way up. At the same time, if this is a problem, then we need to address it. Not just writers like myself, but the papers and the industry as a whole. It is frustrating to see how few black writers are out there. I think I saw about 3-4 during the WS in Houston and during the two Texas APSE conventions I went to, I was the only black writer there.

There is a disconnect between today's athletes -- many of whom are black -- and the writers -- most of whom are white -- who do not understand each other. Most writers are older and have little grasp of the inner city hell many of these players grew up with. It's easy to label a Terrell Owens or a Allen Iverson as "thugs" when you've spent a considerable portion of your life having no clue of the challenges they had to overcome.

Black America must also contribute to the blame as well. Most young black writers are caught into copying the styles of a Scoop Jackson or some of the other writers that are on mags such as XXL or try to emulate Stuart Scott. Neither of them would be ideal examples. My gold standard while coming up was Peter Gammons. Aspiring writers need to find their niche and understand that the Jacksons and Scotts -- while performing at the highest levels of the industry -- are not examples just because they are black.

Black SE's have to be better than good. Like NFL head coaches or MLB managers, having to succeed (despite the fact your ME knows shit about sports and wants to build the section around rec stuff) is maginfied because the margin for error for a black SE is smaller than a white one. Like or not, it is what it is.

 

I appreciate all of what you said, but when people repeatedly say this, I don't know what to think:

How do we address this? By paying more? Would be nice, but I'm not gonna hold my breath. And do we only pay more for candidates who offer diversity?

And what about all the writers who know full well about the pay and hours, and about having to work their way up slowly, and still do it? They're knowingly making a lot of sacrifices.

 

No, they're not.
350 years of history say you're wrong.

 

One of the reasons for posting the Jackson article was to create some discussion. I find it amusing and tragic that so many can comment on other posts but fall silent on this issue. The comments that were posted sound full of bitterness and hate. A blind man can see that Jackson is correct in pointing out the bias in the news media particulary its efforts to recruit minorities into the writing business. The article is a mirror and some folks refuse to examine the reflection that is peering back at them.

 

The article is also terribly done, regardless of who wrote it. His arguments are poorly constructed and his writing, well...

 

Somehow I don't think we're gonna solve this here.
Before indicting the entire white male sports writing industry, can we at least take a look at what percentage of j-school kids are minority/female, and what percentage of of those are looking to become sports writers.
I would be willing to bet that ithe numbers probably mirror the numbers reflected in the APSE research.
we've got a design opening at our shop right now and ain't nobody applying for it -- white, black, female, etc.
we also lost a minority candidate for a writing job with only intern and college newspaper experience to a metro where they'd do a lot less work than they would have at our 34k shop.
it's a tough issue, and I don't think anyone has any clear answers.

 

There's really nothing you can say about that. My pets' dumps are more artistic.

 

Got me there.

Asians haven't been here for 350 years. Oooooh. Nice technicality.

Shut the fuck up.

 

I thought the whole purpose of posting the column was to spark what is a serious issue. Instead, this is become nothing more than a "let's dump on Scoop Jackson" piece that borders more on childishness and petty jealousy.

We get it: most of you don't like Scoop or his style of writing. But the fact that he is a writer for a popular magazine and has cred on ESPN is a bit of scoreboard on every one of you who are comparing his writing to cat dumps. I will say Scoop is not one of my favorite writers, but I do respect his work. As one of the few black sportswriters who have achieved national attention, I (as a black sportswriter) give him his just due for working hard and getting where he wanted to go.

To answer the question on how to get more black sportswriters, I think the first thing that has to be done is that black writers have to take the responsibility to help mentor and encourage the young writers coming behind them. There cannot be a sense of "this kid could take my job in 10-15 years" mentality; it has to be a case of "I have achieved this level through working my way up. I want to show you how I did it and help open doors that you may not have available to you."

This isn't to say that white (or other) writers cannot do the same thing. The biggest influences in my career were my HS journalism teacher (Janice Payne) and my ME at my first newspaper stop (Scott McCabe) -- both of whom are white. Neither saw color when it came to working and encouraging me. Both saw a young man who wanted to write and was willing to bounce around smaller papers and work his way to being able to cover World Series and bowl games.

This needs to be a forum where we can openly discuss a problem with numbers that are well overbalanced. I would like to think we can separate the messenger from the message.

 

I'll agree that the paucity of black SEs and on down to just sportswriters is a problem. Why? Blame goes all around.

It's the fault of the newspapers themselves that there aren't more black SEs. Having trapsed the halls of a couple fairly big papers, I definitely see some of the white liberal guilt among the editors in corner offices - people who hate racism as an idea, and do what they can to hire minorities. But when it comes to the big hires, for the SE position, they aren't as likely to pull the trigger.

But I think blame for not there being as many sportswriters has more to do with other things. I doubt it has anything to do with racism among hiring editors. If anything I think more (white, and other) sports editors at papers of all sizes WANT to hire more minorities - not only to write, but for editing positions. As few black sportswriters there might be (I would bet there's actually more than 300, but it's still a low percentage) there are probably even fewer copy editors and designers. Why is this? Well then we get into social stuff; this is a white-collar profession, and blacks and other minorities are still trying to catch up in terms of numbers.

One final thing: Keep in mind that many of the sportswriting jobs in this country are at small papers in more rural, out-of-the-way areas. Fact is the percentage of minorities living in those areas is lower than it is major cities and their suburbs. It's understandable that many wouldn't want to go outside their comfort zone; many whites don't either.

It's good that we're talking about this issue. I just hope that the powers-that-be address this as a grass-roots issue, but also confront their own feelings. Why have we gone from going from zero black NFL coaches to about one-quarter of the league? Because the NFL made teams look at hiring more and more assistants, creating clearly qualified candidates, and more NFL owners and GMs decided to leave their own comfort zone and hire black head coaches. If we're going to solve this - assuming we think it is a problem - then we're going to have to increase the ranks of low- and mid-level black sportswriters and editors, and top editors are then going to have to be willing to promote them to head jobs.