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🚀 go beyond the headlines
A team of six writers and editors are doing just that — going beyond the breaking news headlines to explore the stories and conversations around race in America.
We asked CNN’s Race and Equality team what’s the one thing they think readers need to be aware of about the news media’s coverage of race, and here’s what they told us.
📝 what to pay attention to
“Context, context, context”
– Dalila-Johari Paul, senior editor
Racism is deeper than a viral video of a White police officer brutalizing a Black person or a White person blatantly harassing a person of color and spewing racial epithets.
The question should be: What kind of system or history fosters an environment where racists feel emboldened to be who they are without fear of consequences? It’s a journalist’s role to deftly report on that beyond the breaking news and consistently answer the why and how for readers.
We must connect the dots. Part of that lies in newsroom leadership becoming more self-reflective and providing the resources and the time to go beyond the salacious headlines.
Newsroom executives should trust more journalists of color to become the gatekeepers to accurately assess the real stories behind health disparities, police violence, environmental racism and the faux panic over critical race theory. These are just several examples.
There are endless opportunities to better cover communities of color and the way different institutions perpetuate unjust policies.
💻 Suggested reading from Paul: Burned from the land: How 60 years of racial violence shaped America
“We need to do a much better job of breaking from the status quo.“
– Delano Massey, supervising producer + team lead
We (as journalists) have a tendency to lean on the storytelling that has worked for decades, rather than provide more opportunities to take different — more inclusive — approaches that provide a diverse perspective. That was on display recently with everyone’s approach to the Gabby Petito case. It is a heartbreaking story, but it reminded us again of the blind spots that exist in most newsrooms. Folks forged ahead even though they acknowledged the disparity between the media’s coverage of Petito and the lack of coverage for the thousands of others who are missing, often people of color.
Complicated stories are often discouraged, and that affinity for simplicity keeps us from really digging into the issues facing communities of color. An overall lack of diversity in editorial discussions leads to stale or vapid news. The voices of a few are often muffled and that is reflected in the coverage. The election – and conversations that continue today – exposed a divide. In fact, we see this everywhere we turn, from debates about policing to discussions about race in classrooms (critical race theory being the catchall).
The most pressing issues of today typically stir up the most passionate debates and it often boils down to a lack of compassion or humanity, highlighting the systemic-induced ailments that typically plague marginalized groups.
The political divide has gone hand in hand with race and the editorial decisions reflect this, too. It can be hard for people with privilege to see any other viewpoint or to consider that someone’s struggle could be systemic in nature. That is the result of a lack of understanding of our country’s history, and it’s complicated by an unwillingness to have difficult conversations about inequality. The longer that continues, the more news suffers.
Where this team has had great success is when we have introduced viewers and readers to the things they didn’t know — and we do that by delving deeper into both positive and negative news.
📹 Suggested viewing from Massey: A violent death in their families became a catalyst for civil rights in America
“Police brutality against Latinos and the anti-Asian hate that surged with the pandemic.”
– Nicole Chavez, writer
Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in America. They are the future, and still they are facing racism from California to New York.
Meanwhile, Latinos are being killed by police but their names are not ingrained in the public’s memory, and the efforts of families and organizers rarely lead to nationwide protests.
Ultimately, the full scope of these issues is hard to quantify because of the lack of standardized data, which in a way makes them invisible for some people and doesn’t facilitate policy discussions.
💻 Suggested reading from Chavez: When one man became another Latino killed by police, his sisters fought back
“The different layers of global climate change, for sure.”
– Brandon Tensley, politics and culture writer
While more people are hearing the alarm bells warning of the climate crisis, the racial dimension of the problem still lives on the margins of the conversation.
In a country built on a foundation of racial inequality, it should be no surprise that people of color are disproportionately hurt by climate change.
This is an issue we plan to zoom in on in CNN’s Race Deconstructed newsletter.
💻 Suggested reading from Tensley: A White-majority neighborhood wants to divorce its Black city
“We need to have more conversations about how the nation is still largely segregated”
– Nicquel Terry Ellis, senior writer
Modern-day segregation has led to unequal economic opportunity, poorer life outcomes for Black and brown people, and ongoing discrimination.
Research shows that people of color continue to be marginalized in disinvested neighborhoods and do not have the same access to healthy food, health care, good schools and even clean air as White people. This disparity is fueling many of the challenges Black and brown people face in attaining the same quality of life as their White counterparts.
While the Covid-19 pandemic laid bare many of these inequities, we should be talking about the role segregation plays and possible solutions.
💻 Suggested reading from Ellis: Most major metropolitan areas have become more segregated, study shows
“The intersection of climate change and inequality.”
– Priya Krishnakumar, data editor
As the world warms and climate patterns become more unpredictable, we need to look critically at who will face the brunt of the consequences.
There are countless examples of inequality being exacerbated by climate change, from wealthy communities in California hiring private firefighters to protect their enclaves from wildfires to schools in Baltimore without enough funding for air conditioners in the classroom.
I’m heartened and inspired, though, by the spotlight that CNN’s race and climate teams have been able to shine on the intersection of these two key beats – like this story about how redlined districts are hotter on average than surrounding neighborhoods.
We need to ensure that the most vulnerable populations are not left behind as the world addresses climate change, and I’m passionate about having our coverage reflect that.
💻Suggested reading from Krishnakumar: What a hurricane means when you live in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’
See how CNN is working to foster a network built around global diversity, equity and inclusion in this four-minute video
🗓️ mark your calendars
🎧 Listen
CNN’s 5 Things podcast is updated five times a day with five stories to get you up to speed and on with your day. Subscribe and listen wherever you get your podcasts.
📺 Watch
CNN’s six-part documentary series “Diana” features rarely seen footage and explores the person behind the princess. Tune in for the premiere episode Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
💬 Chat
Join a virtual Q&A with Lisa Ling on Monday to discuss the Sunday 10 p.m. ET/PT premiere of the new season of “This is Life with Lisa Ling.” Sign up here
– Written and edited by Beryl Adcock, Tricia Escobedo, Melissa Mahtani and Jessica Sooknanan
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