Whitlock hits it out of the park

Great post, chickwriter

 

We don't ignore the black communities, we do worse. We present our coverage as if we've gone on an anthropoligical expedition to pre-colonial Africa. I am especially annoyed when some preps writer decides to go sociological on some inner-city kid and write about his bad home life and the lure of the streets, invasive reporting we'd never dream of doing on some kid in the suburbs.

This is why, excesses aside, the Gannett term "mainstreaming" is not such a bad goal. When even good-intentioned but misguided coverage repeatedly shows minorities as being outside the mainstream without coverage to the contrary, it perpetuates stereotypes.

 

Another excellent post.

But what witless, spineless, gutless ME in any newsroom is going to stop this kind of thing?

 

OK, who wants to be the reporter to go deep into the white heart of Carmel, Ind., and Glenbrook, Ill., to find out how young Duke stars Josh McRoberts and Jon Schreyer overcame their privileged backgrounds in the leafiest of suburbs to succeed in basketball? Anyone with the BALLS to venture inside to witness the horror of coffee klatches and Cessna-sized grills? Communities so stable, the housewives have taken to the streets to bust anyone who speeds or looks the wrong way at a mailbox? ANYONE?

* Note: The housewives on the streets thing really is happening in McRoberts' old 'hood, which also happens to be where my parents live. I'm going there next weekend, and frankly I'm a little scared of getting finger-wagged by a bored Mommy Heather in a Banana Republic tube top.

 

frank, who are you?

outstanding, just an outstanding post! this has been my complaint for years. we routinely tell stories about a black child's personal life that we damn sure wouldn't tell about a suburban kid....

 

That stuck a chord with me, too, regarding DyePack. And it's something I remember every time I read one of his I-know-it-all posts.

 

Michael Massing wrote a great piece about this in either the New Yorker or the New York Review Of Books about five years ago. Damned if I can find a link to it, though.
All my fellow pale Americans should keep in mind what Adam Clayton Powell once said:
"Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, colored people looking for loans, and white men who understand the Negro."

 

Mr Ridgeway,

I'm not an equal-opportunity lay sociologist/psychologist: All the family dysfunctions (abuses, criminal stuff, drug use, alcoholism) I've described lately have been white, suburban and at worst lower middle-class. Another reason to love hockey.

YHS, etc

 

Though I disagree with some of what you are saying, Chickwriter, this actually fits in with the point I keep trying to make about most current efforts to address diversity in sports departments -- they aren't getting the job done.

In just about every case, the people doing the hiring simply put a woman or a minority on the staff for the sake of appearances. Then, in far too many instances, the new hires are expected to do the same types of stories the white guys are doing, rarely getting to voice that different perspective they bring.

For the purposes of diversity in newspaper sports deparments, white males are one monolithic group, all bringing the exact same voice to the party whether they come from white collar upbringings or blue; wealthy, middle class or poor; Jewish, Catholic or Muslim.

If you have an Irish Catholic from a blue-collar background who has lived in the community his whole life and a Russian Jew who has moved around a lot and whose family had money, don't you think they bring different perspectives?

Editors that stress diversity, in general, don't care about bringing a diverse perspective to their department. They care about how things look to anyone that might notice if they have too many white guys.

And while this idea that the newspaper should reflect the community is nice in theory, but sports editors still have a section to put out and they need to hire people who can best do the job. Of course, on this board, that tends to be a pretty controversial statement.

 

Well, blonde, as soon as people in newsrooms grow spines, I'll stop doubting things like that.

And as I said, since several people walked out, it may have happened. But I would never accept a report like that on face value, just because it's 180 degrees from what I've seen firsthand.

 

In the interest of diversity, I'd like to see more non-Communists on the desks of the papers where I work. Just sayin'.

 

Nice.