Every year since I became a journalism professor, I’m asked to do this strange academic ritual called an “annual report.” In that report, I’m required to document every course I teach, every article I’ve written, every meeting of substance, every project. It’s a basic accounting of my time that the college can then use to…
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to grant one-on-one interviews to journalists of color conjures my own thoughts about the unbearable whiteness of Chicago news media. Her decision reminded me of spring 2019 when I hurriedly left a Manhattan classroom to board a plane to Chicago for the highly anticipated Chicago Headline Club annual Lisagor awards.…
Facebook’s Oversight Board decided on May 5 retain the suspension of former President Donald Trump from its social media platforms, which includes Instagram. Facebook, along with Twitter and other social media outlets suspended Trump’s accounts after the Jan. 6 riot in Washington, DC, based on their own assessments of the role his tweets played in…
The initial press release from the Minnesota Police Department was headlined, “Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction.” That’s how police first described the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, after former police officer Derek Chauvi kneeled on the 46-year-old’s neck and back for more than nine minutes. Chauvin was convicted of…
Here we are yet again. We just can’t seem to get it right when reporting on race. On March 18, a 21-year-old white man was arrested and charged with murder after allegedly going on a shooting rampage at three Atlanta-area businesss that left eight people dead, six of whom were Asian women. Although the suspect…