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The Myth of Post-Racialism in Television News

Libby Lewis has provided an essential tool in giving agency and voice to the many Black journalists who have tirelessly worked to provide complex representations of people of color in their stories and news organizations.

—Akil Housten, Ohio University, USA

This book explores the written and unwritten requirements Black journalists face in their efforts to get and keep jobs in television news. Informed by interviews with journalists themselves, Lewis examines how raced Black journalists and their journalism organizations process their circumstances and choose to respond to the corporate and institutional constraints they face. She uncovers the social construction and attempted control of “Blackness” in news production and its subversion by Black journalists negotiating issues of objectivity, authority, voice, and appearance along sites of multiple differences of race, gender, and sexuality.

Libby Lewis is a Lecturer in African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. She earned a Ph.D. in African Diaspora Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Routledge Transformations in Race and Media

Series Editors: Robin R. Means Coleman University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Charlton D. McIlwain New York University

1 Interpreting Tyler Perry Perspectives on Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality Edited by Jamel Santa Cruze Bell and Ronald L. Jackson II

2 Black Celebrity, Racial Politics, and the Press Framing Dissent Sarah J. Jackson

3 The Cultural Politics of Colorblind TV Casting Kristen J. Warner

4 The Myth of Post-Racialism in Television News Libby Lewis

The Myth of Post-Racialism in Television News

Libby Lewis

First published 2016 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

The right of Libby Lewis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Lewis, Libby, 1967- The myth of post-racialism in television news / Libby Lewis. pages cm. — (Routledge transformations in race and media ; 4) Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Racism in the press—United States. 2. Television broadcasting of news—Political aspects—United States. 3. Mass media and race relations—United States. 4. African American journalists—Social conditions. 5. Race discrimination—United States. I. Title.

PN4888.R3L49 2015 070.4'493058—dc23 2015015167

ISBN: 978-1-138-81241-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-74883-2 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon by codeMantra

This book is dedicated to journalists struggling against the powers that be who tell them that their voices are not valid. Your vigilance is our greatest asset.

Contents

List of Figures Preface Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Professionalizing and Palatable “Blackness”

2 Branding and Marketing “Blackness”

3 From Stumbling Block to Stepping Stone

4 Owning the “Ghetto” Shows

5 Rules of Engagement: The Politics of Race, Gender, and Sexuality

6 Barack and Michelle Obama as Signs of Progress and Threat

Concluding Remarks

Index

List of Figures

4.1 Percentage of Black Journalists Employed by Selected Television News Agencies in 2012.

4.2 Percentage of Black Journalists in Senior Management Positions.

Preface

I got my start in journalism as an intern for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles and decided to pursue a Master’s degree at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Once there, I experimented with different news mediums. I worked as a photographer for the small, graduate, student-run newspaper at U.C. Berkeley. I was hired as a newspaper reporter for the San Francisco Examiner, which was then owned by the Hearst Corporation. I later earned a position as an intern for the San Francisco NBC affiliate television news station working for the Target 4 Investigative Unit. Working in television felt right; I enjoyed researching information and decided to pursue reporting. I later worked as an anchor/reporter, producer, and in other capacities for CBS, and much later I came back to NBC but in another state. At the time, I came to understand the importance of the sales department in the news business, particularly for media managers whose job security relies on maintaining and exceeding the bottom line of higher ratings and revenue. I soon discovered that before I could receive acceptance from corporate television news management, I would have to conform to their vision of “professionalism.” I learned that objectivity translated into an emphasis on everyone checking difference at the door. It also became painfully obvious that some of us were under more scrutiny than others.

Despite these circumstances, the explanations given for checking one’s difference at the door always seemed to make sense. We were told that stories mattered, not the reporters who tell them. We were told that our bodies must not become distractions, and therefore we must maintain continuity in our “look” and “image” because the audience is easily confused and distracted. As a result of my attempts to fit into this environment, I became interested in how other Black journalists met the challenges of their careers in the face of management imperatives and an ongoing politics of representation within television news. In turn, I began networking with other Black journalists as an attempt to understand what I had thought to be unique to my experience.

I soon found out that my experience was not unique at all and that it is indicative of a dilemma shared by many Black journalists attempting to

remain employed while maintaining some degree of authenticity in their work. Following my review of media studies literature, I became increasingly interested in situating the experiences of Black journalists within television news because the literature at the time lacked attention to how journalists who are operating from positions of difference produce, circulate, and enact (Gray 1995, 2) a particular genre of the human (Wynter 2006, 119) within these social institutions. Contrary to the conventional story in the Media Studies literature, this study does not take the position that journalists approach the news in the same way because the United States consists of complex individuals who do not experience North America in the same way. I chose to take a different approach in my analysis of the television news industry. By analyzing how Black reporters and anchors meet the challenges of their jobs, I uncover the disruptive moments and innovation that emerges in their responses to what is at times described by journalists as a hostile work environment.

While I do so, I illustrate in this study how Black journalists make escape routes, contingency strategies, and cultural moves while engaging in a struggle over representations of “Blackness” in television news. The significance of this study is that it offers a glimpse of the inner workings of corporate television news media that privileges marginalized perspectives. The experiences of Black journalists are also telling because they expose an ongoing struggle over representations of “Blackness” that betray the myth of meritocracy and objectivity that the journalism profession so desperately clings to in its attempts to mass produce television news for the public good. Gray, Herman S. Watching Race – Television and the Struggle for “Blackness.” Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.

Wynter, Sylvia. “On How We Mistook the Map for the Territory, and Re- Imprisoned Ourselves in Our Unbearable Wrongness of Being, of Désêtre Black Studies Toward the Human Project.” In Not Only the Master’s Tools: African-American Studies in Theory and Practice, edited with an introduction by Lewis R. Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon, Boulder, London: Paradigm Publishers, 2006.

Acknowledgments

This book in its original conception would not have been possible without the support and generosity of the Graduate Opportunity Program Fellowship, the Academic Year and Summer Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, Graduate Division Travel Grants, and the Dean’s Normative Time Grant at U.C. Berkeley, as well as the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship from Yale University. The Institute of American Cultures Postdoctoral Scholar Program and Professional Development Fund at UCLA were instrumental in the completion of this book. The California Social Welfare Education Center showed interest and support for the project in its infancy. Faculty with the Bournemouth University Media School in London, England, offered opportunities to present my research through guest lectures, talks, and panel discussions, which proved very useful to further developing the ideas of the book.

A variety of sources contributed to the book within and outside of academe and across the African Diaspora. I observed interview participants fighting for hard-earned careers while working to improve the journalism profession. I witnessed moments of personal and professional crisis for highly qualified journalists being pushed out of well-earned positions. I have also seen journalists across the country meet the challenges of working in television news. This book would not have been possible without the individuals who contributed their experiences and sharing histories and insights on the television news industry, which further developed my primary archive. Your help in further developing the interview questions, as well as your candor, patience, and generosity of time humble me. Know that I struggle with you and for you; my deep appreciation cannot be stated enough for what you contribute to this book. You are courageous, hard- working, and most of all loved! It has been an honor to record your experiences so that we may remember your tenacity, wisdom, and grit in the face of power. A sincere thanks to the National Association of Black Journalists; UNITY Journalists of Color, Inc.; the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association; the Online News Association; the Media Image Coalition; the American Studies Association; Society for Cinema and Media Studies; the Institute for Media & Communication Research; and National

Association for Women’s Studies; the Brixton Library; Stuart Hall Library; and the Sir Michael Cobham Library, Bournemouth University.

Warm regards to my UCLA family—the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and the African American Studies Department—I very much appreciate the faculty, administrators, and staff whose continued support sustained me during challenging times. Darnell M. Hunt, thank you for your mentorship during my tenure as an Institute of American Cultures Postdoctoral Scholar hosted by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. The chair of the African American Studies Department, Dr. Cheryl I. Harris, and former chair, Dr. Robin D. G. Kelley, your support was right on time! Claudia Mitchell-Kernan and M. Belinda Tucker, thank you for supporting this project by offering words of encouragement when needed the most and attending my talks on campus that helped the research and writing process. I am also very grateful for my CSULA support network that encouraged me during the editing process.

I am deeply thankful for individuals who mentored me and assisted with framing the research questions of this study, they include: Herman Gray, Paola Bacchetta, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Robert Allen, Margaret Wilkerson, and Jocelyn Guilbault. I cannot possibly mention all of the scholars who have made a major impression on my work, but I would like to acknowledge some of the scholars who have influenced my work and life including: Barbara Christian, June Jordan, Roy Thomas, Sylvia Wynter, Cornel West, Stuart Hall, and Catherine Hall. I had the honor of meeting Catherine Hall and had engaging conversations with Stuart Hall at their home in London, England, to discuss this book and Dr. Hall’s contributions to it. The late Dr. Stuart Hall is much appreciated and missed.

Many thanks to my U.C. Berkeley cohort. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the faculty and staff of Gender and Women’s Studies, the Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program, the Beatrice Bain Research Group, and the Affiliated Scholars from all over the world with whom I had the joy of collaborating on projects that helped with the research of the book. I am thankful to the African American Studies Department for the education I received inside and outside of the classroom as an undergraduate and graduate student. A very special thanks to the U.C. Berkeley staff of the African American Studies Department and the Graduate Division for your tireless assistance. Carla Trujillo and Cassandra Hill, I will never forget your efforts and assistance along the way. My very best regards to the Graduate Division’s former Associate Dean Joseph Duggan, Dean Andrew Szeri, and Dean Pello-Fernandez. USC Associate Senior Vice President of Civic Engagement & Economic Development,

Craig Keys, Esq., thank you for the encouragement! My Grandmother Vivian Smith tells me, “A heap see, but few know.”

Writing a book is more than a notion. Thank you for your oral history lessons about life from 1919 onward! You fought so hard to be here in a world hostile to Black independent audacious women! Your battle scars are unseen, ever present, and an education in surviving and thriving the Jim Crow South. Many thanks to my mother, Catherine Lewis, for showing me early in life how to unflinchingly stand in the face of power and to my father, Tommie Lee Lewis, whose sense of humor and beautiful spirit helped keep the tough times in perspective. To my brother, Miles A. Lewis and sister LaMesha Lewis, who helped me develop a thick skin, which is much needed in this world! Helen Butler and family, you helped shape me into the woman I am today. Thank you for being my home away from home! Your unconditional love is very much appreciated. Joseph Antonio Page, Saundria Page, and family, we are persuaders as we’re known to be, continuing the pursuit to be free. Your love sustained me. Special thanks to family and friends who are constant reminders of what is important in life and the imperative of perseverance.

Dr. Antoinette & Randy Chevalier, your generosity of time and space helped me in the thick of the writing process. I will forever be in your debt. Dr. Katrinell M. Davis, what a joy it is to have a sister with whom to share the journey! You supported me through the toughest of times, and I am Blessed to have you in my life! In acknowledgment of my ancestors: constant reminders of our fortitude in the face of adversity.

Introduction

“A heap see, but few know” is what my now 96-year-old Grandmother used to tell me when I was a child. Her wisdom and oral history have supported me through years of a formal education that relies too heavily on seeing as evidence of knowing. The informal education in the form of “life sharing and consciousness raising”1 that my Grandmother offered generously taught me an epistemology that does not privilege the notion that seeing is believing—a concept that scholars struggle with in academe today. Researching for this book was challenging, precisely because of the difficulty of uncovering that which is in plain sight.

Television newsrooms across the country experienced a major shift between 1995 and 2005 in the proliferation of new media that forever changed the way we see the journalism profession. People who see television news media as monolithic and powerful are missing how relations of power operate in newsroom culture. Journalists working from the margins of North American newsrooms during this ten-year period were caught in the throes of shrinking budgets; they witnessed a mass exodus of predominantly Black journalists while the rest worked more for less pay. Black journalists experienced intensified policing of the network affiliate brand, their image, work schedules, career mobility, and the rules of objectivity. Increased policing and surveillance motivated new strategies, tactics, and spatialities of resistance to navigate the already hostile terrain of the television news industry. In Acting White: Rethinking Race in Post- Racial America, Devon W. Carbado and Mitu Gulati argue that there is a broader phenomenon called “Working Identity.” Carbado and Gulati’s work is used to discuss the double bind of racial performance that is used to screen out African American applicants deemed “too Black”2 or being expected to have interests limited to concerns of Black communities. Intensified policing to ensure Black journalists fit the network news image toward a “palatable Blackness” as argued in Chapter 1 would not be practiced if the media was monolithic and colorblind as the rules of objectivity suggest. As one journalist in the study put it, you have to “play that game or find another industry.” The game includes negotiating race, gender, and sexuality and using dress, image, speech pattern, hair style, etc.,

to achieve “palatable Blackness.” I understood early in my training as a television news journalist that there

are written and unwritten rules of engagement involved in getting a job in corporate television news. The smell of burning hair remains even after I stopped straightening my hair with a hot iron comb for the sake of employment in television news; it is a constant reminder of what the powers that be deem wrong with me. As part of my “working identity” I also made sure to take an employed position of my speech pattern—often talking more White (Carbado and Gulati 2013, Chapter 2) than the whitest White person which means a White mid-Western speech pattern. The alternative was to work in fear of being sent to a voice coach or worse, fired for breaking one of the unwritten rules of adopting the White mid-Western speech pattern. The Black American tongues that re-member and trace their Southern roots are treated as problems needing to be fixed. Furthermore, it always struck me as strange how differently journalists with British accents are treated from journalists with Spanish accents in television news. I was told by management that the Midwestern (read White) speech pattern is preferable and that foreign accents are unintelligible and distracting. Failure to adopt or to ignore signifiers of Whiteness in order to secure a more stable position of employment in the television news industry is a luxury that only White men and women can afford. White privilege (Wise, 2008; 2010) allows White individuals to be read differently from Black individuals. I take a close look at the unwritten rules that relate to challenges Black anchors and/or reporters face in negotiating race, gender, and sexuality difference within corporate television newsroom culture during these volatile economic times. In doing so, I explore how Black journalists negotiate difference from the dominant culture in their stories, newsrooms, and bodies in ways that contradict discourses of “the media”3 as monolithic and powerful. The debates in newsrooms surrounding Barack Hussein Obama’s presidency are particularly interesting, and the book therefore addresses how Black journalists intervene in coverage that reinforces the stereotype of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. In Chapter 6 I examine the strategies and tactics employed to include other perspectives on the ways in which the Obamas were typically represented before, during, and after the 2008 and 2012 Elections.

In the pages that follow, I identify three frameworks for understanding television news media today. One uncovers the fallacy of an omnipotent corporate television news media, focusing instead on the contentiousness of power through observations and interviews of Black journalists from across the country. Moving away from an all-powerful media paradigm that some

media studies scholars depict brings a better understanding of the intricacies of the television newsroom culture. Another part of the framework of this volume takes up the issue of resistance and agency from within television news media and examines the complexities of negotiating race, gender, and sexuality in their stories, newsrooms, and body language. The third part of the framework further disrupts the notion of Post-Racialism4 in exploring how journalists engage selected news media content, Internet images, and consumer products that constitute President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as both a sign of progress and as a threat to the dominant culture order. Conjoining the contentiousness of power through forms of resistance and agency with how journalists grapple with the notion of objectivity that relies on the fallacy of a colorblind society is critical to understanding the misguidedness of thinking of the media as monolithic. Uncovering the challenges faced by Black journalists who are part of the often-evoked descriptive, “the media,” speaks to discursive practices of memory and counter-memory and shows that such practices alternately mask and expose racist narratives of journalists and the world in which we live. This book explores the production process of television news and possibilities of intervention including various perspectives ‘raced’ Black journalists have to offer. The use of the term ‘raced’ refers to the ways in which humans are placed in particular race categories, whether or not they identify with the particular group in which they are placed. While this study does not seek to define “Blackness,” it does interrogate how “Blackness” is represented and written upon the bodies of journalists who are “raced Black” (Hunt 1997, 23; 1999) and participate in newscasts, marketing, and promotions that are involved in the production, circulation, and enactment of Blackness (Gray 1995, 2; 2005, 10, 18, 29).

Zora Neale Hurston describes research as “formalized curiosity” (1942). Interviews and field observations are major factors in uncovering the politics of race, gender, and sexuality both on-camera and behind the scenes of television news. I also wanted to know if my experience as a television news anchor/reporter for CBS and later NBC was anything unique or whether my experience was something shared by my colleagues across the United States. Transcribing interviews was rigorous because I did not want to simply transcribe the spoken word and moments of verbosity. In order to convey the true meaning, I needed to include body language communicated by facial gesture and expression, tone of voice, and laughter, which is often used to change the meaning of what is being expressed. Individuals communicate on many levels, making it necessary to accurately transcribe interviews. Laughter and other sound expressing emotion, opinion, feeling,

or sentiment are useful in the analysis of this text. I call this multilayered method ‘thick transcription.’5

The usefulness of thick transcription is demonstrated by one of my interview participants named Frank—a veteran reporter/anchor, who says in his interview that he was “really pissed off”6 that management had hired White male main anchors who did not possess the same talent he had. During the interview, Frank signaled that there was something more to his verbalized anger. He described the times he would fill in for the main anchor during the week and stated that the average viewer thought that Frank was the main anchor and that the main anchor was filling in for Frank. While Frank said that he was “really pissed off,” the quick sharp exhale out of his nostrils, quick raising and lowering of his eyebrows that expressed what I call an amused “gotcha moment,” and his chuckling signified something other than anger. His talent was irrepressible. The moment of the chuckle marked the recognition of a double consciousness—that of Frank seeing how management chooses to see him—but the sound he made also marked his understanding of management power over his popularity as contingent. If he decided to take his talent to the competition, that same average viewer of the station would follow. Management continued to flex its power and told him that they “would never pay … over 100-thousand dollars to do the weekend with three-day” (weekend anchoring with three days reporting), but two years after making that statement, management began to pay Frank “well into the six figures.”7 Thick transcription helped find the true meaning in what could have been interpreted as just an angry rant steeped in powerlessness rather than a complex multiplicity of emotions and the feeling of triumph Frank expressed using his eyebrows and laughter. This research method also reveals the contentiousness of news management’s power.

I conducted more than 100 interviews ranging from 10 minutes to two hours using snow-ball sampling and media events at multiple sites including but not limited to television newsrooms, journalism conferences, social events, and entertainment and news-gathering sites on the East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, and the southern United States. The book includes but is not limited to news media and television networks, namely, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, and several affiliate stations. Half of the respondents in this study are men, and half are women; most of the respondents identify as heterosexual; a little less than one-fourth of respondents identify as gay, lesbian, and/or queer, and the others declined to identify. Their experiences range from top ten markets to bottom 50 markets. With only a few

exceptions, the overwhelming majority of respondents report ongoing experiences of racism, sexism, and/or homophobia working in television news. The archive spans interviews, participant observations, organizational documents, emails, blogs, webcasts, etc., and are major tools of analysis for monitoring the rapid changes in the television news industry including news culture and politics and their boundaries. These references act as a running record and help with updates on hiring, firing, promotions, and claims of harassment that at times have changed the direction and/or enhanced the major theoretical arguments of the book.

Monolithicizing “the media” is problematic because it does not reflect the differences amongst journalists particularly in terms of covering the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Presidential Elections. The final chapter of the book is concerned with representations of the President and First Lady. It explores the ways in which journalists confront traditional and new media outlets that contribute to reifying stereotypes reconfigured by new technologies and consumer culture in the 21st century, as well as the notion of objectivity. The nation’s fixation with colorblindness in our so-called Post-Racial society has impaired our vision of a society open to diverse perspectives.

This book speaks to the racialization of work in the post-industrial era, work that relies on a vision of the lived realities of Black subjects under the terms and conditions of Whiteness.8 What this means for Black people— particularly Black journalists in the United States—is a major focus of the chapters ahead. In order to understand the U.S. government’s initial influence on opportunities for Black journalists, we have to revisit The Moynihan Report and The Kerner Commission. The Moynihan Report9

resonated with White Americans looking to blame Black Americans for causing their living conditions instead of seriously considering the socio- economic disparities between Blacks and Whites and the systems of White supremacy operating in the United States. The Report claimed that the “matriarchal” makeup of Black low-income families was at the root of the widening “gap between the Negro and other groups in American society.” President Lyndon Baines Johnson supported and promoted the ideas10

expressed in the Report, and his support worked to further solidify stereotypical notions of “Blackness” in the White imagination. In other words, the problem with Black America was Black America. “Blackness” became a metonymy for “crisis,” “criminality,” “deterioration,” “dependency,” “illegitimacy,” “laziness,” and “cultural deprivation.” Pathologizing “Blackness” and racializing public policy had its consequences in how people thought about Black America, which in turn

affected the ways in which institutions, corporations, and other structures of power responded to the socio-economic realities operating in the U.S. Fueled by the racist doctrine of the Moynihan Report, Johnson sought to better understand how to prevent a repeat of the race riots of the 1960s in a seven-month study known as The Kerner Commission.11

The Commission found that the “racial disturbance” in North America was largely due to severe economic and social disadvantages of Blacks compared to Whites. In an effort to mend the racial divide in the U.S., the Federal government addressed the Commission’s findings in an effort to improve public services including housing, education, employment opportunities, and social services for African Americans. Most notably the Commission sought to better understand the effect of the mass media on the coverage of the riots. The conclusion of the study was that the media failed to adequately report the causes and consequences of civil disorder and race relations, as well as the violence witnessed during the riots. Among other diversity enhancements, the Commission recommended that the news media “Integrate Negroes and Negro activities into all aspects of coverage and content, including newspaper articles and television programming. … Recruit more Negroes into journalism and broadcasting and promote those who are qualified to positions of significant responsibility. …”12 As a result, the news media slowly began opening opportunities for Black journalists. This chapter and the chapters following examine the racialization of the television news media as a backlash stemming from the government’s pressure on White men to diversify newsrooms across the U.S. White men holding dominant positions in the media developed new forms of control in response to government diversity interventions. The ways that Black journalists continue to struggle against this backlash is exposed in the very candid conversations with people working in the television news industry. This book foregrounds the experiences of Black journalists.

Juan González and Joseph Torres, in News for All of the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media, point to the groundbreaking moment when the Kerner Commission charged the news media with contributing to the Black-White schism in the country. Advocacy groups organized to reform communications policy; African American and Latino groups organized protests, boycotts, and other federal actions that eventually “cracked the longstanding color line in the mass media”13 in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite various strategies of containment, most networks had to decide what to do with the thousands of newly hired journalists of color.14

While González and Torres discuss at length the important contributions of “the citizen movement,” the focus of my book is the daily skirmishes and struggle over representation in which Black journalists are engaging. I pick up where González and Torres leave off in discussing the current situation among minority journalism associations, which has changed drastically in a short time.

Although various personal narratives written by Black journalists provide a window into the individual experience of working in television and/or print news media, such as Gil Noble’s, Black is the Color of My TV Tube; Jerri Lang’s, A Black Woman’s Life in the Media; Belva Davis’s, Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Women’s Life in Journalism; and Jill Nelson’s, Volunteer Slavery, this interdisciplinary study of race, gender, sexuality, nation building and notions of belonging offers insight into the complexities of Black journalists working from the margins of corporate television news. I also bring an understanding of how one’s body is marked with the dominant culture’s notion of “Blackness,” using traditional and new media reports of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama and explore the interventions of Black journalists who struggle over being branded and “locked into the infernal circle” (Fanon 1967) of representation in corporate newsroom culture.

Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony is used to understand the dynamics of newsroom culture. Black journalists devise strategies and tactics in the mental production of the news to include otherwise denied or defused marginalized perspectives. Chapters 1, 2, and 4 will discuss the thwarting of monolithic expressions of the dominant culture order: Strategies and tactics range from blocking management knowledge and access to a journalist’s intellectual property and sources to flipping the script and feigning confusion about the scripted live shot in an effort to be more inclusive of perspectives. Although race and ethnicity as we think about them today are not a focus of Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, which came out of the context of his native Italy, Gramsci’s concepts contribute significantly to discussions and analyses of Black journalists’ negotiation of complex identities and racism.

Gramsci’s notion of hegemony argues that social groups attempt to persuade other groups to consent to a particular ideology and practice, which goes beyond Marxism by reducing the struggle to that of economic interests and a class model of society. In this section, I build on the work of Stuart Hall and Gramsci to discuss how the media and its power to represent may act as an instrument of hegemony. In linking Hall’s discussion of knowledge, power, and regimes of truth (Hall 1997, 49), to address the

hegemonic forces shaping our worldview, all of the chapters highlight the ways in which Black journalists both on camera and behind the scenes challenge hegemonic forces, putting into question the notion of an all- powerful media. While Hall’s discussion of Gramsci and Foucault (Hall 1997, 49, 259–61, 348) suggests that knowledge linked to power assumes the authority of “the truth” and has the power to manufacture what is true and what is not, the chapters ahead bring a better understanding of how Black journalists, producers, and in some cases media managers confront the challenges of hegemony in the television news business. Marginalized journalists15 utilize strategies and tactics—toward moments of intervention within the hegemonic newsroom culture. Such journalists act as agents of change against the hegemonic forces of news production that promote a fixed “regime of truth” (Foucault 1980) within the television news industry. A few scholarly works discuss hegemony and the news media and highlight key struggles against the media power structure. There is also scant literature foregrounding the relations of power among television media managers, producers, and journalists and the contentiousness of power in the everyday skirmishes, strategies, and tactics taken up by marginalized broadcast journalists.

This text illuminates what is at stake for Black journalists stepping outside the boundaries into which they are written, scripted, and branded in television news. The three frameworks share the psychic and symbolic violence of the exercise of power in newsroom culture and the extent to which journalists engage in forms of resistance that create space to convey a more diverse perspective in the stories they report, in their body language (Hall 1997), and in the “live” introduction and reporter tag of stories they share with the public. More important, Black journalists grapple with the notion of objectivity, the nation, and their sense of belonging under the terms and conditions of Whiteness. Challenges confronting Black journalists and their lived experience as Black subjects are the norm stitched into the very fabric of what it means to survive and thrive being Black in America, whether one is a Black journalist or President of the United States. Black subjectivity is rife with examples of North American racism and what is at stake for Black individuals regardless of class or social status.

A CNN headline suggests that America “must move past Obama’s race”16

while another CNN headline reads, “White Teen Drives over Black Man Killing Him,” reportedly yelling, “No niggers for President!” The Huffington Post recently reported on “The never ending racist assault on Michelle Obama.”17 Black celebrities have even stepped forward to clear

up any confusion about whether or not racism exists in North American politics.18 Discursive practices of memory and counter-memory in reports of various depictions and representations of President and First Lady Obama expose the muck of persistent racist narratives disseminated under the guise of objectivity Black journalists must trudge through despite being in a so-called “Post-Racial America.” The question of whether racism is alive and well in North America is remarkable, given what history and headlines tell us. Even more remarkable is how little is written on this issue.

I draw from several areas of study including Critical Media Studies, African American Studies, African Diaspora Studies, Cultural Studies, Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Resistance and Queer Theories. My analysis of the interconnectedness of race, gender, and sexuality in traditional and new media forms owes much to the work of media critics who have studied commercial television and broadcast news. The book highlights the ways in which the practices of professionalizing, branding, and placing “Blackness” reinforce and police constructions of race that reproduce fixed notions of “Blackness.” I take up some of the resistance (Pile 1997; Hooks 1992; Trinh 1989; Scott 1985; De Certeau 1984) and queer theories literature (Stryker 2006; Johnson 2003; Muñoz 1999; Lorde 1984) to bring a better understanding of how adversary positions and intervening moments of change disrupt notions of static “Blackness” and develop a more robust journalism praxis that takes us beyond the constraints of an objectivity that denies different perspectives. Such constraints are part of what is crippling the television news industry and the competitive edge it once enjoyed against alternative news media outlets.

Several Critical Media Studies scholars (Meyers 2013; González and Torres 2011; Rhodes 2007; Squires 2007; Pritchard and Stonebely 2007; Shah and Thornton 2004; Newkirk 2000; Entman and Rojecki 2000; Fiske 1987, 1996; Gans 1972; Gitlin 1980; Gray 1995, 2005; Hunt 1997, 1999; Hall 1997; Dates and Barlow 1990; McChesney 1999; Greenwald and Douglass 2004; Zook 2008; Wanzo 2009; González and Torres 2011; Carbado and Gulati 2013) have made significant contributions toward understanding the rules of engagement in commercial television and broadcast news and how that structure shapes media content and influences how we think about the world in which we live. Media critics of the 1960s and 1970s focused on the overpowering “flow”19 of television and its programs, advertisements, flow of words and images, and process of movement and interaction through sequence and flow that taken together make up our experience of television, implying a particular grid of

intelligibility—a cultural milieu with which we understand the world. Media critics of the time also detailed the routinized tasks20 of journalists to better understand how stories are managed and heavily shaped by organizational requirements21 using observations and interviews. According to the critics, the structure of the news influences journalists from childhood in the socialization process and the definition of objectivity. While this may be true, there are other critical factors in a North American grid of intelligibility about the world that is not dismissive of the heterogeneity of North American culture. One of the top media critics of his time, Herbert Gans, even went as far as to say that television news and newsmagazines “are selected and produced by journalists who, for a variety of reasons, look at America in much the same way” (Gans 1979). This book takes up issues of race, gender, and sexuality in the television news industry to get a clearer picture of the types of individuals working in television news, including media management who are in positions of power that enable them to participate more readily in shaping news content in a variety of ways. This is particularly important in terms of hiring and firing, how the news is selected, what is left out, how stories are reported, and how journalists come to report the stories that are aired. I analyze power relations among journalists and the all-White and most often male management in newsrooms across the country to understand the ways in which representations of race, gender, and sexuality are negotiated in corporate newsroom culture. Exploring forms of resistance taken up by marginalized journalists who do not “look at America in much the same way” is critical to my argument against the notion of a Post-Racial America. The fact that one of the interview participants for the book, a Black reporter, said that his White news manager “couldn’t have stood having a Black male main anchor”22

even when he outperformed the White male main anchor on days he filled in, speaks against this notion of journalists—indeed “the media”—as a monolithic group. The fact that White journalists neither view America in the same way nor are invested in similar viewpoints makes such assumptions suspect. This book is critically important to how we understand the television news media and its eventual downfall if the majority of media moguls and management fail to embrace diversity by hiring journalists who bring different perspectives to the table of objectivity that is purported to be the bedrock of journalism.

Other media critics acknowledge that journalists have views outside the mainstream master narrative but contend that those views are so policed that there is no room for intervention. Media critics often foreground the problems within the social structure of television news and highlight the

ways in which the media controls news and information using textual devices, framing objectivity, enforcing institutional procedures, and employing “strategies of containment” (Fiske 1987, 283, 287). Such critics devalue, discount, or overlook entirely the contentiousness of power and miss the major battles23 in an ongoing struggle over representations of “Blackness” in television news. For example, Fiske adeptly uses Roland Barthes’ concept of “exnomination” (1973) to point out how textual and visual devices are used to construct a framework of objectivity, within which the words and images that constitute other levels of reporting are situated. Practices of exnomination24 often masquerade as an exercise of objectivity. Journalists who may have more opportunities to exercise exnomination are what Fiske refers to as “news readers,” commonly referred to as “anchors” in the news business; indeed, they are the “anchors” who are expected to keep language25 and representations of people and events anchored in their “proper” place, under the guise of objectivity. A television news anchor holds a very powerful albeit policed position, which is one of the reasons we do not see very many anchors of color, much less Black anchors in the television news industry. By widening the lens through which we view “news readers,” we begin to see the importance of addressing issues of race, gender, and sexuality without implying that news anchors are willing agents of hegemony; we thereby can create space for understanding marginalized journalists as possible active agents of change. As we will see in Chapter 4, while there is an overwhelming number of White male news anchors compared to news anchors of color—especially Black news anchors—there is no homogeneous “news reader.” The chapters ahead bring race, gender, and sexuality to the forefront, painting a very different view of the television news media and ongoing struggle to include marginalized perspectives.

Hegemony may operate through a complex web of social activities and institutional procedures, while highlighting the difficulties of resistance (Gitlin 1980), but it is also fragile in any political context and thus open space for counter-hegemonic tendencies (Williams 1985). In examining the construction of race, gender, and sexuality within newsroom culture, we begin to see the complex web of professionalizing, branding, marketing, and reinforcing the rules of engagement that produces, circulates, and enacts a particular genre of human in which fixed notions of “Blackness” persist. Strategies and tactics are used to combat the cookie-cutter culture of “the media” that seeks to render invisible the parts of journalists that do not fit within the boundaries and branding of the news organization. We cannot assume that journalists have similar views of the world, as is Gans’s

argument, or that journalists are heavily influenced and guided by a similarity of views through socialization, as Gitlin suggests.26 A closer look into the subtleties of constructing a particular image using makeup, clothing, voice, and tone and the setting up of work shift and demographic boundaries to create a televisual racial segregation, as well as examining forms of resistance to these and other constraints debunks the widely held notion of the media as a monolithic corporate entity. Opposition clearly demonstrates the ways in which individual journalists working in “the media” need not be of “the media” in service to “the political and economic elite definitions of reality” (Gitlin 1980). Black journalists, while small in number, serve an important function in a democracy and make up a large contingent of individuals confronting a pattern and practice of professionalizing, branding, marketing, and reinforcing rules of engagement that promote static notions of “Blackness”—indeed the human—that threaten journalistic integrity.

There are numerous scholarly works that rightfully and artfully point to the need for media reform. The film, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdock’s War on Journalism, produced and directed by Robert Greenwald, discusses how Roger Ailes, Fox News CEO and Chairman, helped the Fox News Channel push Rupert Murdoch’s political agenda in a more sophisticated way. Policing the political views of Fox News employees both on and off air, sending internal memos on issues deemed important to Murdoch’s political agenda including judicial nominations during the Bush era and the 9/11 Commission meetings, diverting attention to the content of speeches of potential Democratic hopefuls for the Presidency, insisting on calling U.S. Marines “sharpshooters” instead of “snipers,” and using managing editors (like Moody) and others to disseminate Murdoch’s demands, was what Ailes called a restoration of objectivity in the news.27 Strategies of containment also include manipulation of graphics, music, catch phrases (for example, “some people say”) associated with practices of objectivity to mask opinions about the world according to Rupert Murdoch. Both the film and Robert W. McChesney’s book, Rich Media Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times adeptly provides substantial evidence of the importance of citizens pushing for media reform if we are to reconcile claims of a sustainable North American Democracy with actions toward realizing its potential. However, McChesney’s premise that “editors and reporters … tend to be more conservative and probusiness than the balance of the population on issues of taxation, trade policy, corporate power, and government spending priorities”28 is overlooking the experiences and perspectives of individual journalists working from the

margins of television newsrooms across the country. While media reform is a key component to becoming the Democracy our U.S. Presidents past and present have promised, the book foregrounds the marginalized perspectives of Black journalists and shows the actions taken by minority journalism organizations against the system as an instrument of domination.

My study on Black journalists does, however, provide a critical interdisciplinary bridge to McChesney’s book in his discussion of market concentration and conglomeration as “necessary for profitability” but not something that assures it (27). McChesney correctly points out that the U.S. media represents the interests of corporate America, yet “in the eyes of investors, the main problem with the existing media system is that there is too much competition” (27). The book acknowledges the challenges while foregrounding how Black journalists meet the challenges that are symptomatic of an “oligopolistic market structure and overlapping ownership” (28) with primary focus on media prosperity. In arguing for the contentiousness of media power, the book does not suggest that the media system’s influence is exaggerated (295); it does, however, argue that the system is not beyond compromise and significant change, especially considering the ongoing drop in ratings and revenue as individuals meet their needs through alternative sources for news and information. Furthermore, marginalized journalists and journalism organizations identify tactical moments and strategies against the hegemonic system, utilizing the tools at hand: overt, covert, organized, unorganized, and other forms of resistance. Such a stance builds a critical interdisciplinary bridge to the very real challenges McChesney examines.

Pamela Newkirk’s book, Within the Veil, exposes racism in White- dominated newspapers and the response of the Black press to racism in the newspaper business and other alternative media. Newkirk’s book serves as a useful point of departure for discussing the ways in which racism, sexism, and homophobia create hostile work environments for Black journalists in the mainstream television news industry. Newkirk’s book is also a point of departure for examining how journalists struggle against the obstacles presented by hostile work environments and the ways in which they use strategy and tactics to include diverse perspectives in their stories, develop their own complicated identities as Black journalists, and rethink the notion of objectivity. This notion currently tends to exclude perspectives outside the norm in the news industry and often acts as an instrument of hegemony— questioning some journalists’ ability to maintain objectivity while trusting journalists who subscribe to the dominant culture order. What this looks like on the ground will be explored in Chapter 5. The ways in which Newkirk

describes the “high wire act across a pool of sharks” (159) in the newspaper business may well be said of the television news industry, particularly within television newsroom culture. Given an image-conscious television news industry, much of the book delves into the skirmishes, strategic and tactical moves, and outright battles over how some management choose to reconcile “Blackness” with the network brand of professionalism, objectivity, and journalistic ability. Newkirk’s book primarily focuses on the newspaper industry and offers insight into the early challenges of Black journalists in television news.29

The Myth of Post-Racialism in Television News builds on Newkirk’s work and explores the condition of Black journalists rendered invisible by newsroom hierarchy while engaging strategies and tactics under the radar, or as Newkirk suggests, “within the veil.” This book discusses the different challenges in television news and how racism operates in a seemingly glamorous image-conscious industry founded on the notion of objectivity and operating under the assumption of post-racialism. Several chapters address how Black journalists navigate the undercurrents of inherent racism within television newsroom culture. The ways in which Black journalists negotiate their race, gender, and sexuality in the newsroom, in their stories, and upon their bodies challenge the notion of an all-powerful media.

Newkirk discusses challenges to racism in the newspaper industry and suggests the need for “some kind of epiphany” (2000, 13) for journalists to consider their White privilege, “racial honesty” (2000, 16), and a dismantling of the newsroom hierarchy as ways of confronting racism in the news media. Building on Newkirk’s grim reminder of the high price the nation has already paid, the book shows how journalists meet the challenges of racism and news media power by foregrounding subtle forms of resistance that Black journalists take up. Behind-the-scenes battles and struggles over representations of “Blackness” continue to pave the way toward racial progress and inclusiveness of diverse perspectives. The following chapters use ethnographic methods to uncover strategies and tactics Black journalists working in the major network affiliate stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN) employ while negotiating selfhood. Black journalists’ experience in television news continues to demonstrate news media power as contentious. Such contentiousness does not rely on White journalists’ enlightenment via honesty, epiphany, or a total dismantling of the newsroom hierarchy. The subtle forms of resistance30 to newsroom hegemony and the strategies and tactics Black journalists use are tracked to bring a better understanding of their collective experience as raced, gendered, sexualized subjectivities.

In Dispatches from the Color Line, Catherine Squires presents a strong argument that “Dominant newsgathering routines privilege the opinions of government officials, think tanks, and academics” (Squires 2007, 81) and may give the impression of an all-powerful monolithic media at work. Squires’s argument provides a useful point of departure in showing how journalists intervene in the routinized tasks. Todd Gitlin also suggests that there are routines that as a matter of course bind journalists to the agenda of the power structure and “serve the political and economic elite definitions of reality” (Gitlin 1980, 12) in their reporting. Squires adds to that discussion the institutional definitions of “Blackness,” the ways in which individuals identify with various categories of race, how the Census manages and maintains hierarchies of race, and how such definitions operate in media coverage of statistics and African American experiences (Squires 2007, 137). Black journalists bring diverse perspectives to the table that Squires argues are creating a platform for the present (Squires 2007, 129). The platform however may be disrupted given the tension between the diverse perspectives that Black journalists have on offer. Chapters 2, 4, and 5 of this book discuss diverse perspectives in the stories and self-images of Black journalists and unmask the fallacy of post- racialism. The upcoming chapters also reveal how the networks brand Whiteness onto the bodies of Black journalists, hierarchize race categories, and attempt to silence voices of difference while appearing diverse. In addition, Squires’s insight into a color-based caste system operating through the structure of the United States Census (Squires 2007, Chapter 5) and articles in the Black, Asian, and dominant press grappling with the issue, works well with the theories in all of the chapters of this book, particularly chapters 1 and 2, discussing the construction of a palatable Blackness and the marketing and branding of Blackness in television news.

In News for All of the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media, Juan González and Joseph Torres pay close attention to activism against the racially oppressive news industry and its growth during the 1980s and early 1990s. González and Torres point to macro-level organized responses of journalists of color in an industry of “opinion makers” (González and Torres 2011, 323) that proved hostile to diversity in the newsroom. González and Torres’ chronicle (González and Torres 2011, 302–309) of how professional organizations formed, racial discrimination lawsuits were filed, and Congress and the Federal Courts were convinced to end media consolidation brings a better understanding of public, overt, and collective resistance (Steve Pile 1997, 12).

The Myth of Post-Racialism in Television News uncovers what day-to-

day struggle means on a micro level of covert and/or personal forms of resistance, which are considered invisible (Steve Pile 1997, 12). This approach sheds light on how marginalized journalists feel about working in a racially biased news media industry while engaging strategies and tactics to disrupt the status quo of newsroom culture.

My study of Black journalists builds on the work of Jane Rhodes, Catherine Squires, Shah and Thornton, Entman and Rojecki, Pritchard and Stonebely, and Marian Meyers. In Framing the Black Panthers, Jane Rhodes (2007) discusses the ways in which the “elite national media failed in their explanatory role,” of American race relations as witnessed in the increased distorted coverage of the Black Panther Party. Rhodes discusses the disturbing trend of “new journalism,” which misrepresented the Black Panther Party and reinforced stereotypes of Blackness. The agentive power of Black journalists goes against the grain of the “new journalism” that misrepresented and reinforced stereotypes of Blackness. The marginalizing of Black journalists in the news industry is beyond the scope of Rhodes’s discussion of the elite national media’s framing of Blackness. . The race- based hierarchizing in the news business means that Black journalists are the least likely to be offered opportunities for advancement. The book argues against the notion that the elite national media is a monolithic group with the same agenda. I expand upon Rhodes’s noteworthy discussion of how Blackness is framed by the media.

The structure of racial hierarchies in the news business reflects the classificatory schemes of value and legitimacy. As Hemant Shah and Michael C. Thornton note, “racial hierarchy tends to classify non-White groups into gradations based on stereotyped characteristics. Racial hierarchy also implies that the culture and sensibilities of non-Whites higher in the hierarchy are superior and more valuable than those viewed as lower in the hierarchy” (Shah and Thornton 2004, 17). Shah and Thornton’s study of representation in newspaper coverage of interethnic conflict and competing visions of America suggests as Squires does that journalists and their “journalistic routines” are consciously and unconsciously in service of hegemony. Shah and Thornton also point out the ways in which hegemony is supported in the general circulation press and challenged by the ethnic minority publications in the United States. While they examine how hegemony operates in newspaper coverage, this book complicates our understanding of how hegemony operates in mainstream television news media. The book also shows how marginalized journalists—particularly Black journalists, translate and carry out journalistic routines involving conceptions, assumptions, and definitions of the “normal and the desirable”

differently than White journalists. Black journalists usually swap stories at journalism conferences about White management or colleagues whose journalistic routines were considered problematic and racist. Such conversations are usually followed up with how they devised strategies and tactics around the journalistic routines that Shah and Thornton rightly point out are operating in the general circulation press (and I would add the television news media). In other words, the competing visions of America and ensuing struggles around those visions are happening within television newsrooms across the country, more heightened within mainstream media where the stakes are higher for Black journalists. Embattled journalists working in mainstream television news media serve an indispensable role for voicing alternative racial ideology and competing visions of America, just as Shah and Thornton suggest is the case for ethnic minority newspapers as largely counterhegemonic components within the racial formation process (Shah and Thornton 2004, 237).

Entman & Rojecki’s, The Black Image in the White Mind, explores news and entertainment to shed light on some of the disturbing recurring representational themes of Blackness. In their observations of the news media, Entman & Rojecki mainly focus on fixed notions of Blackness in how news is reported and structured. They found that the “broad patterns of roles assigned to Blacks fall into a limited range, mainly crime and sports …” and the “racial patterns in the range of experts that appear on newscasts to offer their authoritative and persuasive views …” (8–9) are rarely Black. They also point out that the negative symbolic associations of the word “Black” does not conjure a positive image of Black individuals in the White mind, which Entman & Rojecki argue is a “causal agent” (2–3) of negative symbolic associations shaping and reshaping the culture. My book is in conversation with Entman & Rojecki’s work in its consideration of the role of Black journalists and agency, for example, professionalizing practices promoting notions of Whiteness as the standard, constructing a palatable “Blackness” under the terms and conditions of Whiteness, racial hierarchies within newsroom culture in shaping our racialized worldview, and how Black journalists meet these challenges. Such critical analysis of the news media is not covered by Entman & Rojecki’s extensive and well thought out analysis of news and entertainment.

In African American Women in the News, Marian Meyers provides a remarkable analysis of how traditional media and YouTube clips rendered First Lady Michelle Obama the quintessential “Powerful Black Bitch” (49). Meyers cites Fox News, The New Yorker magazine, and YouTube clips as the means through which individuals and news organizations attempted to

define the nation’s first African American First Lady in a process of demonization. Such recurring representations of Michelle Obama, Meyers argues, offers a lens through which we may begin to understand race-gender stereotypes of African American women as unworthy of access to economic, political, and social power. Meyers’ rich assessment of traditional news, publications targeting African Americans, and YouTube clips of Michelle Obama offers insight into North America’s fascination with measuring African American women to the dominant culture definition of womanhood. Indeed, Meyers’ discussion of Michelle Obama is a point of departure in chapters 1 and 6 of The Myth of Post-Racialism in Television News in my analysis of beauty standards of Black women broadcasters. These chapters pay particular attention to Black journalists and how they meet the challenges of covering the Obamas while confronting depictions of them as both symbols of progress and threat to the nation’s sustainability. While Meyers offers a much-needed discussion of the ways in which Michelle Obama has been subjected to the myths about Black women, my chapter 6 provides an analysis of racist and sexist depictions of the Obamas in new media form and uses interviews with Black television news anchors and reporters to better understand how discourse of the overall significance of the Obama phenomena facilitates a remix of blatantly racist imagery and domestic terrorism under the guise of objective news and information and debates about “alternative meaning.”

Pritchard & Stonebely’s “Racial Profiling in the Newsroom” offers content analysis and documents a form of racial profiling in daily newspapers that reveal a pattern and practice of assigning African American reporters stories about minority issues, while White reporters write stories mostly about government and business. In their discussion of racial profiling in the newsroom in terms of story assignment disparities between Black and White journalists, Pritchard & Stonebely focus primarily on and that “journalists of color are disproportionately assigned to cover minority issues, while White reporters cover the White-dominated arenas of government and business in which decisions are made about distribution of power and resources” (Pritchard & Stonebely 2007). The Myth of Post- Racialism in Television News interrogates the sincerity of newsroom diversity claims in all of the chapters particularly chapter 5 on the politics of race, gender, and sexuality in newsroom culture. While Pritchard & Stonebely’s study of journalists of color being pigeonholed into stories about minorities, chapters 3 and 4 of my book interrogate how Black journalists are placed spatially in the newsroom and newscast and geographically in particular media markets. I also address the growing

concern among LGBQ and/or Black journalists being passed over to cover the issue of Gay marriage or the Election and Reelection of the first Black President of the United States—calling into question their ability to remain objective. As Pritchard & Stonebely so aptly argue, “patterns of coverage” and “decisions that match reporters to story topics based … in part on racial criteria” serve to reinforce privileges of Whiteness and relegate people of color to the margins (Pritchard & Stonebely 2007, 233), also become driving forces suggesting a monolithic media exists.

Jeff Chester, the Executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy, says “What makes Murdoch particularly dangerous is that he’s foremost a politician and he will use his immense media power to shape the content and especially the news that furthers his interest and those of his allies, including the conservative Republican community. After all, Fox News is nothing more than a 24/7 political ad for the GOP.”31 Given the mounting evidence supporting Chester’s statement, it is understandable that the media may be seen by some as monolithic and all-powerful. Black journalists channel concerns over intense scrutiny and being measured by a different standard of objectivity in a variety of ways. Such concerns are outside the scope of media literature concerned with tracking news media oligopolies. My study on Black journalism bridges to other media literature covering the problematics of oligopolies.

In asserting that the monolithic media is a myth is not to say that media scholars and news media audiences are oblivious to the myth, but the reiteration is meant to call attention to the barrage of messages to the contrary. Media discourse and Media Studies scholarly works that point to American media as “a significant antidemocratic force” (McChesney 1999, 2), an “agenda setting media” aimed at “thought control” (Chomsky 1992), and cartel-like monopolistic media power manufacturing our social and political world (Bagdikian 2004, 4–9) are challenging obstacles to the inclusion of diverse perspectives. The challenges of sustaining an inclusive free press do not limit us to accommodation, resigned acquiestence, despondency, social implosion (Hackett and Carroll 2006, 143) or participatory thought control on the part of journalists. While Chomsky, Bagdikian, and Hackett and Carroll reveal recognizable and evidentiary truths about the structure of the news industry that consumers of news media may infer is the product of a monolithic media at work, I uncover the subtle forms of resistance aimed at a preemptive strike against the idea of the media as monolithic and all-powerful. Such a move allows us to rethink domination and oppression in terms of powerlessness and lack of agency. Furthermore, “the hegemony of whiteness” (Pritchard & Stonebely 2007,

244) in the process of news gathering, raises concerns of journalists who consider the role of Whiteness in news coverage and struggle daily to include different perspectives. Stuart Hall’s discussion (1997) of meaning and absence resonates with Black journalists who understand that “absence means something” and “signifies as much as presence.” One of the interview participants in the book, who was about to introduce the judges of the Pulitzer Prizes, stood there stunned by the “sea of … a hundred people” all of whom were “White men.” For “Ed,” a television journalist who chose to remain anonymous, the stark absence of Black journalists made him realize that “Black journalists have come a long way but are still underrepresented,” which makes the responsibility he feels in finding ways to include the perspectives of underrepresented individuals all the greater. Despite the sea of White men in the audience of media managers, Ed never expressed feeling powerless; he did, however, speak extensively about the strategies he uses to weather if not overcome the obstacles.

Black journalists have historically devised strategies around systems of oppression, and the news media industry is no different. Jinx Coleman Broussard says that William Worthy Jr., a Black journalist who was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, slipped into China along its border at Lo Wu, defying a government travel ban to the communist country. Worthy criticized what he considered the establishment media’s complicity with the government in excluding reporting about world events that was vital to an informed public (Broussard 2013, 159). He found a way around the power structure and filed stories to the Afro-American newspaper chain and CBS News from mainland China (Broussard 2013, 156) despite the major obstacles that the McCarran Internal Securities Act of 1950 created. In Black Journalists, The NABJ Story, Wayne Dawkins recalls the hostile treatment of Black reporters by the Black community because of how the Tawana Brawley case was covered. Brawley was a Black teenage girl who claimed she was raped by six White men and dumped in the woods. Lawyers C. Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox and Reverend Al Sharpton “retaliated against black reporters who did not buy the racist-white-cops- did-it story without evidence. Tension between the black community and black journalists peaked when Maddox, Mason and Sharpton denounced black Newsday reporters from the pulpit in a crowded Brooklyn church” and ordered security to remove Newsday reporters—eight other journalists picked up their notebooks and cameras and left the church (Dawkins 1997, 193–94). This provides useful insight to highlight the experiences of Black journalists who are “tired of being referred to as ‘Rent-a-Toms’” (Dawkins 1997, 194) and implicated in reinforcing stereotypes of African Americans

when they are on the job. The recent surge in Black pundits and political analysts on cable news

like Melissa Harris Perry and Roland Martin are examples of individuals who waited for the right time to seize an opportunity. While examinations of print media are outside the scope of the book, the multitude of ways in which “Blackness” is experienced and covered in the news media offers insight into the challenges of Black journalists with a multiplicity of media options toward career mobility. Part of the contentiousness of power in corporate television news comes from Black journalists who understand that there are options that may serve as a holding pattern until better job opportunities are presented.

Equally noteworthy are the online media publications that target a Black audience like, The Root and Ebony. While mainstream media like CNN.com and other news organizations cover issues of race and gender, alternative media outlets have been known to report more extensively on these issues and offer more journalistic license in reports concerning Black communities across the United States. Richard Prince’s reporting of Meteorologist Rhonda Lee’s firing from the ABC affiliate in Shreveport, Louisiana, for responding “to a racial remark posted by a viewer on the station’s Facebook page … questioning whether she should wear her short Afro, suggesting she put on a wig or grown more hair” (Prince 2012, December 12), Paul Delaney’s focus on “The Disappearing Black News Professional” (Delaney 2011, December 23), and Ravi K. Perry’s article entitled, “Love is Love: A Kappa Man Speaks on the Viral Video ‘Controversy’” (Perry 2012, October 12) about Black fraternity brothers getting married, are just a few examples of the difference in style and content in reporting for Black-oriented and owned news media. Worthy, Prince, Delaney, Perry, and others have more freedom and flexibility in offering different perspectives. Such an approach to reporting reveals the diversity within Black communities across the U.S. Black-oriented and owned news media open new possibilities for audiences whose needs are not being met through mainstream news media and for embattled journalists. T.J. Holmes, Soledad O’Brien, and Roland Martin are just a few examples of Black journalists who have not had contracts renewed with CNN. O’Brien went to Al Jazeera America TV as a special correspondent, T.J. Holmes went to BET to host a late night news-satire series, then left BET and is currently weighing other options with interested news networks, and Martin took his skills to TV One as host of the NewsOne Now show with the slogan “Our news, our way.” Roland Martin has been very vocal about the fact that he hosted highly rated specials for CNN and says that race has a lot

http://CNN.com

to do with why he was not rewarded with his own show. In order to unmask what goes on behind the scenes of television news and

the contentiousness of power, I use a variety of methods to show the ways in which journalists negotiate race, gender, and sexuality on the job through covert, overt, unintentional, and/or personal forms of resistance (Pile 1997). Gitlin’s discussion of “disruptive moments” to the routines of journalism is a point of departure in examining how journalists produce and coordinate sustainable disruptive moments individually and collectively. Herman Gray and Darnell Hunt offer a critical analysis of disruptive moments in terms of raced-gendered subjectivities in commercial television (Gray 1995) and television news audience perception of the L.A. Riots (Hunt 1997) that provide useful tools in chapter 2 of this book for a better understanding of how journalists mobilize on disruptive moments in the everyday struggle.

Commercial cultures as both a resource and a site in which “Blackness” as a cultural sign is produced, circulated, and enacted reveal how power dynamics within the cultural arena move people: enlist and position them in different political and social configurations (Gray 1995, 2, emphasis mine). Black journalists may have a foot in the door of television news, but the socio-political configurations of newsroom culture work to deny a seat at the table of decision making. In other words, what and who gets included in the newscast is a matter of strategy and tactical moves employed by marginalized journalists. Chapter 6 focuses more intensely on the explosion of new media as a resource and site of news coverage and representation that inform, influence, and incite counter-cultural moves from within the newsroom.

I focus extensively on the enactment of “Blackness” on the body, systems of reward and punishment, and the news report itself. “Raced ways of seeing”32 the inner workings of the television newsroom and industry adds critical insight into knowledge based on perception and experience. Since garnering a job in television news is difficult at best, and Black journalists are for the most part placed in the margins of the newsroom (see chapter 3), it is understood that as members of the media they are expected to uphold the notion of objectivity that places certain constraints on how they engage in issues of race, gender, and sexuality and particularly how they are impacted personally. Many of the journalists interviewed and observed were uncomfortable discussing these issues as they relate to them and their careers. Hunt’s “raced ways of seeing” became a useful tool of analysis in deciphering whether the journalists observed and interviewed identify with the newsroom culture of Whiteness and heteronormativity, perspectives against the dominant culture order, or a combination of both depending on

the context and their positionality using pronouns of solidarity revealed in language (Hall 1997) as guideposts. This approach provides an invaluable understanding of how journalists situate themselves at any given moment, engage in forms of resistance, negotiate selfhood in the face of objectivity, and strategically and tactically navigate the contentiousness of power.

Much is owed to the work of Franz Fanon in shedding light upon deeper meanings of struggle and relations of power that take into account forms of violence beyond physical force intended to hurt, damage, or physically kill someone. Ralph Ellison’s “inner eyes,”33 Toni Morrison’s “bluest eye,”34

Zora Neale Hurston’s “transmitted memory,”35 and Fanon’s “psychic and symbolic violence”36 are all concepts of rupture to which metaphysical violence and struggle across space and time as a feature of reality beyond the physical world exists. The extraordinary feat of navigating the psychic and symbolic violence of institutionalized racism within corporate newsroom culture makes Black journalists truly remarkable and the lack of scholarship in this area unsettling. Paving the way to collective catharsis37

in newsroom culture finds expression through enforcement practices of aggression and subjugation where hair and tongue are mutilated and reconstructed, Black journalists are held to a higher standard, placed in the least desirable markets, shifts, and positions, their scripts and story ideas are heavily scrutinized and policed, and objectivity relies on prescriptions of colorblindness, Americanness, and heteronormativity. All of these practices of psychic and symbolic violence become an outward show of visibility to the viewing audience and the world that diversity is alive and well within U.S. newsrooms. The connotation of difference and diversity attempts to blur the fact that journalists of color and Black journalists who identify as heterosexual or LGBTQ in particular are relegated to the margins in higher numbers (chapter 5), thereby shaping our worldview in terms of Whiteness—the standard of legitimacy and validity in the television news business. Black journalists are often placed in positions that feed North America’s collective catharsis in the form of promotions of marginality38

that denies Black journalists the primetime positions at top network affiliates, placing them instead within the BET network which targets Black audiences and has been the subject of much controversy over its thematization of “Blackness.”39

Formerly the Black weekend anchor with CNN, T.J. Holmes garnered high ratings and was poised for the primetime slot as CNN’s weekday anchor but was passed up. After leaving for better opportunities, Holmes found it amazing that he could be on CNN for 5 years but already be a

“trending topic” after being on BET (Black Entertainment Television) only 60 seconds40 as the late night show host. It is difficult to become a “trending topic” when marginalized journalists are relegated to positions other than primetime, getting consistently less exposure than White colleagues. CNN management is still wondering why ratings for the month of May 2012, hit a 20 year low41 for primetime slots reserved for White men—Piers Morgan and Anderson Cooper. This latest move speaks to a much larger problem in terms of Black mobility in television news. While T.J. Holmes for example had to jump the CNN ship toward the promise of upward career mobility with BET and his role at BET provides more visibility, it becomes a visibility that marks Holmes as different from his former colleagues Piers Morgan and Anderson Cooper who dominate primetime news. After his contract was not renewed with CNN, T.J. Holmes had high hopes for better opportunities in voicing concerns of marginalized communities. Holmes’s vision of using news and satire to inform the BET audience of issues concerning Black communities was not fully realized after the shuffling of his show to another time slot. Headlines such as “BET Introduces T.J. Holmes’ New Comedy Slanted Nightly News Show”42 and comments stating that BET needs news, not another comedy show43 expose the racism of the television news business.

In I See Black People: The Rise and Fall of African American Owned Television and Radio, Kristal Brent Zook (2008) discusses the “troubling perceptions about what African American audiences want,”44 whether it is what Zook refers to as “gum-smacking, jive-talking sitcoms”45 or just more of the same programming we see at stations like BET with T.J. Holmes’ “New Comedy Slanted Nightly News Show.” Rebecca Wanzo’s The Suffering Will Not Be Televised: African American Women and Sentimental Political Storytelling (2009) poignantly argues that cultural practices of rendering Black women’s suffering illegible clearly shows “this media devaluation of black bodies.”46 The “suffering hierarchies” that are observable in television, whether in news, sitcoms, or another genre of television, underscore the importance of minority journalist organizations and individual journalist action against newsroom culture that renders invisible the daily struggle over representation of “Blackness.” The book foregrounds the ways in which Black journalists are peeling back the lies of Post-racialism parading as a mask of colorblindness and neutrality. How does it feel to be journalist while Black in the era of Post-racialism?

T.J. Holmes made it clear at the National Association of Black Journalists convention that claims of diversity in the news business are a

joke—referring to his position at CNN as the “weekend ghetto”47 to which Black television anchors are consigned. One of the leading online sources of news and commentary from an “African-American perspective” entitled, “The Root” reported on Holmes’ comment saying that Don Lemon and Fredricka Whitfield are also anchoring weekends at the network and the pattern is not just at CNN.48

No one can deny that there are Black journalists who have been promoted, but to what extent, under what conditions, and how they are being promoted are questions that warrant interrogation. Strategically placing and displacing Black mobility in dominant imaginings disassociates the powers that be from accusations of racism, sexism, homophobia, and inequality and shifts the blame of any lack of career progress squarely upon the shoulders of Black journalists. Many of them are in constant struggle and bypassed for promotions and other rewards in their career. Indeed, marginal Black visibility is not enough to legitimize claims of diversity in television news and does psychic and symbolic violence to Black individuals as perpetual signifiers of intellectual deficiency and illegitimacy while using marginal Black visibility to contribute to the collective catharsis of the nation.

Career mobility for Black journalists is complicated at best. Chapters 3 and 4 examine the ways in which the human has been and continues to be “territorialized” (Wynter 2006). Black journalists struggle against territorializing strategies and employ forms of resistance toward a sustainable journalism praxis inclusive of perspectives outside the mainstream grid of intelligibility. According to U.S. Census data, America is not the America being promoted and represented in mainstream media today. Today’s African Diaspora journalism praxis takes into account that the Whitewashed facade of North American news and information of yesteryear is no longer relevant to an audience that is quickly becoming the majority.49 While White heterosexual men who make up the majority of news management and The Commission on Presidential Debates are scratching their heads repeatedly attempting to put a square peg in a round hole, North Americans are tuning out in large numbers and finding alternatives for news and information that better meet their needs. Meanwhile the National Association of Black Journalists is publicly confronting The Commission on Presidential Debates on their treatment of journalists of color as “invisible, unqualified, or both” when “There is no absence of qualified journalists of color, or those with experience as debate moderators, such as NABJ Hall of Fame member Gwen Ifill, of PBS.”50

News management and owners’ attempt at playing catchup means

choosing a woman for the first time in 20 years to moderate the presidential debate. It is no wonder Carole Simpson—a Black journalist who was the last woman to hold such an esteemed position back in 1992—felt the need to offer advice to Candy Crowley, a White woman tapped to moderate the 2012 presidential debate. The advice Simpson offered Crowley came out of an experience of criticism unique to her position as a woman that no “man has gone through.”51 Television news is branded and promoted as authentic “reality TV” by its claim to keep its audience “in-the-know” of important news and information of the day. Unfortunately, the bottom line of higher ratings and revenue suffers as news executives continue to operate on the false premise of serving an imaginary all-White male heterosexual “audience” rather than being open to the reality of an ever-increasing diverse North American audience that cannot trust mainstream media to inform understandings of the world in which we live. The social development of an individual and/or group that, when examined in terms of our present order of knowledge, its art, and its aesthetic reveals the territorialization of the human or the “monopoly of humanity” (Wynter 2006, 114). Mainstream media is the sinking ship trying to hold on to its monopoly of humanity and attempting to stay relevant using Carole Simpson, Candy Crowley, bloggers, iReporters, and other clever tactics as life rafts.

One of the deeply rooted phenomena of territorializing the human is in defining the “regime of truth” (Trinh 1989, 123) televisually. The monopoly of humanity continues to leave its mark in the form of voice coaches to “correct” speech patterns outside the White Midwestern speech pattern, rewards such as promotions for Asian Americans who undergo cosmetic surgery to widen their eyes, White women feeling pressured to “go blonde,” or Black journalists straightening their hair or lightening their skin to get a chance at a top anchor position, which all speak to the psychic and symbolic violence (Fanon 1967) of territorializing the human (Wynter 2006) particularly in branding and placing “Blackness.” With the cover of anonymity, many Black journalists reveal in depth how they utilize their agency to resist the challenges they face in television news.

Uncovering the daily inequities Black journalists experience means looking beyond surface signifiers of professional upward mobility. Finding a way to bring voice to the silences induced by intense surveillance, cut- throat competition among colleagues, job instability, and contractual gag orders to name a few of the deterrents and/or fear about speaking one’s mind concerning the condition of being a journalist while Black is an exercise in agency and resistance. Journalists’ perseverance speaks to the contingency of the “media powerful” approach that some media scholars

take up (Gitlin 1980, 2001; Bourdieu 1996; Caldwell 1995; Fiske 1987; Corry 1986; Gans 1979). Taken together, the literature of Ralph Ellison that addresses his main character’s invisibility, Toni Morrison’s main character’s struggle with feeling disappeared in The Bluest Eye, and Frantz Fanon’s discussion of the Black subject and imposed amputation all address the pain of living a double consciousness that bears the added historical psychic weight of transmitted memory (Zora Neale Hurston 1942, 229). Such an approach to uncovering the depths of multiple oppression brings a better understanding of what struggle means as a condition of dwelling in what Audre Lorde calls the “House of Difference.”52

In most of the chapters, particularly chapters 1 and 2, fiction and non- fiction literature is especially useful in making sense of how Black journalists process their circumstances, as well as how they choose to respond to the institutional constraints they face. For instance, Ralph Ellison’s “inner eyes” and invisibility speak to the schizophrenia of having to orient the eyes with a White male heteronormative worldview. The inner eyes guide us to what the dominant culture deems normative; the inner eyes are our guide posts toward performing the human on “Man’s” terms. Orienting the eyes also means understanding and navigating one’s own invisibility—in a process of hoodwinking, bamboozling, and leading astray the powers that be who render Black subjectivities invisible and subscribe to the stereotype. The narrator of Ellison’s Invisible Man (1947) says, “to be unaware of one’s form is to live a death” and to “become alive” one must discover one’s invisibility. The process of discovery may also mean orienting the eyes to “live to fight another day”53—understanding and being strategic about when, where, and how to use one’s invisibility to one’s advantage. The ability to see the power that invisibility may offer at strategic moments can mean the difference between surviving and thriving in the career of a broadcast journalist. Veteran Black journalists possess “the sense of looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (DuBois 1969, 45) and understand the importance of engaging strategy and tactic to stay in the television news industry. The strategy of “orienting the eyes” (Ellison 1947), becoming aware of one’s double consciousness, is a critical initial step in surviving and thriving despite the everydayness of struggle over representations of “Blackness,” the professionalizing process, and the ways in which their bodies and stories are continually branded and placed in an attempt to control Black mobility.

The value placed in the presentation of self including how journalists speak, how they choose to dress, and how their hair is styled and textured

are all factors that help determine job security and mobility in television news. In an image-conscious industry, Black wo/men in television who straighten their hair are well aware of how individual choices in style and dress are shaped by the dominant culture order of acceptability, professionalism, and beauty. The recent firing of KTBS Meteorologist Rhonda S. Lee reminds Black journalists of just how dangerous it is to challenge a news director over something as simple as hair. The inner eyes inform journalists of the peculiar policing of “Blackness” and what is at stake in the pervasiveness of racism and “simultaneous oppressions”54 as expressed in language (Hall 1997) including news copy/script, audio-visual issues, and the body.

Likewise, Toni Morrison’s Bluest Eye shows the tragedy of being subjected to a standard of the human that at the same time rewards, dehumanizes, and denies one’s self identity. Such denial is explored through Morrison’s character, Claudia, who said that she hated Shirley Temple because “The[ir] entire world told them that Shirley Temple was something worthy of adoration, acknowledgement, desire … for she held something ‘precious. …’” Morrison beautifully describes the deep resentment and dehumanization an imposed White standard of beauty has on generations of Black women through Claudia’s reaction to being given the “blue-eyed Baby Doll” for Christmas. “From the clucking sounds of adults she knew that the doll represented what they thought was her fondest wish, but she had only one desire: to dismember it” so that she could see of what it was made, “to discover the dearness, to find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped only her” (italics emphasis mine). She hates white baby dolls but later learns to worship the little White girls the baby dolls represent, knowing, even as she learns that “the change was adjustment without improvement” (Morrison 1970, 12). As she gets older, Claudia pays close attention to her “inner eyes” (Ellison 1947, 3–4), making her keenly aware of a palatable “Blackness” enforced by society’s socio-economic system of reward and punishment. Morrison’s narrator tells us:

They straighten their hair with Dixie Peach … They fight this battle all the way to the grave. The laugh that is a little too loud; the enunciation a little too round; the gesture a little too generous. They hold their behind in for fear of a sway too free; when they wear lipstick, they never cover the entire mouth for fear of lips too thick, and they worry, worry, worry about the edges of their hair.

(Morrison 1970, 68)

Morrison’s discussion of race and denial of the self is the terrain and condition of living while Black that the characters in the novel must navigate. The lived realities and corporeal constraints of the novel’s characters (particularly Claudia’s daughter, Pecola Breedlove, who has a deep desire for blue eyes that she believes will afford her human recognition) speak to some of the experiences of Black journalists who undergo more intense scrutiny of palatability under the microscope of management’s use of image consultants and talent agents. Policing Black journalists’ language (Hall 1997, 3–4) of self-identity that is understood within and beyond the domains of popular culture is a major site of struggle. No one escapes the scale of palatability least of all Black wo/men—Black men are scrutinized and punished for wearing a goatee and/or embracing a speech pattern other than the standard White Midwest speech pattern that cultural capital affords. Blatant disregard for linguistic cultural capital practices in privileged spaces such as television news tends to be seen as unprofessional and is more acceptable in prescribed spaces of the newscast, such as the sports segment. Modes of being exercised outside the dominant culture order must at times subscribe to epistemologies marked “other” and therefore delegitimized. Tools long forgotten, remembered, devalued, and considered primitive by the powers that be are excavated and used in some of the chapters through the lens of Ralph Ellison, W.E.B. DuBois, Frantz Fanon, and Zora Neale Hurston to uncover that which is in plain sight yet muted, bound, gagged, blinded, and therefore unreachable using the analytical tools of so-called modernity.

In foregrounding the simultaneity of past, present, and future, Zora Neale Hurston’s concept of transmitted memory (Hurston 1942) allows for more expansive ways of thinking about forms of resistance to what seems a compelling force of image consultants, talent agents, news directors, and the fear surrounding body image and hair particularly when linked to “Blackness.” Here is where Ellison’s and Morrison’s works of fiction are used to shed light on forms of resistance exercised by journalists. There are also spaces in the interview transcript that seemed to stand silent on issues of race, gender, and sexuality until concepts from Ellison’s and Morrison’s works were used to open space for understanding the volumes spoken in the ways in which journalists resist dominant newsroom cultural practices. Such resistance comes in the form of journalists’ using their inner eyes as guideposts of understanding what is desired in terms of image, dominant cultural expression, and practice to clearly identify tactical moments of opportunity for getting around the system, progressing, and undermining newsroom hierarchy. Media management logics of demographics that

determine when and where in the United States “Blackness” is acceptable in the promotion of a particular “genre of the Human” (Wynter 2006, 219), the ways in which media management is constantly “writing the body” (Cixous 1991, 52) with its prescription for what it is to be human, and the denial of one’s “dwelling” space of “difference” (Lorde 1984) become the dominant “regime of truth” (Minh-ha 1989, 1992) that Black television news journalists must navigate. In other words, the negotiation of race, gender, and sexuality in a corporate newsroom culture at the very least requires historically contextualizing the data while foregrounding the transmitted memory that is part and parcel of the experiences journalists have shared in this book.

Herman Gray’s work questions conventional assumptions about cultural moves of recognition, visibility, and African American investment in representation as a route to African American membership in national culture (Gray 2005, 2). One of his chief assertions is that American commercial television networks are no longer the primary sites of mass- mediated theater and performance of the nation. Media Studies scholar Darnell Hunt’s work takes aim at the analysis the major network affiliates offered for the Los Angeles “riots.” While Gray’s work points out the problems with conventional assumptions of commercial television, and Hunt’s work discusses the problematics of seeing the news, the upcoming chapters reveal the ways in which journalists are struggling to include different perspectives. They are also finding new ways to undermine the stagnation of conventional journalism in an age of innovation and technological advancements in communication and African Diaspora journalism praxis. New media and other sites of “mass-mediated” performance of the nation, notions of the human, political punditry, and news of the Obama phenomena are running fierce competition against the major news networks in terms of audience share, which is something that major news media network’s bottom line cannot ignore. Developing a primary archive and methodology to better understand the major transformation in television news is challenging at best. All of the chapters reflect the struggle over including the diverse perspectives of Black journalists, how power relations are shaped by the dominant culture order, how journalists navigate and resist the institutional circumstances that shape their presentation of self, and how these challenges are met in the everydayness of struggle.

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS

If North America is to fulfill the promise of democracy, then we must collectively push for more diversity and inclusion of perspectives in the news media. Al Gore’s loss of the Presidency and the Florida voting debacle during the 2000 Elections is but one example of the critical importance of newsroom diversity and pushback on the part of Black journalists against hegemonic forces within the news media. Many of the challenges faced by marginalized journalists and the simultaneity of oppressions are often hidden. Chapter 1, entitled “Professionalizing and Palatable ‘Blackness,’” analyzes the professionalization process of television news. Media management’s definitions of professionalism are interrogated by examining the practice of producing palatable “Blackness.” Management rationalizations for producing a mainstream look and image are explored in terms of the maintenance of hegemony. Chapter 1 also takes up what television journalists are saying about the difficulties of performing what image consultants and media management refer to as “conversational talk.”55 Such talk is very telling of how media management is expected to police transnational differences in style of communication toward the maintenance of a static notion of North America that directs how “the nation” is constituted and how people are positioned within the nation. Black journalists are audibly and visibly positioned at the bottom of the nation as it is currently constituted. The National Association of Black Journalists’ public expression of disappointment over the lack of diversity in the 2012 presidential debate moderators is but one example of what is at stake for Black journalists working to keep their jobs, getting assigned the big stories, and earn promotions.

Chapter 2, entitled “Branding and Marketing ‘Blackness,’” takes a closer look at the ways in which journalists are promoted, management expectations, and allegiances to the dominant culture order and grid of intelligibility. Branding beyond the flesh as a means of staking and announcing claim and ownership of disseminated territories is one of the ways in which management, image consultants, and talent agents participate in traditional and new televisual media hegemony during the production, circulation, and enactment of a particular genre of the human. How journalists navigate media management investment in various forms of branding and marketing palatable “Blackness” is considered using the work of Ralph Ellison and bell hooks.

Chapters 3 and 4 look at how “Blackness” is placed. Chapter 3, entitled “From Stumbling Block to Stepping Stone” focuses on how “Blackness” is placed spatially, within the structure of the newsroom and newscast and/or behind the scenes of a newscast, while chapter 4 entitled, “Owning the

‘Ghetto’ Shows” addresses how it is placed geographically. These chapters engage the work of Sylvia Wynter on territorializing the human. The site of analysis in chapter 3 is the graveyard shift known in the news business as the least desirable shift, where the majority of journalists of color are placed in newsrooms across the country. The usefulness and problematics of ethnographic methods is explored using a newsroom production crew as a site of analysis. The challenges of a news production crew that is underpaid, overworked, devalued, and displaced by a newsroom hierarchy that attempts to consign Black bodies to invisibility is of particular interest in chapter three.

Chapter 4 focuses more intensely on the rationalization talent agents and management uses to justify a pattern and practice of geographically placing “Blackness.” Such rationalizations also operate to limit possibilities of promotion. The work of Sylvia Wynter is a tool of analysis on the limitations placed on Black mobility within corporate television news; many of the journalists interviewed have successfully outmaneuvered management boundaries and expectations.

Chapter 5, entitled “Rules of Engagement: The Politics of Race, Gender, and Sexuality” addresses journalist agency and resistance by examining how raced Black journalists dwell in what Audre Lorde theorizes as “the House of difference,” when those representing the dominant culture exercise power to hire and fire and actively demonstrate indifference and/or hostility toward Black LGBTQ journalists and their daily struggle of simultaneous oppressions (Smith 2000). Lorde’s work also facilitates an understanding of how bodies are gendered and sexualized in the news business. This chapter brings a better understanding of how Black journalists are further marginalized when they are already relegated to the margins of the news business. The notion of objectivity and some of the rules of engagement in newsroom culture is interrogated to explore how power in news management is exercised. Collaborations among media organizations, including the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), journalism organizations of color (Unity), the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association (NLGJA), and journalism organizations in other locations of the African Diaspora open possibilities for journalist agency and resistance to static notions of “Blackness.” Such collaborations create possibilities for a building movement that challenge “the media” as an instrument of domination. Furthermore, the chapter addresses why television news media owners and management will have to pay attention to journalists of color and the concerns stated publicly and behind closed doors over diversity and an inclusion of perspectives.

The sixth and final chapter interrogates the notion of Post-racialism and examines how selected news media, Internet images, and consumer products constitute President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as both a sign of progress and a threat to the dominant culture order. Traditional and “new” media forms, including magazines, newspapers, television, webcasts, and blogs, traffic in regressive racial stereotyping reconfigured by new technologies and consumer culture in the 21st century. Discourse of the overall significance of the Obama phenomenon facilitated the resurrection of blatantly racist imagery subsequently reported in television news by reducing racism to a relative debate about alternative meaning. The ways in which cultural representations of Barack and Michelle Obama generate discourses of threat and progress, while evacuating them of historical context and political significance, is palpable despite debates about being in a Post-Racial society. The rhetoric of a Post-Racial society takes valuable attention away from the very real issues (the economy, health care, education, racial inequities, and foreign policy) facing North America today and voiced by activists, scholars56 and others, while given little attention in the media. Black journalists’ inclusion of diverse perspectives of the Obama phenomenon address the racist imagery disseminated in the media in a way that is often missed by their White colleagues. Insightful approaches to news by minority journalists are central to arguments for the need to include journalists who bring diverse perspectives to the newsroom table. This would require radical change in hiring and promotion practices. In the book Racial Justice in the Age of Obama, Roy L. Brooks argues that the need for external prescriptions as an answer “to each category of resource deficiency in black society”57 must be taken up “to redress the external race problem.”58 Newsroom managers who embrace the notion of post-racialism turn a blind eye to any suggestion of Black journalists specifically and Black people in general as resource deficient. If we do not acknowledge the evidence of racism, then saying that it no longer exists becomes the tragic logic of post-racialism.

The chapter also focuses on how “Blackness” is represented in traditional and “new” media before, during, and after the 2008 Election. The tools of analysis include selected news broadcasts to track the ways in which explicitly racist narratives of Barack and Michelle Obama were produced, circulated, and subsequently reported. The so-called “objective” perspective television news media claims to bring to unequivocally racist imagery, including a New York Post cartoon depicting Obama as a Monkey and former California Mayor Dean Grose’s circulation of an image

depicting a watermelon patch on the White House lawn is interrogated. Critical to the book are discursive practices of memory and counter-memory disrupting notions of nation, identity, and Americanness and engaging transnational feminist theory to complicate representations of Michelle Obama in the news media.

On the whole, this study uncovers the challenges that exist for marginalized journalists across the country despite having a Black President and the struggles against hegemonic forces that are strategically and tactically dealt with in television newsrooms across the country. The book changes the way we “watch the news” and builds a media literacy that emphasizes the importance of reading television news differently and more critically. It sheds light on the infinite possibility of creating spaces of difference that challenge notions of an all-powerful single-minded media, by exposing the industry’s consistent shortcomings despite plummeting ratings and revenue that overwhelmingly point to the wrongheadedness of manufacturing and policing fixed notions of “Blackness.” The television news media is negatively impacted by turning a blind eye to the presence of the African Diaspora in America and the transnational networks of connection that makeup the United States. There is an opportunity to engage more diverse perspectives and disseminate a better understanding of how events, practices, and desires around the world inform our reading, coverage, and understanding of the world we share. Increased training, hiring, and promoting of Black journalists and journalists of color must play a major role in realizing this potential.

Finally, television news owners and managers must connect with what is happening outside of dominant narratives of the United States. Newsroom culture tends to support the dominant narrative and constructs others as outsiders, alien, foreign, them over there. Outsiders must translate individual identities through the lens of newsroom culture which produces a peculiar brand of diversity. Corporate television news media management need to collectively figure out that “them” over there are actually “US” here whose diverse interests should be covered in the news or television stations will not be able to develop and sustain high ratings and revenue. Media management will have to rethink notions of Americanness—if not now, the 2020 Census predictions on racial/ethnic population growth will bring clarity. Furthermore, the ways in which transformation in communications technology facilitates viable alternatives that fill the void left by the corporate news structure is foretelling an unstable future for corporate television news as we know it today if a major transformation of television news content and diversity of journalists is not embraced.

NOTES

1. Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider, Essays and Speeches (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press Feminist Series, 1984).

2. Devon W. Carbado and Mitu Gulati), Acting White: Rethinking Race in Post Racial America (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2013) pp. 1–2 .

3. I am using the term, “the media,” to illuminate and interrogate the connotation of an omnipotent monolithic entity that does not simply carry its denotative literal primary meaning. The term “the media” is used so loosely in popular culture and academe that its invocation paints individual journalists with the connotative weight of sameness socially, politically, economically, etc. This approach denies the struggle of marginalized journalists and assumes that they are willing if not enthusiastic agents of the corporate media machine in support of the dominant culture order. While I take into account the influence and power at the top—with media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch—this book focuses on the contentiousness of power revealing forms of resistance from within the media. The media therefore must be seen as an intense site of struggle over representations of “Blackness” and what it means to be human within the terms of traditional and new media form.

4. Tim Wise, Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity (Oakland, CA: The Institute for Democratic Education and Culture, 2010). Wise’s understanding of post-racialism is deployed throughout the book.

5. Thick transcription offers useful tools for getting at meaning including intonation, teeth sucking, the sound of a quick sharp exhale out of the nostrils or mouth, etc. that could change the meaning–even signifying a contradiction–in what the interviewee is saying. Thick transcription has been key to interpreting interviewee emotion, opinion, feeling, or sentiment on a given issue and extracting deeper meaning out of verbal communication. Clifford Geertz discusses the importance of going beyond the basics of observing, recording, and analyzing a culture when using ethnography as a tool of analysis. Geertz argues for a more substantive ethnography by interpreting signs within a culture to get at meaning. Geertz calls this process, “thick description” (Geertz 1973, 5–6 and 9–10) of signs to uncover a multiplicity of possible meanings. He discusses particular body movements in terms of offering meaning

instead of being read as a simple motioning of the body. Geertz’s “thick description” informs what I conceptualize when I not only observe, record, and analyze a culture in terms of extracting meaning from body movement, but sound as well.

6. Frank, Interview Transcript, line 448, 2003. 7. Frank, Interview Transcript, lines 434–436, 2003. 8. Cheryl I. Harris, “Whiteness As Property.” Harvard Law Review,

106.8 (1993): 1710–1791. Harris says that racial identity and property are deeply interrelated concepts (1709). She discusses the ways in which whiteness as a basis of racialized privilege became legitimated in law as a type of “status property” that corroded effective change against racial classification that protected entrenched power. The status given to Whiteness in law established a preemptive disregard for affirmative action doctrine. It also placed an indelible devalued status to “Blackness” in newsroom culture.

9. National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Office of Policy Planning and Research, Kerner Commission Report on the Causes, Events, and Aftermaths of the Civil Disorders of 1967, Edited by David Ginsburg et al. (Washington, DC, 1967–68).

10. Johnson, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, “To Fulfill These Rights.” Paper presented at the Commencement Address at Howard University, Washington, DC, June 4, 1965.

11. National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, 1967–68. 12. Ibid. 13. Juan González and Joseph Torres. News for All of the People: The

Epic Story of Race and the American Media (New York and London: Verso, 2011), pp. 301–302.

14. I may use this latter term, journalists of color, as a reminder that the racial hierarchies operating in the news business affect all journalists of color, albeit differently from one context to another. This book foregrounds the experiences of Black journalists.

15. The terms journalists of color and “marginalized” journalists will be used interchangeably, and Black journalists will at times be referred to as marginalized journalists. All of these terminologies are used within the context of which they are deployed and at times to signal the ways in which journalists of color and LGBTQ journalists are similarly and differently affected by the interconnected issues of race, gender, and sexuality in their efforts to be recognized within corporate newsroom culture.

16. Rubin Navarrette, “Both Sides Must Move Past Obama’s Race.” CNN.com. August 11, 2011. us.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/11/navarrette.obama.racism/index.html? hpt=hp_c2.

17. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, “The Never Ending Racist Assault on Michelle Obama.” Huffington Post: Politics. January 6, 2012. www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/michelle-obama- attacks_b_1187605.html.

18. Piers Morgan, “Morgan Freeman says GOP Racist.” CNN: Piers Morgan Tonight. September 23, 2011. us.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/09/23/piers-morgan-freeman- obama.cnn?hpt=hp_t2.

19. Raymond Williams, Television Technology and Cultural Form (New York: Schocken Books, 1974), p. 96.

20. Herbert Gans, Deciding What’s News, A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1979), p. 78.

21. Gitlin 1980. Gitlin takes Gans’s notion of organizational requirements a bit further by describing how these routines are cultivated over time. Gitlin says, “These routines are structured in the ways journalists are socialized from childhood and then trained, recruited, assigned, edited, rewarded, and promoted on the job; they decisively shape the ways in which news is defined, events are considered newsworthy, and ‘objectivity’ is secured. News is managed routinely, automatically, as reporters import definitions of newsworthiness from editors and institutional beats, as they accept the analytical frameworks of officials even while taking up adversary positions. … Simply by doing their jobs, journalists tend to serve the political and economic elite definitions of reality.” Gitlin then offers, “there are disruptive moments,” p. 12.

22. Frank, Interview Transcript, lines 178–179, 2003. 23. Prince December 9, 2012.

April Turner, “NABJ Statement on the Termination of KTBS Meteorologist Rhonda S. Lee.” NABJ: News & Press. December 13, 2012. http://www.nabj.org/news/111332/NABJ-Statement-on-the- Termination-of-KTBS-Meteorologist-Rhonda-S.-Lee.htm. Naessa Aziz, “NABJ Stands Behind Fired Black Meteorologist: The Organization Says Rhonda Lee’s Managers Missed a ‘Golden Opportunity’ To Engage Its Viewers in a Dialogue about Diversity.”

http://CNN.com

http://us.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/11/navarrette.obama.racism/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/michelle-obama-attacks_b_1187605.html

http://us.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/09/23/piers-morgan-freeman-obama.cnn?hpt=hp_t2

http://www.nabj.org/news/111332/NABJ-Statement-on-the-Termination-of-KTBS-Meteorologist-Rhonda-S.-Lee.htm

December 13, 2012. http://www.bet.com/news/national/2012/12/13/nabj-stands-behind- fired-black-meteorologist.html. Black Journalist Rhonda S. Lee being fired over a Facebook posting about her hair is but one example of an ongoing struggle over representations of “Blackness” that has captured the attention of the National Association of Black Journalists, major news organizations, and journalism Institutes.

24. John Fiske, Television Culture (London and New York: Methuen & Co. 1987), p. 290. Exnomination is the evacuation of a concept from the linguistic system with its structure of difference and alternatives. That which is exnominated appears to have no alternative and is thus granted the status of the natural, the universal, or that-which-cannot-be- challenged. Thus, in his analysis of a union dispute news story, Fiske finds that the union view of the dispute is nominated; but that of the management is exnominated. This is done by having the union person interviewed for the story, thereby giving him or her an active voice. The management’s statement, however, is read by the news reader, who presents the dominant view as central within the story, thereby giving management a passive voice. In this way, we can begin to understand how the impersonal authority of the words of the studio news reader constructs a framework of objectivity, within which the words and images that constitute other levels of reporting are situated.

25. Stuart Hall, Representation and the Media. Produced and Directed by Sut Jhally. United Kingdom: The Open University, 1997. DVD, 55 min. Editors: Sanjay Talreja, Sut Jhally, and Mary Patierno, opening excerpt from “Hollywood Shuffle,” written and directed by Robert Townsend, excerpts from Marlon Riggs,’ “Color Adjustment.” Films courtesy of California Newsreel. Copyright The Media Education Foundation 1997. I am using Stuart Hall’s understanding of language here in terms of the language that we speak, the language that we write, electronic language, digital language, language communicated by musical instrument, language communicated by facial gesture, languages communicated by facial expression, the use of the body to communicate meaning, the use of clothes to express meaning, anything in which language gives sign to the meaning that we have, in a form which can be communicated to other people.

26. Gitlin1980, 12. These routines are structured in the ways journalists are socialized from childhood, and then trained, recruited, assigned, edited, rewarded, and promoted on the job; they decisively shape the

http://www.bet.com/news/national/2012/12/13/nabj-stands-behind-fired-black-meteorologist.html

ways in which news is defined, events are considered newsworthy, and “objectivity” is secured. News is managed routinely, automatically, as reporters import definitions of newsworthiness from editors and institutional beats, as they accept the analytical frameworks of officials even while taking up adversary positions … Simply by doing their jobs, journalists tend to serve the political and economic elite definitions of reality.

27. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdock’s War on Journalism. Directed by Robert Greenwald. New York: Carolina Productions [for] Disinformation Company, 2004. DVD, 78 min.

28. Robert McChesney, Rich Media Poor Democracy Communication Politics in Dubious Times (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999), p. 296.

29. Pamela Newkirk, Within the Veil, Black Journalists, White Media (New York: New York University Press, 2000). Max Robinson’s battle with depression and alcohol; Bryant Gumbel’s difficulties in changing the indifference toward coverage of Africa; Mal Goode, Benjamin Holman, and Bob Teague being hired as “token Negroes” with ABC, CBS, and NBC; John Johnson’s struggle with racism as a documentary associate producer with ABC News; William Dilday’s challenges as the nation’s first black news director in Jackson, Mississippi; Melba Tolliver and Dorothy Reed’s struggle over wearing Afros in the 1970s.

30. Steve Pile, Geographies of Resistance. Edited by Steve Pile and Michael Keith (London and New York: Routledge, 1997).

31. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdock’s War on Journalism. Directed by Robert Greenwald. New York: Carolina Productions [for] Disinformation Company, 2004. DVD, 78 min.

32. Darnell M. Hunt, Screening the Los Angeles “Riots”: Race, Seeing, and Resistance (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 128–130. Hunt identifies two classes of pronouns: pronouns of solidarity (“we,” “us,” and “our”) and pronouns of distance (“they,” “them,” and “their”) to help gauge knowledge based on perception. He also refers to previous studies (e.g., Cramer and Schuman 1975) that suggest that pronoun usage may serve as an insightful indicator of the solidarity social actors share with important ingroups and their distance from certain outgroups. When the referents of these pronouns are raced groups, raced solidarity and distance–raced subjectivity– may be established.

33. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Vintage Books, A Division

of Random House, Inc., 1947), p. 3. The inner eye acts as a guidepost of our present mode of being human in the White imaginary, under the terms of Whiteness.

34. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (New York: Washington Square Press, Publication of Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1970), pp. 61–62 and 68. The bluest eye becomes the measure of one’s humanness on the scale of human otherness. The bluest eye is the standard of beauty that Morrison places as a “Thing” indeed, “the Thing” that is a source of fear rather than a physical attribute of a person. This is also discussed in Aimé Césaire’s work in terms of colonialization arguing that it has dire consequences for both the colonized and colonizer—saying in sum that “colonization = thingification,” Aimé Césaire, Discours sur le colonialisme (Paris: Presence Africaine, 1962), p. 177.

35. Zora Neale Hurston, “My People! My People!” Dust Tracks on a Road, An Autobiography (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1942), p. 229. Against the grain of dominant epistemologies, Hurston’s concept of “transmitted memory” recognizes the simultaneity of past, present, and future that foregrounds the ways in which dehistoricized experiences are voiced and felt.

36. Frantz Fanon, Black Skin White Masks (New York: Grove Press, 1967). Fanon points to the pervasiveness of racism in his discussion of the ways in which Black children are subjected to psychic and symbolic violence by the same magazines that are devoured by the local children in the Antilles. Fanon says, “the Wolf, the Devil, the Evil Spirit, the Bad Man, the Savage … always symbolized by Negroes or Indians …” Black children who identify with the victor must reject themselves, p. 146; he discusses how rejection is transferred to adulthood, saying, “I was responsible at the same time for my body, for my race, for my ancestors. I subjected myself to an objective examination, I discovered my blackness, my ethnic characteristics; and I was battered down by tom-toms, cannibalism, intellectual deficiency, fetishism, racial defects, slave-ships. … On that day, completely dislocated, unable to be abroad with the other, the white man, who unmercifully imprisoned me, I took myself far off from my own presence, far indeed, and made myself an object. What else could it be for me but an amputation, an excision, a hemorrhage that spattered my whole body with black blood? But I did not want this revision, this thematization. All I wanted was to be a man among other men,” p. 112.

37. Fanon 1967. Fanon discusses the function of children’s games, comic books, and magazines as fulfilling the need for a collective catharsis in societies where accumulated forces of aggression are exercised. Fanon argues that magazines “put together by white men for little white men” are at “the heart of the problem” in terms of the psychic and symbolic violence it does to Blacks in the Antilles and other colonies, p. 146.

38. Promotion of marginality is but one strategy of containment that allows lateral career moves with a few extra perks for marginalized journalists, while key decision making positions and opportunities are reserved for White heterosexual wo/men. This form of “promotion” uses marginalized subjects to validate racist heteronormative newsroom culture and contributes to the collective catharsis of North America as the land of opportunity.

39. Makani Themba-Nixon, “Black Entertainment Television’s ‘Lifestyle’ Choice.” The Nation: Instigating Progress Daily. April 26, 2001. http://www.thenation.com/article/black-entertainment-televisions- lifestyle-choice#. Manny Otiko, “Activists Heated Over BET Images, Racist Stereotyping in the Media.” USAonrace.com. March 6, 2010. http://www.usaonrace.com/pdf/activists-heated-over-bet-imagesracist- stereotyping-in-the-media.

40. T.J. Holmes, Twitter post, @t.j.holmes, February 13, 2012, 7:18 p.m. “Amazing. I was on CNN for 5 yrs, but I was just on #BET for 60 seconds, and I’m a trending topic! LOL.” http://www.eurweb.com/2012/04/bet-t-j-holmes-nightly-news-show/.

41. Michael O’Connell, “CNN’s Monthly Ratings Hit 20-Year Lows as Primetime Woes Continue.” CNN: the Hollywood Reporter. May 30, 2012. http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/05/cnn-hits-year- monthly-ratings-low-124890.html.

42. Brittney M. Walker, “BET Introduces T.J. Holmes’ New Comedy Slanted Nightly News Show.” Lee Bailey’s eurweb.com, Electronic Urban Report. April 13, 2012. http://www.eurweb.com/2012/04/bet-t- j-holmes-nightly-news-show/.

43. Michael Denzel Smith,. “Don’t Sleep with TJ Holmes’: BET Needs News, Not Another Comedy Show.” thegrio.com, Entertainment. April 13, 2012. http://thegrio.com/2012/04/13/dont-sleep-with-tj- holmes-bet-needs-news-not-another-comedy-show/.

44. Kristal Brent Zook, I See Black People: The Rise and Fall of African American Owned Television and Radio (New York: Nation Books,

http://www.thenation.com/article/black-entertainment-televisions-lifestyle-choice

http://USAonrace.com

http://www.usaonrace.com/pdf/activists-heated-over-bet-imagesracist-stereotyping-in-the-media

http://www.eurweb.com/2012/04/bet-t-j-holmes-nightly-news-show/

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/05/cnn-hits-year-monthly-ratings-low-124890.html

http://eurweb.com

http://www.eurweb.com/2012/04/bet-t-j-holmes-nightly-news-show/

http://thegrio.com

http://thegrio.com/2012/04/13/dont-sleep-with-tj-holmes-bet-needs-news-not-another-comedy-show/

2008), p. viii. 45. Zook 2008, ix. 46. Rebecca Wanzo, The Suffering Will Not Be Televised: African

American Women and Sentimental Political Storytelling (Albany: State University of New York, 2009), p. 186.

47. Richard Prince, “TJ Holmes Leaving CNN for BET,” The Root. December 7, 2011. http://www.theroot.com/blogs/mumia-abu-jamal/tj- holmes-leaving-cnn-bet.

48. Ibid. 49. Stephanie Kiek and Joe Sterling, “Census: Fewer White Babies Being

Born.” CNN.com. May 17, 2012. http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/17/census-2011-data-confirm- trend-of-population-diversity/?hpt=hp_t2.

50. Turner August 17, 2012. 51. Carole Simpson, “Carole Simpson: Advice from the Last Female

Presidential Debate Moderator.” CNN.com. August 14, 2012. http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/14/carole-simpson-advice- from-the-last-female-presidential-debate-moderator/.

52. Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (Trumansurg, NY: The Crossing Press, 1982). Audre Lorde offers insight into the simultaneity of oppressions in the “house of difference” saying, “Being women together was not enough. We were different. Being gay-girls together was not enough. We were different. Being Black together was not enough. We were different. Being Black women together was not enough. We were different. Being Black dykes together was not enough. We were different. … It was a while before we came to realize that our place was the very house of difference rather than the security of any one particular difference.”

53. Bob Marley and the Wailers. Bob Marley. Exodus, “The Heathen” (Album. Island Records, 1976).

54. Zilla Eisenstein, “The Combahee River Collective Statement.” In Home Girls, A Black Feminist Anthology, Edited by Barbara Smith (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000), pp. 264–274. “The Combahee River Collective Statement” of their politics states: “… we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking … simultaneous oppressions” that “creates the conditions of our lives—women of

http://www.theroot.com/blogs/mumia-abu-jamal/tj-holmes-leaving-cnn-bet

http://CNN.com

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/17/census-2011-data-confirm-trend-of-population-diversity/?hpt=hp_t2

http://CNN.com

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/14/carole-simpson-advice-from-the-last-female-presidential-debate-moderator/

color.” 55. Saul, Interview Transcript, line 22, 2002. 56. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley, The Rich and the Rest of US: A

Poverty Manifesto (New York: SmileyBooks, 2012). Smiley and West said, “The (Tea) party’s rebel yell against “big government,” “wasteful spending,” “Obamacare,” and other sensationalized issues has been scripted, packaged, and bankrolled by rich moguls like the Koch Brothers and foundations such as Freedom Works – an organization run by former GOP Congressman Dick Armey and funded by the tobacco giant Phillip Morris,” p. 88. Meanwhile North Americans are being distracted from the real issues of survival.

57. Roy L. Brooks, Racial Justice in the Age of Obama (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009).

58. Ibid.

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Politics in Dubious Times. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999.

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1 Professionalizing and Palatable “Blackness”

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me … because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact. A matter of the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality. … I am not complaining, nor am I protesting either. It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves. … You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you’re a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you.1

—Ralph Ellison

After earning his undergraduate degree in print journalism and a Master’s degree with an emphasis in broadcast journalism, Ed says he “still had to say, look, I’m over here.”2 Despite having to prove to his White male bosses that he “can speak intelligently,” “complete a sentence,”3 and outshine the competition in his market, Ed, a television news reporter in the southern United States, continues to struggle against being “a phantom” in the mind’s eye of the bosses, who place him under “more scrutiny” than his White coworkers. Although the Jason Blair4 debacle did not help, he has never been a stranger to being “on edge,”5 having to prove himself and struggle from the margins of the television news business.

The first thing that comes to my mind as a Black man working in the newsroom is that I am held to a different standard. I am scrutinized a little more. I can’t prove that that’s mainly or solely because I’m Black, it’s only what I perceive–my perception. And you know, if it’s true to me, then it’s true. … My first job, I distinctly remember them calling me everyday or even when I’m out on my stories, (asking) “okay, how are you doing, did you get this, did you get this?” and I’m like yeah, yeah. …6

Management’s lack of confidence is telling as he struggles against being “held to” a notion of “Blackness” that in this case writes upon his body:

irresponsible, lazy, unintelligent, and other dehumanizing markers. Over time, he has learned how to meet the challenge of management’s constant surveillance and to work harder than the rest—or as Sojourner, a Black woman journalist in a top five market put it, “work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life, ever, and when you think you’re working too hard, you better work harder.”7

As one of only two black reporters in a predominantly Black demographic market, Ed describes the frustration of having to constantly reiterate the details of his workday to his bosses. He has to walk a fine line, being careful not to show too much frustration over the repercussions of being a journalist while Black. Choosing to work harder and do a better job than his White colleagues despite the lack of recognition becomes the means through which he copes with this unspoken fine line. This becomes one of the ways in which to speak without saying or being silent8 about the racism he is experiencing from news management in its tendency to hyper manage his news gathering process. He struggles against racism without saying explicitly that he is opposed to the management practice of hyper surveillance, or being silent about management’s pattern and practice of holding him to more scrutiny than his White colleagues. He invests heavily in the old saying, “Seeing is believing” in the hopes that the hyper scrutiny ends so that he may begin to be recognized for his value in the newsroom and get closer to opportunities of promotion. Although he became more comfortable with setting boundaries around what he was and was not willing to do without being compensated, Ed’s value continued to go unrecognized and he was not promoted within that television station.

Ed was more than ready when his agent found another placement for him in a larger market. However, soon after his first few months on the job, he was faced with the same brand of scrutiny and says decidedly, “I think I need to be there a little longer before I start telling people what I’m not going to do.”9 Similar to the challenges faced by individuals testing the waters of a new job, the “triple bind”10 of race,11 gender, and sexuality12

categories produces an intensified struggle over representation of “Blackness” for journalists.

Ed learned early on what is at stake being “the minority” and not just labeling himself minority, but seeing, feeling, experiencing on a daily basis what being “the minority” means for him as a Black man both personally and professionally. He recounts his participation in organizing a reception for Pulitzer Prize judges saying he was “looking out over a sea of about a hundred people and seeing nothing but White men.” His tone shifts as he

relives the intense fear, the terror of what his eyes were telling him about the future in his chosen profession. He then places an emphasis on the empirical evidence of the pervasiveness of racism and sexism by tonally marking the terror, reiterating, “I mean these were editors from across the country, nothing but White men!”13 Nothing but White men, this “nothing,” this “no man’s land,”14 this terror of dwelling in no man’s land, fuels his desire for visibility. White men possessing “a peculiar disposition of the eyes”15 seeing their own reflections of success is what seems to be the insurmountable wall Ed must navigate successfully if he is to convince them that he does exist and is an asset to the profession. He pushes the point further saying,

there were two women, there was—God rest her soul—the publisher of the Washington Post, Catherine Graham was there and then some women from the Washington Times, she was the managing editor of the Washington Times—everybody else were middle aged if not older, stood thirty to sixty year olds, White men, which made me realize that we’ve come a long way but until this room can at least get thirteen in there out of a hundred—we only had one, and then no Black woman. … So we are underrepresented … which means some of our stories are not getting told.16

Ed understands the value in exercising strategies and tactics17 as a means to contend with a hostile working environment. But, he is also aware that “sometimes you can’t show difference,”18 and, as his father taught him, you can “never let anybody, especially a White man, have control over how you feel” because “you can’t control what he says; but you can control how you react to it” which, he admits is “easier said than done.”19

This chapter examines the racialization of work in television news as a process of backlash stemming from the government’s pressure on White men to diversify newsrooms across the U.S. White men holding dominant positions in the media have developed new forms of control in response to government diversity interventions. The ways Black journalists continue to struggle against this backlash is examined in this chapter through candid conversations with Black journalists working in the television news industry.

Ralph Ellison’s use of the term “inner eyes” corresponds well with the experiences of Black and marginalized journalists who are navigating social spaces in which their presentation of self is constantly under attack or

review. Ellison views “the inner eyes” as a mechanism through which one’s perspective about what it means to be human under the terms and conditions of Whiteness is shaped. The inner eyes are what guide us to what is “acceptable”; they orient our behavior. They also provide a compass to help navigate a hostile reality. Achieving upward mobility in television news requires knowing how to gain access to rewards in the form of promotion, salary increase, and other forms of reward. Journalists oriented toward reaping these rewards employ “tactics” of knowing on the fly when and how to speak in opposition to oppressive media management practice. Most journalists understand that such a stance is critical to continued employment.

THE BRANDING OF BLACK JOURNALISTS

Before on-air journalists—or what is commonly referred to as “talent”— begin their careers in the news business, there are certain things they usually do to get recognized. Choosing a talent agent is usually the first step. Once hired, part of the process of branding20 and marketing on-air talent is shooting several promos (promotional videos) highlighting one’s skill set, focus, and/or news beat within the scheme of a newscast. Whether marketed as an anchor, a roving, investigative, or other specialized reporter, the hire is branded in ways that are consistent with the cultural assumptions of the viewing public. After the television network branding process is established, placement within the network and its affiliates is scripted and promoted. Whether marketed as the perky journalist to wake up to in the morning or the hyper-professional primetime face of the network affiliate’s evening newscast, the hire is expected to embody and wear the brand of the network.

Once the new hire has been professionalized, branded, marketed, processed, and placed, the so-called honeymoon is over, especially for Black journalists. After they are hired, Black journalists must navigate the road toward palatable “Blackness” paved by the network affiliate team of image consultants, talent agents, and media managers. This is the time when the other shoe drops and Black journalists are expected to make self- adjustments quickly. The inner eyes guide the self-adjustments to the rules of engagement operating within the newsroom if journalists are to be recognized by management as valuable. The interconnectedness of their racialized, gendered, and sexualized positionalities makes this a critical time for Black journalists as they begin tailoring specific strategies to survive and thrive in a predominantly White male heteronormative

newsroom culture. This process reveals the psychic and symbolic violence of professionalizing practices that Black journalists navigate in order to be recognized and accepted within their field.

Audrey Smedley’s work is useful in understanding the construction21 of race in North America that Black journalists continue to struggle against in a variety of ways. In her discussion of how different races rank in society, Smedley argues that race provides the unspoken guidelines for daily interaction between persons defined as being of different races. The newsroom culture provides the unspoken guidelines for daily interaction among journalists from different walks of life. How open Black journalists are about the ways in which they self-identify may complicate when and where they gain access to opportunities for promotion. As one of few if any Black journalists at a given television station across the United States, most come to realize that learning quickly how to navigate the space as a marginalized, raced, gendered, sexualized subject is key to longevity in the business. The notion of Blackness circulating in the media relies too heavily on the common stereotypes, which in turn, limit the possibilities and continue to shape the opportunities available to Black journalists.

THE ART OF SELF-POLICING: HOW BLACK JOURNALISTS NAVIGATE STRATEGIES OF CONTAINMENT

Despite the odds, Ed remains hopeful and continues to struggle over the contentiousness of their power22 over him. After all, he is convinced of his skill, talent, professionalism, and humanity and considers his struggle over recognition and visibility a consequence of living while Black. Ed’s way of coping in a hostile and dehumanizing environment has helped him navigate media management’s “strategies of containment” (Fiske 1987, 283) that work against Black journalists geographically, socially, economically, and politically. Such attempts at controlling different perspectives both in the newsroom and in the newscast manifest in a variety of ways.

Strategies of containment are often perpetrated geographically in determining the hire’s news “beat,” or assignment. Strategies of containment affect journalists socially in terms of the types of promotional events in which they are expected to participate; image consultants are used to train journalists on appropriate and inappropriate language,23 policing social practice in public space and private time, and representing “Blackness” in

static terms. These strategies affect journalists economically through an intricate system of reward and punishment. This system manifests in various ways including through management’s practice of placing Black journalists on the least desirable shifts, a topic that is explored in great detail in chapter 3. Strategies affect journalists politically in terms of policing objectivity under the terms and conditions of Whiteness governing newsroom culture and embodying the brand of a television news station that positions Black journalists as marginal. For Ed and many others, these strategies often translate into self-policing their different perspectives toward palatability within a newsroom culture that subscribes to the dominant culture order.

What remains consistent in all of the interviews with Black journalists is the understanding that they must work harder than everyone else in the newsroom in order to stay employed. They rarely take sick days even when they should stay home. Some have hidden cancer diagnoses in order to keep the jobs and keep those looking to take their position at bay. Most marginalized journalists make reference to a higher power governing their lives and careers and speak about honoring their ancestors’ struggle that brought them to where they are today.

When high-stakes opposition is easier said than done, Ed draws from the resources of his father’s “transmitted memory,”24 which guides through a newsroom culture ripe with racist practices. This approach also serves as a means of protecting selfhood and opening infinite possibilities of temporalities and spatialities of resistance. Although Ed’s father died one year before this interview, Ed believes that his father and other ancestors speak, guide, and transmit the tools needed for him to survive and thrive. The theme of hard work as an initial response to racist practice in the newsroom is common. Sojourner’s story is linked to the theme of hard work as well.

Sojourner earned a Master’s degree in psychology, got an internship at the local television station in her home town, earned her first break on air in a small market, made the jump in market size four times, and after dedicating 10 years to a medium market television station, management chose not to renew Sojourner’s contract. She was shocked: “it was earth shattering to me because I was 29, I had never lost a job, I had had somewhat of a meteoric rise up until that point, and I stayed unemployed for an entire year. I was pregnant in that time so it was just as well, but it was a hard year.”25 Sojourner did however get a job in radio during that time to keep her name circulating; she still felt uneasy and worried that she was

slipping from the television news medium radar stating, “sometimes it feels like the harder we try, it’s like quicksand.”26 Then she says she got the call she had been hoping for and an even better job offer in television. Although her agent at the time helped her get the big break that propelled her into one of the top U.S. markets and an enviable position as lead anchor, Sojourner says, hard work and the skill set she developed over time got her the job.

You have to know your craft. … Doesn’t matter if you’re cute, you got light skin and green eyes or you got this beautiful chocolate brown skin, flawless complexion, great hair, you know how to posture and pose and all that stuff. All that doesn’t matter, you need to be good … you need to know what being a good communicator is about, and I just get so frustrated sometimes when I see these young kids come in and they assume that every TV movie they’ve ever seen about television (news) is true, and that all you need to do to be a good anchor is to look good. Well, there is a hell of a lot more involved than that … for someone who has worked hard to get to where I am and … didn’t take any short cuts … that approach just pisses me off …27

Most of the journalists in this study agree that fitting the physical image of what a television news director is looking for may or may not get a foot in the door, but there is a lot more involved in getting and keeping a television news job. Most journalists say it does matter “if you’re cute, you got light skin and green eyes or you got this beautiful chocolate brown skin, flawless complexion, great hair. …” Tom, one of the top talent agents in the United States acquiesces, saying, “it never hurts to be attractive.”28 How “attractive” is defined and what role age plays in being considered “attractive” by television news media management standards depends on who you ask, but most journalists understand that there is a particular look that one finds most often in television news.

Whether they are new to the business or veteran journalists, Black women say age is another factor against them as they struggle over hard fought on- air positions. Kindle, a veteran television news reporter says, “you reach a time when you’re too old. … And for whatever reason, the consultants say, ‘you need a different face’ sometimes it’s a younger face.”29 Even managers say they usually have an idea of the look they want for a particular newscast before they meet a potential hire. Sharp, a Black general manager at a number one news station discloses, “It’s an appearance based business. … You travel enough and when you turn on the television the women look a certain way, the men look a certain way whether they’re Black, White,

Hispanic, there’s sort of a mold that people have found works and gets them hired.”30 Black journalists say it’s not an either-or situation; if you are a Black television journalist, you are expected to possess both good looks and be a better than good journalist.31 Image consultants not only collaborate with management on constructing a certain way of looking toward branding news talent, they also work with management in constructing and maintaining a certain way of speaking. Language cannot be separated from power. Journalists whose language is outside of the more valued speech pattern of the White Midwest standard is subject to scrutiny. Management teams and their consultants decide what is illegitimate or legitimate, valued or devalued language. They also decide the boundaries of language that extend beyond spoken language.32

Furthermore, marginalized journalists are constantly negotiating the racialized and gendered hierarchies of newsroom culture and the hard earned positions within it. The organization of a newsroom and the sparse positions of power that Black journalists hold reflect how “the nation” is constituted and shapes the way we think about the world. For instance, Kindle’s struggle against ageism and Sharp’s candid discussion of “the look” in television news that gets journalists hired, points to placement practices and representational strategies within the newsroom that polices, maintains, and sustains hierarchies of race, gender, and sexuality. Age is one of the signifying markers of one’s value to a newsroom and the network news brand that is linked to these hierarchized categories. Ageism is a major factor in terms of job security and is a method of value assessment that is more to the detriment of women than men. There are visibly more men than women working in positions of power in the television news industry.33 The numbers decrease significantly for women past 50 years of age.34

Opportunities for promotion and job security are bleaker for Black journalists than White journalists35 regardless of age. A Pew Research Center study reports that “Just 10% of the local TV news workforce was black in 2013. … That’s a decline from 2009, when the rate peaked at 12%, according to RTDNA/Hofstra University’s survey on women and minority employment in local broadcasting. But it’s identical to the percentage RTDNA recorded in its 1994 survey.”36 News corporations shape our view of the world in which we live to the detriment of everyone. The challenges that journalists confront in their careers belie claims of being in a Post- Racial society.

Marginalized journalists exercise agency in a variety of ways: Both Ed

and Sojourner are more inclusive of perspectives in reporting stories that contest stereotypes of “Blackness” and the ways news management, colleagues, videographers, editors, and other newsroom workers may wield power to place limitations on understandings of “Blackness.” Journalists attending the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) expressed frustration, anger, and sadness over a racist story reported by WBBM-TV— a CBS affiliate news station in Chicago. The station’s broadcast of an interview with a Black 4-year-old child regarding a shooting was distorted to make the child appear prone to violence. One of the journalists at the NABJ conference said that the raw footage of the interview had been leaked and uploaded to YouTube. Upon saying the word “leaked,” the journalist exchanged knowing glances with the other Black journalists, who shared other stories of journalism ethics violations at their respective stations. It was clear from the smirks and subsequent conversation that the person who leaked the information was present and unapologetic. Everyone who spoke up within earshot felt that leaking the raw footage was justified and was the best approach to the initial ignorance within the newsroom. Most of the journalists interviewed expressed frustration and anger over a Black child being identified on television as a witness to a violent crime and the child’s interview being taken out of context; some said they were not surprised. The United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF37) guidelines on interviewing children include portraying children fairly.38 Hagit Limor, the president of the Society of Professional Journalists, spoke out against the distorted report saying it was a clear violation of journalism ethics.

Black journalists’ efforts against ideology that supports static notions of “Blackness” reveal the ways ideas about “Blackness” never solidify. It is this very contestation39 that denies the concrete meaning of “Blackness.” Like the journalist who leaked the raw footage and exposed a violation of journalism ethics at WBBM-TV in Chicago, marginalized journalists do find ways to react against distortions directed at them and their raced group. This maneuverability relies heavily on the tactician seizing a moment of opportunity. Field observations and interviews of journalists point to the ruptures, fissures, and subtle forms of resistance that operate beneath the radar of media managers who abuse their power. The power of social media to expose ethics violations becomes a valuable weapon against power as an absolute. Carving out counter-hegemonic spaces of difference is challenging but cannot be discounted by Gitlin’s understanding of hegemony40 as consent from below. Journalists interviewed report having to negotiate between being themselves and the manufactured product that

management teams promote. Such negotiations provide opportunities of resistance at strategic moments.

Another form of resistance utilized by marginalized journalists in response to management’s attempt to control them is “Speaking without either saying or being silent.”41 The act of speaking takes on many forms including nonverbal forms of communication. During field observations, reporters find ways to undermine time constraints imposed upon them. Time is neither always within the absolute control of the stories being pursued nor is it within the control of the media managers who send news talent out in the field to pursue them. Overworked and unrecognized reporters out in the field often use silence as a form of resistance. Management back at the station finds that the two-way radios, cellular phones, police scanners, and other modes of communication tend to function poorly when management incessantly piles on stories that are unfairly lower in the hierarchy of the newscast rundown. Most journalists regard this as “busy work” that is usually assigned to marginalized journalists not thought worthy of the major story assignments at the top of the newscast rundown hierarchy. Negotiating “Blackness” carries deeper meaning when interrogating how management decides on the best journalist in a given market and how management decides who is marketable. Decisions of marketability include assessments of how one looks and speaks in ways that fit the corporate news media standard. Furthermore, management decisions supporting standard practices of newsroom culture become part of the policing process of a station’s branding efforts.

PERFECTING SELF-IMAGE FOR THE SAKE OF SELF-PRESERVATION

While working closely with a local television station’s appointed image consultant, Saul, a mid-career Black journalist covering national and international news, was told that he needed to work on being himself.42

Working on being himself involves learning what management deems: “conversational talk,” writing for television, “story telling,” a professional “on camera appearance”43 and posture. Local, national, and international news stations adhere to a basic formula of set standards for on-air talent success. This set standard contributes to the perception of how the human and by extension “the nation” is constituted and how racial hierarchies play a role in how people are positioned and organized in the scheme of “the

nation.” While discussing his professionalization process, Saul says, “being

himself” is “work.” As the only Black male journalist at his station, Saul grapples with a double consciousness44 that is in constant negotiation between how he self-identifies and his assigned identity representing the network brand of palatability. In other words, he is often required to disavow his sense of self for an identity and the language (Hall 1997) attached to that identity that management deems appropriate and professional. Saul’s self-identity becomes a phantom in other people’s minds—replaced by the station’s representation of Black palatability under the terms and conditions of Whiteness.45 The powers that be promote a nuanced window dressing of individual journalists’ self-identity that disseminates “Blackness” and a dominant view of the world in keeping with the culture and philosophy of the television station and its network affiliates. It is often assumed that the culture and philosophy of television stations translates into higher ratings and revenue because they believe they are catering to what the audience wants.

Saul said that his news director hired an image consultant to tell him to take his hands off the (anchor) desk and away from the paper. The news director’s rationale was that when individuals speak using their hands, it “shows that (they’re) being genuine and that’s what the viewers wanna see —genuine (authentic) conversational people … peering out at them in their living room, or kitchen, or bedroom telling them the news of the day.”46 It is interesting that most image consultants, talent agents, and media management construct the client’s audience as possessing the same “grid of intelligibility”47 as station owners and management in constructing what “being genuine” means and the corresponding body language indicative of that particular meaning.

Furthermore, the uninhabitability48 of static “Blackness” becomes a site of struggle for Black journalists under the scrutiny of image consultants trained in “the art of government”49 to elicit desired results. Being a journalist while Black means it is crucial to quickly translate and understand the difference between a suggestion and a job security threat by the news director. News management are known to use image consultants and talent agents to facilitate governing and policing newsroom culture and the journalists who step out of line with that culture and its representational language. Performing a “normal conversational self” is “hard” when definitions of normality occlude Black journalists and the vernacular specific to their cultural expression and mode of communication.

UNINHABITABLE “BLACKNESS”

The uninhabitability of stereotypes50 (Hall 1997; DuBois 1969; Lorde 1981; Fanon 1967) motivates the negotiation of one’s race, gender, and sexual identity. Black journalists are often caught between the newsroom culture that is not supportive of the difference they bring to the stories they report and knowing when to fight for a story that reflects the broader perspectives of their own complicated identities. This in-between space becomes a psychic battleground for building strategy and tactics against disseminating stereotypes and the individuals in the newsroom who subscribe to them.

Saul sees himself as neither an activist nor someone intentionally engaging in acts of resistance against racism; yet his actions denote resistance. He continues to challenge the individuals whose actions in the newsroom are racist even if they do not see their actions as such. He “bumps back”51 when others in the newsroom see him and/or the people in the stories he reports through stereotypical understandings of humanity. Given what is at stake in terms of employment, Saul makes a case against disseminating stereotypes because it feels right52 (Lorde 1984, 16) to do so. We can train ourselves to respect our feelings and to transpose them into language so they can be shared. Saul says he has plenty of examples of moments of going with his gut despite the danger in doing so—in other words, respecting his feelings and speaking up when he felt that the integrity of the newscast is threatened by stereotypical images.

Saul went up against management by arguing to remove what he saw as stereotypes threatening a story assignment about a Black boy who allegedly murdered a White girl. The parents of the White girl thought that the Black boy was the sole perpetrator of the crime even though they were told that a White guy the family knew was said to be an accomplice. Saul’s frustration surfaced during our interview as he recalls, “… they were like, ‘no way he couldn’t have done it, we’ve known this boy for years and he could never do anything like this—it was the Black kid.’” When Saul reported that the White guy was suspected of being an accomplice, the girl’s parents stepped in, and management got more actively involved in policing that aspect of the story. Saul says that including a different perspective was difficult from the very beginning: “Me being the only Black reporter at that particular time covering the story, they thought I was showing favoritism toward the Black suspect and was getting the story all screwed up. So they called the news director, the general management of the station, and complained about me.” Management did not support Saul despite its admission that he had “his facts

and figures together.” Management called Saul into the office and took him off the story. Saul says it “was another incident where racism plays a key part” in his removal from a story where he is the “clear minority” and “the only Black correspondent on the scene.” He tries not to let it eat at him,53

but it bothers him to know that his White colleagues are not held to the same level of strict scrutiny.54 The hyper skepticism that he is subjected to marks him as untrustworthy—his “Blackness” blinding him to their vision of the world as factual. He worries about the possibility of promotion as he works toward an unattainable standard of story authenticity when attempts are made to force myths, stereotypes, and shock value into story content.

Other measures of authenticity and professionalism have to do with developing and transforming “talent” to better fit the television station’s brand of trustworthiness that assumes recognizable forms. A collaboration of management, talent agents, and image consultants guide this process. Professionalizing toward a palatable “Blackness” that appeals to the sensibilities of television news management and its advertisers is nothing new. However, there are occasions when journalists say that image consultants and talent agents are useful—especially for mediating management and news talent disagreements. Some of the journalists interviewed for this study also report a “tremendous improvement”55 after just a few sessions of working with image consultants—although “improvement” is often used in terms of the reward system that is predominantly controlled by media management. Journalists receive feedback from their bosses through an intricate “chain of command” in which image consultants and talent agents play a key role.

“Improvement” may also come to mean that reporters and anchors agree and comply with management’s explicit and/or implicit demands. As discussed earlier, Black journalists cannot underestimate the “power in news management”56 to remove certain facts from a story and deploy “strategies of containment”57 like removing an opposing reporter from his/her story. The power to define the terms and conditions through which we make sense of the world does not stop there. Journalists are trained on how to look, speak, move, stand, use their hands, eyebrows, etc. Body language and aesthetics play major roles in assigning meaning to the audio/visual elements of a news report, the news anchors/reporters themselves, and promotional advertisements for a television station. News management teams are heavily invested in shaping the body language and appearance of news talent to convey the branding message and slogan58 of the network affiliate. Using news talent, stories, and promos to stay on

message normalizes the one-dimensional limited perspective fits all approach. It is understandable that television news journalists feel so much pressure to fit the mold of newsroom culture and its system of reward and punishment. They are on the front lines of struggle against the master narrative of our lived realities.

PROFESSIONALIZING PRACTICE

Conversations and interviews with Black journalists, their managers, and image consultants shed light on the meanings they assign to the word ‘professional’ as a state of being. Tom, a long standing talent agent says, that when people first come to him for representation with terrific writing and communication skills and a really good voice but have what he sees as “sloppy” hair, makeup, and wardrobe, he will tell them, “hey listen up, fix your hair, do this, get a decent suit, that color doesn’t work for you, and fix your makeup and send me another tape. …” Tom does not see giving such advice as being an image consultant—he sees it as “just giving them good constructive feedback,” which is what he says, “clients want. …”59 He sees himself as an “advisor and counselor” who guides clients along in their career. The role of advisor and counselor constructs him as passive participant in mediating and selling the dominant notion of the human that pays particular attention to physical appearance. Tom says, “all I do is give advice. It is up to my client to take that advice or leave it. …” He sees his job as providing a service to not just help journalists find a job but to “tell them how they can improve themselves …”60 He adds that he has found over the years that “there’s a growing obsession with women’s hair in our business, and it’s not just African American women’s hair, it’s all women’s hair.” Tom attributes this “obsession with women’s hair … particularly the female anchor” to “the research and the focus groups” that reflect what “viewers care about.” The focus groups, according to Tom, “don’t care as much” about women reporters’ hair not being picture perfect because of weather conditions out in the field, “it’s windy … they forgive it,” but “when you’re in a studio (anchoring), they want that hair to be perfect.”

One of the definitions for perfection that Tom offered had little to do with a particular look and more to do with avoiding too much differentiation. He says, “When your hair, as a female anchor, looks different every day, I think that’s very problematic for the management at the stations because I think it’s problematic for the viewers; that’s what they’re hearing.” Tom says that developing a professional appearance is not a matter of management

opinion and suggests it is about “the viewers and what they want.” He adds that “they (management) don’t want to alienate the viewer.” Tom gives the same advice to his clients in anticipation of what the managers will say about a reporter’s or anchor’s appearance and insists, “it’s not a race-based comment, it’s just a female-based comment. … All I can do is give my opinion as a person and a professional, as to what looks nice and what doesn’t. …”61 More often than not “what looks nice” translates into Black female journalists using chemical straighteners, wearing weaves and wigs that emulate as closely as possible the White European hair textures and styles. The “viewers” to whom Tom refers to are constructed in terms of the dominant culture order. Viewers as dictated by focus groups are psychoanalyzed as experiencing feelings of alienation when they see people who do not look like them. In other words, viewers are disturbed by Black journalists who do not have a look that reflects a definition of “perfect” that values and foregrounds the White standard of beauty.62

Examining more closely what Black journalists and management say regarding developing and maintaining professionalism aesthetically reveals that Black journalists must reconcile the tension between wanting to look the part and facing rejection if they choose to go against the advice of management. Sharp, a Black general manager in a top twenty market, agrees with Tom’s assessment saying, “hair can be distracting for viewers which has nothing to do with the race of the individual.” He equally finds “huge blonde bouffent hair—on a White female anchor … very distracting.”63

Sharp says at the end of the day, it’s an appearance based business, adding:

I think that people that want to succeed in this business, realize that, and for the most part, tend to not do things that they think would take away from their opportunity to be successful. So, those that are pushing that envelope—and I’m not saying it’s not an envelope that deserves to be pushed, but those who are pushing that envelope—I would guess are generally people who are in positions already at a station who then, for whatever reason, decide they wanna sort of take this on whether it’s because they’re tired of spending hours with their hair or not.

Visual cues are very telling. Sharp admits that one look around the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Convention and one would be hard pressed not to find that the journalists promoting their journalism skills are women and men who could almost all be cut out of the same cookie- cutter stance:

You travel enough and when you turn on the television the women look a certain way, the men look a certain way whether they’re Black, White, Hispanic, there’s sort of a mold that people have found works and gets them hired. So, I don’t know if it’s so much that we’re doing it or that we as management are doing it, or is it that they’re doing it to themselves by saying, “I’m going to have that Tracy Ross pageboy because that’s what’ll get me hired.” I don’t think you have a whole lot of young journalists running around with twists and with dreads trying to get their first job and I think that’s very telling.64

What does it tell us? Is it what the focus groups, anchors, and reporters want or is it in response to coercive “strategies of containment” (Fiske 1987, 283) that people look a certain way for more possibilities for employment and promotion? Some Black journalists voice difference and struggle over representations of “Blackness” that are too confining. Saul says:

I don’t think it should be an issue. I mean you see this everyday out in the community and that person. … I mean nobody really has a problem if they’re in a job you know behind a desk in a key executive position wearing their hair like that—why should it be different if you’re in front of the camera? I mean, that’s just part of a culture, that’s part of, maybe part of the fad at that particular time that’s the latest hairstyle and you know when Bo Derek had the beads and everything that was the look— so why can’t that be transferred to an on air look?65

Sojourner disagrees and says we all know that we have to assimilate by checking our differences at the door of the newsroom.

Okay, here’s the issue … what is our job as a journalist? It is the dissemination of information; it is to impart information, to tell a story. We don’t become the story. We are the conduit by which the story is told. Okay? If you have a hair style, if you have a lisp, if you have … crazy eyebrows, if you have bright orange lipstick, if you have any of the things that are going to detract from the message, then you’re not becoming and being an effective communicator, that’s it [she says decisively]. That is the bottom line, and I think what happens is people have a tendency to just itch for a fight over, “well you can’t tell me that’s a … this is my heritage” and blah blah, and on and on and on, well … we all have to [pregnant pause] assimilate somewhat in the work place. I think we all know that; we all do, leave certain behavior,

characterizations, traits, whatever behind when we come in. We don’t show all of our cards when we come in, in the newsroom.66

Most Black journalists refuse to acquiesce on this issue, but others understand that there are some who choose to stay the course toward the long fight over being represented under the terms and conditions of Whiteness (Harris 1993). Ida says playing all of our cards too soon takes Black journalists out of the game to enable the effective change that needs to happen in the newsroom. She got her hair braided after becoming a seasoned journalist.

I think my overall appearance is consistent, relatively conservative because that’s what was drilled in me not at any particular station but in journalism school. … I resent the implication that it’s not “professional” ‘cause my hair is not my professionalness; it’s my crown. … I know young ‘brothahs’ I’ve met, an intern or two will come to the newsroom with dreads or braids or locks or whatever and I’ve pulled them aside and said, “you know, it’s a flattering look and you fine as frogs hair, but Opie [in reference to a character on a 1960s popular sitcom entitled, The Andy Griffith Show that serves as code for White male] will be interviewing you or an African American or minority manager who might have been trained by Opie and … whether you like it or not this is why they call it mainstream. You don’t want to be off putting to any of your viewers and yes, I got some phone calls from viewers … when I got my braids it wasn’t all forgiven.”67

Most management sees African textured hair as unprofessional whether an individual is working on or off air in the television news industry.

Black women journalists say that straightening their hair is more about job security than convenience or preference. Violet, a mid-career producer says that in choosing to straighten her hair—“dollars make sense.” Violet who has rarely had to go on-air says:

Even though I was not on air. And as I got older … I never was resentful of the fact that I had to change my hair and … some people say, “I’m never gonna change my hair, I’m not gonna straighten it” and you know, blah, blah, blah. But when you’re on the road and you’re in Middle America and a lot of these places don’t have a large African American population and you’re going out to secure stories and you’re going out to interview people—They don’t see many African Americans but they

definitely don’t see many African American news producers, the boss, and I don’t need my hair to be the focus of the attention, I need the stories to be the focus. … And it also meant for me in dollars and cents … about a 25-thousand dollar pay increase from a broadcast associate to an associate producer to—well … from a junior associate producer —to a full associate within a year.68

Earnest, a White news director in Mississippi, says he does not look for the typical cookie-cutter anchor appearance. He gives more value to hiring journalists who are professional. He seems to define “professional” journalists in terms of their ability to relate to the market rather than appearance saying, “as cosmetic a business as this is, I don’t think I’d want a room full of models. I don’t think in North Mississippi that’s what would relate to the general public.” He also defines professional as being “well groomed, well dressed, people who enunciate, people who speak clearly … and people who communicate well.”69 Most interview participants agree that Earnest is an exception particularly when it comes to Black journalists being hired with hairstyles that are not chemically or otherwise straightened. Most Black journalists work for management who subscribe to the dominant notion of the human that renders Black journalists unprofessional when they look, think, and write from a perspective of difference.

A reporter who preferred to be called Angela confronts a pattern and practice of racist hostility toward Black journalists struggling against dominant notions of professionalism branded onto Black bodies in a multitude of ways.

When it comes to my hair I definitely think that I have been passed over for a number of different opportunities. …70 The Assistant News Director has alluded to the idea that my news director is uncomfortable or unsure about my hairstyle but would never come out and say so. …71

There is one person in the newsroom who might make a comment about you know if I wear my hair curly one day or long and you know without the curls or the waves in it will make a comment about being able to pull on it like reins, but that’s about it.

She said it so nonchalantly, I sought clarification—“pull on it like … reins on a horse?” She responded, “yeah u-huh. Would that be sexual harassment?” It was more than sexual harassment; it was also a racist remark that I would have expected to provoke anything but laughter from

Angela. Seeing my confusion, Angela explained, “… you just kind of like, let that stuff go because I could be just as crude. …” In an effort to discuss the dehumanizing nature of the comment, I sought clarification on how it made her feel to work with someone—a White male colleague—who talked about her hair in such a demeaning manner. The psychic and symbolic violence72 of his comment should have been apparent to anyone in earshot. When asked a follow-up question about what type of action she took, she responded, “You don’t because if I do I’d probably lose my job so you know you laugh it off.”73 Her White male colleague’s lack of professionalism, as demonstrated by his racist remark, went unchecked and unpunished.

One of the most disturbing findings of this study is that most racist, sexist, and/or homophobic remarks directed at Black journalists often go unchecked in newsrooms across the country. Black journalists say that confronting these issues is not always worth the trouble when “baby needs shoes,”74 “it’s not rent; it’s now a mortgage,”75 and jobs are at stake. Black journalists are held to a higher standard of professionalism than their White colleagues. Some of the ways in which they resist are not easily identifiable because of the necessity of subtlety in the strategies and tactics of resistance76 they employ.

UNDERMINE ’EM WITH GRINS

One of the characters in Ellison’s, Invisible Man, who “had been the meekest of men,” advised on his deathbed that his grandson live with his head in the lion’s mouth and “overcome ’em with yeses, undermine ’em with grins, agree ’em to death and destruction, let ’em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open,” he then added in his last breath “Learn it to the younguns” (Ellison 1947, 16). The transmitted memory of the grandfather’s lived experience points to the ways in which resistance to oppression may be as subtle as what James Scott describes as “foot dragging” (1985, 29– 30) or as subtle as Ida, the veteran reporter who is open about pulling Black journalists new to the game aside and providing useful strategies against racist practices in the newsroom. A subtlety of resistance for Black journalists like Angela means living with her head in the lion’s mouth and undermining ’em with laughter in order to “live to fight another day.”77

Angela understands that management and most of her colleagues choose not to see her humanity and makes a conscious decision to “laugh it off” or

as Ellison says, “undermine ’em with grins.” Ed, the reporter mentioned earlier in the chapter, is well aware of being seen as the stereotype and takes preemptive measures to avoid being on management’s radar by being strategic about the battles he wages and following his father’s advice of focusing only on what he is able to control—how he reacts to the racist conditions of newsroom culture. Sojourner chooses to engage in as few battles as possible and work harder than everyone else in order to render herself visible when she applies for promotion.

Working harder than White colleagues is the most common strategy expressed by interview participants who are constantly struggling against the stereotype of “Blackness” being linked to laziness. At the same time, Black journalists respond to these circumstances in a variety of ways. For instance, Sharp places his focus on the bottom line of ratings and revenue. He also has his own rules about when and where it is appropriate to highlight one’s differences to newsroom culture, which will be discussed in chapter 5. As a veteran reporter, Ida has a lift-as-you-climb philosophy and helps young colleagues make better decisions toward job security, while using her veteran journalist status to challenge assumptions about beauty standards. Violet is constantly thinking through her next strategy to get promoted; like Ed, she is keen to choose her battles wisely. Tom’s allegiance is with getting his clients employed at the highest salary possible, which at times means allying with some of the racist practices of management.

News management places some of the responsibility for hiring practices and news content upon the research and focus groups that reflect a target audience for television stations across the country. Focus groups are used to make decisions regarding the production, circulation, and enactment of “Blackness.”78 The construction of a monolithic viewer must necessarily lend itself to an epistemology of the world through human categories, which is why the talent agent, Tom, describes his comments on potential and current clients as “female-based” and “race-based.” He is reluctant to speak about women in terms of race and sexuality because it would take him out of his supposed safety zone of the melting pot myth that serves to close off discussions of the politics of race, gender, and sexuality. He also relies on the banality of categories like “female” to support his construction of a monolithic wo/man. Tom’s approach promotes professionalism in ways that deny individual differences among wo/men and the richness of perspectives that a newscast is supposed to reflect.

Most of the journalists interviewed say difference could get in the way of a story, listing things like hairstyle, crazy eyebrows, bright orange lipstick,

and speaking with a lisp—although this last point did not hurt Barbara Walters’ career. One journalist said “We don’t become the story”79 while acknowledging relations of power involved adding, “We all have to assimilate.”80 Another journalist who has worked in various markets across the country says African textured/styled hair is off-putting. She made the statement after noticing that her braids signify unforgivable “Blackness”81 in newsroom culture. A journalist on the East Coast says without question she experienced economic rewards for straightening her hair.82 Another journalist in the Southern U.S. struggled over the psychic and symbolic violence of standardizing beauty as her boss alluded to being “uncomfortable” with her locked hair. Her struggle intensified when a coworker in the presence of other newsroom staff described her hair with “the total absence of human recognition,”83 making a comment about being able to pull on her hair like reins on a horse rendering the black female body animalistic. The total absence of human recognition can be seen in the demands for the cookie-cutter look for anyone working in television news, but pressures to emulate that look is experienced more intensely by Black journalists. The popularity of the cookie-cutter look among media owners and management is “very telling” according to a veteran general manager in the television news industry.

Telling indeed and a detriment to everyone in the struggle where plastic surgery, breast implants, collagen lip implants, and cookie-cutter hair seems to be the norm. The dominant culture order makes claims on body image in private and professional space.

… not everybody wants to discuss it, but you do notice the difference, you can’t help but notice when somebody who was a C cup comes back (to the newsroom) with a double-D. … I pray that it wasn’t considered a career thing. You know? I don’t believe in non-elective surgery. If it’s not savin’ my life I’m probably not gonna go for it, but everybody’s different, and however you feel about your body image, is your business. I mean … when Oprah got the green contact lenses, people talked, but that’s her prerogative, this is America.84

Whether or not her coworkers get non-elective surgery for their career, getting it in general is “very celebrated”85 in her market.

Due to the history of racism, sexism, and heteronormativity within many TV news stations, marginalized journalists also face the constant threat of pending job loss. James, a Black gay male journalist confides that news

management at his station has a long history of removing its Black anchors. He says that “if the ratings are not going to shoot through the roof in twelve seconds, then it’s got to be the Black guy or girl’s fault, and we’ll take them off the air before we will take the White person off the air.”86 This particular television station has a noticeable preference for hiring blondes, which a change in news directors did not seem to cure. He says that management hiring decisions caused enough unease in the newsroom to raise a few eyebrows and questions. James, an embattled reporter aspiring to be an anchor, did not expect much more than staying where he was placed because all of the male anchors at his station are White with new management making only two exceptions. James explains:

When the new guy came in he hired five people off the bat: one was an African American woman—one of my good friends from college— another was Hispanic and three blonde chicks. So they’re all women number one, which is interesting, he leans towards blondes for everything. All of our freelancers are blonde; all of them are blonde.87

James was also aware of management’s covert rationale saying, “‘… we’ve hired our tokens, we can just hire all blondes, and no one’ll notice,’ but everybody notices, even the blonde people at the station notice, you know, even the White people at the station notice, and they’re all like ‘what’s the freakin’ deal?’”88 Yet and still, his White colleagues were unwilling to take overt action against management.

In his attempt to try and make sense of it all, I observed him during the interview grappling with possible explanations that may lead to some sort of strategy for getting promoted in a hostile heteronormative newsroom culture. His struggle is difficult to witness; his moments of silence throughout the interview speak volumes about disappointment in his chosen profession. When he regains his composure and voice, he says:

It just has to be something to do with the White straight guy sitting in the office and you know, as long as he’s in there, and as long as there are White straight guys in management positions it’s going to be that much harder for any Black person regardless of orientation [sexual] to get a job and certainly any dark haired White person (laughs) to get a job at our station (laughs). God, at least hire a brunette for cryin’ out loud. I mean, what is it like 90-percent brunettes and 10-percent blondes just across America alone?89

His sense of humor provides space for detour90 along this painful road of recollection.

Management attempts at branding nonetheless operate in a variety of ways. Although he was “out” in the newsroom, he was not out to the community.91 He says that as a gay Black man, he is uncomfortable with being branded heterosexual. He seems particularly uncomfortable with the realization that his long-awaited promotion to the anchor desk has been repeatedly blocked because of the heteronormative newsroom culture standard of hiring status quo “straight White male(s).” He has invested a lot of years in the business, paid his dues, and knows that his perspective of difference is an asset to any television newscast.

James’s response is not very different from other Black journalists, who have been passed up for promotions until their brand of “Blackness” is accepted by management and deemed marketable. At the same time, challenges faced by Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual journalists of color are especially complex, given that they are expected to bring higher ratings more quickly than their White colleagues. Indeed, their struggle is real and will remain this way as long as the status quo within TV newsrooms continues to be branded and dictated by White straight men who dominate high level management positions.

SUMMARY

The experiences of Black journalists shared in this chapter illustrate the extent to which news directors who are White and most often male make value judgments on ability, appearance, story ideas, and journalists’ commitment to the network brand, which ultimately decide where journalists are placed within the hierarchy of newsroom culture and newscast. These value judgments set the tone of newsroom culture and act as a cue for viewing audience perceptions of the nation, North America, Americanness, and our worldview. Sharp says management may use a formula that creates “continuity” by setting the tone, the culture, and the philosophy of the corporate television news organization that is not only considered efficient but has proven valuable in “taking (a) station forward.”92 He is usually apprised of decisions concerning the news department and has the ultimate authority on who should be producing what show, who should be anchoring what show, etc. Sharp also takes a cautionary turn on general management style by saying that “being involved

in the minutia is not of service to any of us.”93 This is why he leaves daily decisions on what the product94 looks like to the news director.95

Being one of a select few of Blacks in upper management is a tremendous responsibility and balancing act. As I demonstrated in this chapter, holding a coveted management position as a Black man is rare. Some Blacks in management seek out opportunities to “dis-ally” with the politics of television station owners, their bosses, and advertisers. They may also take a hands-off approach if the news director chooses to impose on others limited understandings of “Blackness” that is not seen as a threat to management’s bottom line of higher ratings and revenue. Black upper management like Sharp must be more mindful than White colleagues of when and where to intervene in training sessions and the news production process wherein journalists are expected to project a palatable presentation of “Blackness” that fits the newsroom culture and network brand. Like his marginalized colleagues, Sharp’s mindfulness is shaped by the vulnerability of being hyper visible as a Black gay man. He deflects attention from how he identifies by being better than most at his job, getting results, and being evasive about his sexuality and yet honest when cornered about it. This approach has proven effective in maintaining his position in upper management.

NOTES

1. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 1947), pp. 3–4.

2. Ed, Interview Transcript, lines 29–30, 2002. 3. Ed, lines 539–540, 558–560, 2002. 4. Jason Blair is a Black journalist who was forced to resign from the

New York Times in May 2003, after he was caught plagiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories. On April 28, 2003, Blair was contacted by The New York Times national editor Jim Roberts, inquiring about similarities between a story he had written two days earlier and one written by Macarena Hernandez April 18th for the San Antonio Express News. Hernandez, who had a summer internship at The New York Times years earlier, had worked with Blair. She notified the newspaper editors after details and quotes in Blair’s story appeared to be the same quotes and details she had written. Blair’s plagiarism of Hernandez’s article was so blatant that it led to further investigations by The New York Times editors, who asked him to prove

that he had traveled to Texas and interviewed the woman in his article. Blair was unable to provide proof and resigned from the newspaper on May 2, 2003. Following Blair’s resignation, an internal investigation of all of Blair’s New York Times articles began. The investigation uncovered 36 of the 73 national news stories Blair had filed since October 2002, were suspected of being fabricated and/or copied from other sources.

5. Ed, lines 441–480, 2002. 6. Ed, 335–348, 2002. 7. Sojourner, Interview Transcript, lines 454–455, 2003. 8. Maurice Blanchot, “The Infinite Conversation.” Theory and History of

Literature, Volume 82: 31–32. Translation and Foreword by Susan Hanson (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1983).

9. Ed, lines 625–626, 2002. 10. Minh-ha Trinh, Woman, Native, Other Writing Postcoloniality and

Feminism (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989), p. 6.

11. Audrey Smedley, Race in North America, Origin and Evolution of a Worldview (Second Edition) (Colorado: Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 1999).

12. E. Patrick Johnson, “‘Quare’ Studies, Or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned From My Grandmother.” In Black Queer Studies, A Critical Anthology, Edited by Johnson, E. Patrick and Mae G. Henderson (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005), pp. 124–157.

13. Ed, lines 559–560, 2002. 14. Richard Wright, Native Son and How Bigger Was Born (New York,

NY: Harper Perennial, 1993), p. xxiv. 15. Ellison 1947, 3–4. 16. Ed, lines 566–577, 2002. 17. Michel De Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Los

Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1984), p. xix. 18. Ed, line 984, 2002. 19. Ed, lines 471–474, 2002. 20. Catherine Johnson, Branding Television (Abingdon, Oxon; New York:

Routledge, 2012). Johnson discusses the shift toward branding in television news and other programs in an attempt to manage the behavior of viewers. She argues that marketing and design play a

major role in the process. Her work offers a point of departure for discussing the different types of branding practices within the television news industry with a focus on marginalized journalists. Peter Bjelskou, Branded Women in U.S. Television: When People Become Corporations (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014), 109. Bjelskou says that “television highjacks certain discourses and naturalizes certain behaviors” and affects “ongoing cultural negotiations.” Jennifer Gillan, Television Brandcasting: The Return of the Content-Promotion Hybrid (Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014). Gillan discusses branded storytelling and the roles television content, promotion, and hybrids of the two have played in disseminating brand messaging and influencing consumer decision making. She also discusses how the influence of new technologies became the catalyst for shifting business models and branding techniques.

21. Smedley 1999, 22–23. 22. David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen, eds. Stuart Hall, Critical

Dialogues in Cultural Studies (London and New York: Routledge, 1996), p. 472. Because “Cultural hegemony is never about pure victory or pure domination … [and] it is always about shifting the balance of power in the relations of culture,” it is important that “by definition, black popular culture is a contradictory space. It is a site of strategic contestation.” Hall’s analysis speaks to hooks’ “touch of essentialism” and Spivak’s “strategic essentialism.”

23. Stuart Hall—Representation and the Media. Produced and Directed by Sut Jhally. United Kingdom: The Open University, 1997. DVD, 55 min. Editors: Sanjay Talreja, Sut Jhally, and Mary Patierno, opening excerpt from “Hollywood Shuffle,” written and directed by Robert Townsend, excerpts from Marlon Riggs,’ “Color Adjustment.” Films courtesy of California Newsreel. Copyright—The Media Education Foundation 1997.

24. Zora Neale Hurston, “My People! My People!” Dust Tracks on a Road, An Autobiography (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984), p. 229.

25. Sojourner, lines 222–225, 2003. 26. Sojourner, line 228, 2003. 27. Sojourner, lines 242–252, 2003. 28. Tom, Interview Transcript, line 80, 2002. 29. Kindle, Interview Transcript, lines 129–131, 2004. 30. Sharp, Interview Transcript, lines 293–305, 2004.

31. Sojourner, 77–79, 2003. 32. Stuart Hall—Representation and the Media. Video Time Code:

00:24:35–00:25:26, 1997. 33. Women’s Media Center, Women’s Media Center: The Status of Women

in the U.S. Media Report, Edited by Cristal Williams Chancellor et al. (Washington, DC, 2014), 15–16.

34. Nichola D. Gutgold, Seen and Heard: The Women of Television News (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008). Nichola D. Gutgold, “Women in Television News Still Face Ageism in the United States,” Rowman & Littlefield, January 5, 2010. http://rowmanblog.typepad.com/rowman/2010/01/women-in- television-news-still-face-ageism-in-the-united-states.html. Paula Poindexter, Sharon Meraz, and Amy Schmitz Weiss, Women, Men and News: Divided and Disconnected in the News Media Landscape (New York: Routledge, 2008).

35. National Association of Black Journalists 2012 Diversity Census, “An Examination of Television Newsroom Management,” Edited and produced by Phillipa Mould et al. (College Park, MD: NABJ, 2012). Erik De La Garza, “Broadcaster Calls Gannett TV Racist,” Courthouse News Service, February 26, 2014. http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/02/26/65658.htm.

36. Monica Anderson, “As News Business Takes a Hit, the Number of Black Journalists declines,” Pew Research Center, August 1, 2014. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/01/as-news-business- takes-a-hit-the-number-of-black-journalists-declines/.

37. Formerly known as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.

38. Julia Bard, Loretta Hieber, Virginie Louis, Mike Jempson,Anna Kelson, Bruno Romazzotti, Andrea Khan, “Children and the Media— Interviewing Children.” UNICEF. http://www.unicef.org/magic/briefing/childmedia_interview.html. Alan Chin. “Interviewing Children: Guidelines for Journalists.” DART Center for Journalism & Trauma: Columbia Journalism School Project., January 31, 2013. http://dartcenter.org/content/interviewing- children-guide-for-journalists#.VOgCNELKe7c.

39. Stuart Hall, ed., Representation, Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices—Culture, Media, and Identities (London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1997). As Stuart Hall points out, meaning is never fixed; it is always under contestation,

http://rowmanblog.typepad.com/rowman/2010/01/women-in-television-news-still-face-ageism-in-the-united-states.html

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/02/26/65658.htm

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/01/as-news-business-takes-a-hit-the-number-of-black-journalists-declines/

http://www.unicef.org/magic/briefing/childmedia_interview.html

http://dartcenter.org/content/interviewing-children-guide-for-journalists#.VOgCNELKe7c

shifting. 40. Gitlin 1980, 9–10. 41. Blanchot1983, 31–32. 42. Saul, Interview Transcript, line 52, 2002. 43. Saul, lines 52–64, 2002. 44. W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (New York, Scarborough,

Ontario: A Signet Classic, New American Library, 1969), pp. 214– 215. W.E.B. DuBois speaks to the experience of being Black in the United States, writing, “It is a peculiar sensation, this double- consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels (his/her) twoness,an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

45. Cheryl I. Harris, “Whiteness As Property.” Harvard Law Review, 106.8 (1993): 1710–1791. Harris argues that concepts of racial identity and property operate toward the maintenance of racial hierarchies in the U.S.

46. Saul, lines 86–88, 2002. 47. Paola BacchettaMaese-Cohen Marcelle, “Decolonial Praxis Enabling

Intranational and Queer Coalition Building.” Project MUSE, Today’s Research. Tomorrow’s Inspiration, 18.3 Spring/Summer (2010): 147– 192. This study is informed by what Bacchetta conceptualizes as, “the dominant grid of intelligibility” whereby the dominant imposes on others certain notions of humanity that are part of the dominant formation in the maintenance of hegemony. This concept is useful in thinking about racialized, gendered, and sexualized subjects in television news who disrupt fixed notions of “Blackness” against the dominant grid of intelligibility.

48. Stuart Hall—Representation and the Media. Video Time Code. 0:50:42–0:51:18, 1997.

49. Michel Foucault, “Governmentality.” Power; Essential Works of Foucault: 1954–1984. Edited by James D. Faubion and Robert Hurley et al. (New York: The New Press, Volume 3, 2000), p. 484.

50. The concepts of double consciousness (DuBois 1969), triple consciousness (Lorde 1981), and the shattering moment of the gaze signifying the other (Fanon 1967) all point to states of uninhabitability of the stereotypes.

51. Ellison1947, 2. Ellison discusses the anguish of Black invisibility, being held to static notions of Blackness. He also reminds us through his main character of the need for and lack of human recognition. Ellison says, “It’s when you feel like this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump people back … You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world … you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And, alas, it’s seldom successful.”

52. Lorde1984. Lorde discusses the importance of “disciplined attention” to our feelings. There is value to ideas as ideas that begin with feeling and a disciplined attention to knowing that confronting racism, as unpopular and threatening to one’s job security as it may be in newsroom culture, must be taken up particularly when it feels like the right thing to do.

53. Saul, lines 491–526, 2002. 54. Supreme Court of the United States. “Fisher v. University of Texas at

Austin et al.” No. 11–345, Argued October 10, 2012 - Decided June 24, 2013. “Strict scrutiny” seems to be the thematic of racial politics in a so-called Post-Racial America that turns a blind eye to current struggles by decontextualizing historical facts of racism, White supremacy, and the effects of White privilege on marginalized groups.

55. Saul, line 65, 2002. 56. Michael Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of

American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, Inc.1978), p. 170. According to Schudson, this phrase was coined in 1955 by James Reston who testified before a congressional committee on government information.

57. John Fiske, Television Culture (London and New York: Methuen & Co., 1987), p. 283.

58. Jamie Muro, “Catch Phrases You Can Count On in TV News.” Sullivan & LeShane Public Relations, Inc. April 29, 2014. http://www.ctpr.com/catch-phrases-you-can-count-on-in-tv-news/ Some of the more popular slogans include: “coverage you can count on,” “dedicated, determined, dependable,” “the one to watch,” “nobody gets you closer,” “when news matters, it matters where you get your news,” “stories that count, from people who care,” “your news authority,” and “your breaking news station.”

59. Tom, lines 62–68, 2002. 60. Tom, lines 148–152, 2002. 61. Tom, lines 173–179, 2002.

http://www.ctpr.com/catch-phrases-you-can-count-on-in-tv-news/

62. Janell Hobson, Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture (New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis, 2005).

63. Sharp, Interview Transcript, lines 274–276, 2004. 64. Sharp, lines 293–310, 2004. 65. Saul, lines 370–375, 2002. 66. Sojourner, lines 134–153, 2003. 67. Ida, Interview Transcript, lines 224–226, 246–247, 248–254, 2002. 68. Violet, Interview Transcript, lines 33–46, 2003. 69. Earnest, Interview Transcript, lines 133–137, 2004. 70. Angela, Interview Transcript, lines 71–72, 2003. 71. Angela, lines 90–93, 2003. 72. Fanon 1963, 38. Violence must be understood beyond the realm of the

physical in order to gain a full sense of how multiple oppressions operate in our daily lives. Fanon examines agents of oppression who “speak the language of pure force” who mask themselves as upholders of the peace and yet are “the bringer of violence into the home and into the mind” which speaks to his concept of psychic and symbolic violence. Zeus Leonardo and Ronald K. Porter, “Pedagogy of Fear: Toward a Fanonian Theory of ‘Safety’ in Race Dialogue.” Race Ethnicity and Education, 13.2 (2010): 139–157.

73. Angela, lines 227–247, 2003. 74. Ida, lines 620–621, 2002. 75. Sojourner, line 210, 2003. 76. James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant

Resistance (New Haven: Yale University Press, c1985). Steve Pile, “Opposition, Political Identities and Spaces.” Geographies of Resistance (London and New York: Routledge, 1997).

77. Bob Marley and the Wailers. Bob Marley. Exodus, “The Heathen” (Album. Island Records. 1976). “He who fight and run away, lives to fight another day.”

78. Herman S. Gray, Watching Race – Television and the Struggle for “Blackness” (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1995), pp. 2–8.

79. Sojourner, line 135, 2003. 80. Sojourner, line 146, 2003. 81. Ida, line 254, 2002. 82. Violet, Interview Transcript, lines 12–29, 2003. 83. Morrison1970, 42–43. The constructed standards understood by

marginalized journalists are what Toni Morrison describes as the “total absence of human recognition.” Morrison discusses this absence in reference to her main character, Pecola Breedlove, who is confronted by a 52-year-old white immigrant storekeeper who refuses to see her humanity. Ralph Ellison’s concept of “invisibility” and the “inner eyes,” operate out of this desire to be recognized as human.

84. Ida, lines 843–850, 2002. 85. Ida, lines 851–852, 2002. 86. James, Interview Transcript, lines 239–241, 2003. 87. James, lines 242–246, 2003. 88. James, lines 247–250, 2003. 89. James, lines 279–285, 2003. 90. Blanchot 1983, 26. Blanchot says,“Searching and error … would be

akin. To err is to turn and to return, to give oneself up to the magic of detour. One who goes astray, who has left the protection of the center, turns about, [her/] himself adrift and subject to the center, and no longer guarded by it.”

91. James, lines 65–66, 2003. 92. Sharp, lines 43–73, 2004. 93. Sharp, lines 58–59, 2004. 94. Product here refers to news rundown, reporters, and anchors involved

in the news production process. 95. Sharp, lines 69–73, 2004.

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Bob Marley and the Wailers. Bob Marley. Exodus, “The Heathen.” Album. Island Records. 1976.

Blanchot, Maurice. “The Infinite Conversation.” Theory and History of Literature, Volume 82 (1983). Translation and Foreword by Susan Hanson. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

Chin, Alan. “Interviewing Children: Guidelines for Journalists.” DART Center for Journalism & Trauma: Columbia Journalism School Project., January 31, 2013. http://dartcenter.org/content/interviewing- children-guide-for-journalists#.VOgCNELKe7c.

De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1984.

DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York, Scarborough, Ontario: A Signet Classic, New American Library, 1969.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 1947.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1963.

Fiske, John. Television Culture. London and New York: Methuen & Co., 1987.

Foucault, Michel. “Governmentality.” Power; Essential Works of Foucault: 1954–1984. Edited by James D. Faubion and Robert Hurley et al. New York: The New Press, Volume 3 (2000): 484.

Garza, Erik De La. “Broadcaster Calls Gannett TV Racist,” Courthouse News Service, February 26, 2014. http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/02/26/65658.htm.

Gray, Herman S. Watching Race – Television and the Struggle for “Blackness.” Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.

Gutgold, Nichola D. Seen and Heard: The Women of Television News. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008.

Gutgold, Nichola D. “Women in Television News Still Face Ageism in the United States,” Rowman & Littlefield, January 5, 2010. http://rowmanblog.typepad.com/rowman/2010/01/women-in-television- news-still-face-ageism-in-the-united-states.html.

http://dartcenter.org/content/interviewing-children-guide-for-journalists#.VOgCNELKe7c

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/02/26/65658.htm

http://rowmanblog.typepad.com/rowman/2010/01/women-in-television-news-still-face-ageism-in-the-united-states.html

California Newsreel. Copyright - The Media Education Foundation 1997. Harris, Cheryl I. “Whiteness As Property.” Harvard Law Review, 106.8

(1993): 1710–1791. Hobson, Janell. Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular

Culture. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis, 2005. Hurston, Zora Neale. “My People! My People!” Dust Tracks on a Road, An

Autobiography. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1942. Johnson, Catherine. Branding Television. Abingdon, Oxon; New York:

Routledge, 2012. Johnson, E. Patrick. “‘Quare’ Studies, Or (Almost) Everything I Know

About Queer Studies I Learned From My Grandmother.” In Black Queer Studies, A Critical Anthology, Edited by Johnson, E. Patrick and Mae G. Henderson, 124–157. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005.

Leonardo, Zeus, and Ronald K. Porter. “Pedagogy of Fear: Toward a Fanonian Theory of ‘Safety’ in Race Dialogue.” Race Ethnicity and Education, 13.2 (2010): 139–157.

Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider, Essays and Speeches. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press Feminist Series, 1984.

Morley, David and Kuan-Hsing Chen, eds. Stuart Hall, Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 1996.

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Washington Square Press, Publication of Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1970.

Muro, Jamie. “Catch Phrases You Can Count On in TV News.” Sullivan & LeShane Public Relations, Inc. April 29, 2014. http://www.ctpr.com/catch-phrases-you-can-count-on-in-tv-news/

National Association of Black Journalists 2012 Diversity Census, “An Examination of Television Newsroom Management,” Edited and produced by Phillipa Mould et al. College Park, MD: NABJ, 2012.

Pile, Steve. “Opposition, Political Identities and Spaces.” Geographies of Resistance. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.

Poindexter, Paula, Sharon Meraz, and Amy Schmitz Weiss. Women, Men and News: Divided and Disconnected in the News Media Landscape. New York: Routledge, 2008.

Schudson, Michael. Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1978.

Scott, James. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press, c1985.

Smedley, Audrey. Race in North America, Origin and Evolution of a Worldview (Second Edition). Colorado: Westview Press, A Member of

http://www.ctpr.com/catch-phrases-you-can-count-on-in-tv-news/

the Perseus Books Group, 1999. Supreme Court of the United States. “Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin

et al.” No. 11–345, Argued October 10, 2012 – Decided June 24, 2013. Trinh, Minh-ha. Woman, Native, Other Writing Postcoloniality and

Feminism. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989.

Women’s Media Center, Women’s Media Center: The Status of Women in the U.S. Media Report, Edited by Cristal Williams Chancellor et al. Washington, DC, 2014.

Wright, Richard. Native Son and How Bigger Was Born, p. xxiv. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1993.

2 Branding and Marketing “Blackness”

… all attempts to repress our/black peoples’ right to gaze had produced in us an overwhelming longing to look, a rebellious desire, an oppositional gaze. By courageously looking, we defiantly declared: “Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality” Even in the worse circumstances of domination, the ability to manipulate one’s gaze in the face of structures of domination that would contain it, opens up the possibility of agency.1

—bell hooks

One of the stated goals within most television news stations is to capture audience attention with a variety of perspectives about their viewing area. This stated goal, if put into practice, could better the chances of the affiliate brand being recognized and translate into higher ratings and revenue. While TV News touts an allegiance to objectivity2 and a commitment to providing multiple perspectives in stories, Black journalists report that they continue to encounter sustained racial hierarchies and biases within television newsrooms that undermine management’s commitment to the aforementioned goals. Black journalists witness the hypocrisy operating within these social spaces and its reflection in hiring, promotion, and story assignment practices. Although some journalists find a way to disrupt notions of corporate power by engaging in subtle forms of resistance, marginalized journalists still must encounter the branding process designed to sanitize race, gender, class, and/or sexuality differences from the newsroom’s projected image to the public.

Drawing from theories of representation and confrontation from Ellison, Cixous, hooks, and other scholars, my goal in this chapter is to examine common practices of branding and marketing Black journalists. As expressed by journalists, the branding and marketing process operates under the premise that “Blackness” is reprehensible and in need of repair and redemption. Because these practices help maintain the caste system,3 some forms of redemption and repair require defining and redefining “Blackness” toward the palatability of an assumed White audience. Other forms of redemption and repair are reflected in how work tasks are distributed

among available news reporters. One example is management allowing White colleagues to hijack a reporter’s and producer’s scripts in an attempt to control story content. Story content hijacking usually happens during the production and editing process and is examined later in the chapter. Black journalists exercise individual agency against these practices, knowing that it may threaten their employment status.

The journalists featured in this chapter mention that they choose their battles strategically so that they may stay under the radar of management’s system of retribution. They describe an intricate caste system and racist assumptions about the market demography indelibly linked to ideologies of racial segregation and White supremacy. The majority of the journalists interviewed also mention that they will continue to fight for a more inclusive newsroom despite fears of retribution, tyrannical news directors, and race, gender, and/or sexual discrimination. They remain committed to producing moments of intervention against what some Black journalists call the “Black culture vultures.”

BRANDING PRACTICES

Branding has become a major part of media management’s modus operandi with the usual focus on the two drivers for a television station—the news product and revenue. Branding is conceptualized beyond surface branding practice such as station identification technology, tag outs in stories, image campaigns, promotional advertisements, catch words, phrases, graphics, etc. The basic tenets of branding are quite simple on the surface of corporate culture where continuity of the brand message (“coverage you can count on” etc.) and brand recognition (signified by logos, news talent, sounds accompanying station identification, etc.) are thought to be keys to financial success.

General managers have the responsibility of meeting corporate owners’ bottom line of setting the tone, the culture, the philosophy, and strategy toward increasing revenue, and becoming number one—the most watched station in a given market. In other words, the general managers’ enforcement of corporate defined protocols becomes part of the process of macro-management4 toward maintaining continuity and developing recognition by the market demographic of a news station. It is the news director’s responsibility to micro-manage journalists in a way that promotes corporate television’s written and unwritten rules of “correct” appropriate behavior, image, and journalism practice. News directors and general

managers are said to have free reign over how they maintain or reach the primary goal of higher ratings and revenue.

I mean there are 10 things that I bet that I have on my list of the things that I have to do. How I get there is up to me, but it’s reinforced by the brand community involvement … in terms of streamlining and making more efficient our processes, finding ways to best use our resources— and that doesn’t mean getting rid of people … they can tell everyday how you’re doing on revenue, they can tell everyday how you’re doing on ratings. So … it’s pretty apparent within a fairly short period whether you’re going down the wrong or right path and if you’re not, then you’ll be replaced.5

Sharp has come to find that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Sharp has “free reign” to get through his list of responsibilities in whatever way he chooses, as long as that freedom reinforces the brand, gets others to ally with it, and reaches the goal of higher ratings and revenue. Although Sharp says that management has “free reign” on how they choose to manage the news business, he also says that certain approaches have been found to work better than others. Despite Sharp’s good intentions, the ways in which brand reinforcement is translated in newsroom culture is problematic, especially for Black and marginalized journalists.

The branding process is designed to shape one’s sense of self and requires journalists to check their differences of race, gender, and sexuality at the door. More importantly, this process is also normalized in newsroom culture. The denial of different perspectives serves to dehumanize journalists who are required to see themselves through the lens of Whiteness. Placing a Black man in such a powerful position as general manager of a television newsroom is remarkable and rare. However, the impact of small gains made toward diversity in newsrooms tend to become evident and well documented.6 The case of Gwen Owens Plaintiff v. COMCAST Corporation exemplifies the continued struggle over representation of “Blackness” and how racial hierarchies operate in television news. Owens says that Comcast retaliated against her for joining the QVC discrimination lawsuit. Additionally, Owens says that Comcast refused to hire her for a second anchor position because of her race. Comcast moved for a summary judgment on both claims and was denied because the corporation did not satisfy the requirements “of a genuine issue of material fact”7 to refute the claims made by Owens. Her claims were substantial after it was found that Owens was “qualified for the evening

anchor position because of her years of broadcast experience.”8 Comcast overlooked her extensive experience and market recognition by filling each one of the positions with a White woman. Furthermore, Comcast’s argument that “the candidates selected for the anchor position over Owens were better qualified and performed better during the selection process than did Owens was found lacking evidence to support their stance. Comcast therefore did not meet the requirements of summary judgment, particularly after Owens submitted “many material factual disputes regarding Comcast’s hiring decision.”9 Even with the overwhelming evidence presented on behalf of Owens, the federal trial of the race and sex discrimination lawsuit ended in a mistrial with the jury deadlocked on whether or not the decision of the corporation not to hire and promote Owens was motivated by race. After adhering to the various forms of control, branding, and gathering evidence to prove that she should get the promotion, Owens was unable to get an equitable outcome. The jury did however award Owens back pay of $67,537 because the corporation was found in violation of the federal Equal Pay Act by paying her less than a comparable male anchor.

Despite the ways branding is promoted in corporate news media, in practice it is a means of control and containment of different perspectives. This does not mean that control and containment systems are omnipotent. Marginalized journalists often choose to ignore or build strategies around a system of branding that renders them unworthy of their position and/or promotion. They struggle to stay true to their journalistic integrity of inclusiveness of perspectives that do not conflict with how they self- identify. The branding process is also interrogated in this chapter in terms of how Blackness is written upon the bodies10 of journalists and in their stories in terms of hair, makeup, and the perspectives they bring as (inner) eye11 witnesses. Forms of opposition12 to some of the more disturbing branding practices are also explored utilizing non-Western epistemologies of communication13 that acknowledge the simultaneity of past, present, and future. Such an approach contests a privileged linear notion of time as the only means of understanding resistance to newsroom culture.

Some branding practices are not self-negating or diminishing, but branding practices that require various levels of self-negation in order to fit into the station’s brand image become problematic. Some of the challenges Black journalists must overcome during the television station’s branding process rarely present an equitable or favorable outcome, but sometimes there is reward. This is understood in terms of being seduced by the potential rewards that come with self-imposed branding practices. James

got his first job in television by carving the call letters of the station in the back of his head using his hair as canvas. “The management thought it was the coolest thing in the world. It got their attention,”14 and he got his first break in television. Recognition15 by station management reinforced the idea that thinking outside the box was okay as long as it was in service of affirming the station’s brand. He continued reporting for several years. He says that the many years of experience in the business and being able to navigate the bumps throughout his career, speaks to his professionalism.

Black journalists with a keen sense of history understand their value in the viewing audience market. Television station management typically use on-air promo (promotional) packages to market specific expertise of journalists. Black journalists serve as commodities16 and are marketed as a symbol of inclusiveness and diversity of perspectives.17 This added value is mostly overlooked when it comes to hiring and promotion in predominantly White newsrooms. Black journalists work under the contradiction of being policed and punished for the very value they bring. As long as Black journalists operate within the terms and conditions of Whiteness definitive of newsroom culture, station management may consider further investment by renewing their contract, assigning them the major A-block stories, promoting them to a more lucrative position, and/or giving them other perks of the news industry. These investments offer Black journalists “the promise of recognition and reconciliation” from the inequitable conditions of newsroom culture.

The pervasiveness of racism means that journalists must be strategic and choose their battles. Ida, who works at one of the top television news networks, says she does not want to waste valuable currency on arguments over body image when her energy may be of greater use in other more challenging areas. She explains, “There are bigger issues to me than call up the Urban League and having them picket my station ‘cause I can’t wear my braids.”18 Bigger issues for her mean focusing on maintaining a competitive edge among colleagues—including being chosen for the big stories, being tactically ready when coming up against bosses on story content, negotiating a significant salary jump, working through audience perception of her as one of few dark skin Black journalists in the television news industry. She realizes that no matter how hard she works, she will not reap the benefits that hard work garners for her White colleagues. “It hurts,” she says, “but you have to come back the next day and shake it off ’cause you know, baby needs shoes. I’m the primary breadwinner in my family so of course I want to go back to work and try to be nonplussed about the latest insult.”19 Her

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decisions are also informed by her strong commitment to the profession and knowing the struggle of other marginalized journalists who helped make it possible for her to work in such a competitive profession.

She says she wouldn’t have hung in there so long if she didn’t like her job and find it exhilarating most of the time. She is still passionate about journalism—something she says will probably never change. She says validation doesn’t come often, and she does not look for it. At times, her elders20 bear witness to what they observe as racist practice. What the elders describe is a visible invisibility21—as evidenced by the rarity of hiring dark-skinned journalists—particularly women. Management rarely hires journalists with dark skin—management marketing of palatable “Blackness” observably comes to mean “a lighter shade of brown.” Ida seems exasperated and uncomfortable by such a divisive issue.

I am not at all offended when I see a fair skinned sistah get a break in broadcast news and yet people ask me about it if one will get hired at my station, or in my market, or just in the world at large like “have yah noticed all the sistahs on network news were high yellah?” (Ida usually has a quick response) “No I never really noticed that because last time I checked they were Black too”—you know? That is a non-issue to me. I’m offended by the light skinned-ed discussion, as the kids say, “light skinned-ed, good hair” whatever. I don’t even think that should be in play anymore. We should be past that, but we’re not, cause I get some of the old heads, my elders will approach me at the supermarket and they’ll say, “oh we’re so proud of you baby ’cause you are a dark-skinned sistah, you got some meat on your bones” in other words, I’m not a size three, I’m not Vanessa Williams’ complexion. …22

The elders who approach her in the supermarket share stories of times when seeing someone like her reporting the news was an impossibility. They present a past that is not past—the stories23 of their lives, their histories remind them, and they recognize a pattern too familiar. They rejoice in rare moments of validation in what they already know—Ida’s dark skin represents a reclaiming of their own humanity in a society that more often than not denies it.

There are times when she receives racist e-mails from viewers who have gotten used to the visible invisibility of a certain brand of “Blackness.” She showed me a copy of a viewer e-mail that she carries around—makes visible. She says it keeps her grounded. The e-mail is from a White man who told her he did not think she deserved the job because she was not

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Vanessa Williams or Halle Barry. The viewer writes:

Dear Ms. (Ida), lingering guilt prompts this note. Long ago when you first started field reporting, an initial report that I watched showed someone nervous and who made a couple of flubs and appeared to be out of her league. So as your basic 57-year old White guy, I assumed the station was meeting some kind of racial quota—a Black woman twofer. You weren’t Vanessa Williams or Halle Berry so I made a quick but ultimately wrong assumption that you weren’t good enough to be there. As is now obvious to me from seeing you so many times since, you’re a damn good reporter and it’s probably just a matter of time ‘til you do some anchoring if you haven’t already. So please accept my sincere apology—bravo, properly abashed, keep up the highly professional work.24

Whether it takes the form of nineteenth-century scientists, polygenists claiming that a so-called mulatto “hybrid might be slightly superior intellectually to the full-blooded Negro,”25 or a news viewer who links Ida’s skin color, hair texture, and facial features with intellectual lacking—it is this indelible “Blackness” that pervades mass media. Ida’s struggle is on several fronts. Recalling the e-mail left her incensed:

We’re talkin’ a modern message from a viewer, this wasn’t a phone call, this was an e-mail, this was a White man with a computer who felt so strongly about my unworthiness that he was gonna write me up, but then he had to acknowledge over time that I won him. I convinced him I deserved the job, I wasn’t an affirmative action slipped in the side door, baby, but I was so incensed, I was this close [motioning with her figure tip and thumb extended, barely touching], one key stroke away from responding to this clown, then I said, “no” he learned his lesson; it’s all here in the message; I’ll just print it and save it.26

She keeps it in her wallet, and it is also laminated on her desktop. Ida laughs and says,

So people who sit at my desk know what I’m up against ‘cause interns sit at my desk. I’ve made it clear that … they’re welcome to use my computer and all my resource material ‘cause I have Congressional Quarterlies and style books at my desk. So my desk is like the community desk, but when they move around my mouse pad, this is

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under my mouse pad ‘cause I want them to know this didn’t happen in a vacuum. You know?27

It is an excellent approach to a teachable moment. Ida speaks of the racism- sexism she experiences28 without saying anything to anyone about the racist e-mail or being silent29 about it. By making the e-mail visible on her desk, her intervention forces interns, coworkers, and bosses to bear witness to the racism she is up against. She literally places dominant notions of “Blackness” on the table for discussion and debate without saying a word.

REPREHENSIBLE “BLACKNESS” AND THE NOTION OF AN EMPTY CANVAS

French feminist philosopher, Hélène Cixous conceptualizes the body as text —already written upon30 and predetermined (1991). Together with Roland Barthes’ concept of trick effects31 we may begin to uncover the technology and lighting trick effects involved in racial constructions and visual representations of “Blackness.” Trick effects are used to conform bodies of difference to bodies that meet the palatability standards of the dominant culture order. There are myriad ways bodies are scripted to fit the status quo: being required to train with image consultants, suggestions by the news director and/or colleagues regarding makeup, and the psychic and symbolic violence32 involved in branding Black bodies.

One of the most controversial “trick effects” that got media attention was the darker shading of O.J. Simpson’s face on the June 27, 1994, cover of Time magazine. The manipulation of his skin color was seen by many as an attempt to demonize him, make him look sinister—connoting guilt. Most Black journalists suggested that journalistic integrity was compromised at best, while others said that it was flat-out racist. The O.J. Simpson cover contributed to audiences “raced ways of seeing” O.J. Simpson as criminal (Hunt 1997, 1999). If this slippage in journalism ethics had not been called out, jurors in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson may have been influenced by the trick effects of the photograph and had doubts about declaring Simpson innocent. The darker shading of O.J. Simpson’s face stood in for the sign of “Blackness” and represented the belief that Black wo/men are guilty before being proven innocent. The code of connotation may construct difference in ways that are reductionist or completely fabricated.

As a main anchor of a major network affiliate in the southern U.S. for

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more than ten years, one would think that Norma, a mid-career journalist, would be accustomed to observing the daily routine of coworkers before airtime. This particular day however, was unlike anything Norma had seen, she held the gaze, amused by the revelation. She was witnessing the everyday makeup process of one of the main anchors—a Black woman. Norma chuckled with utter satisfaction and fascination33 as she relayed her observation.

Norma, a White woman, was observing a Black coworker, in “White face”34 as one of the initial steps toward an “anchor … look”35—from unforgivable “Blackness” to palatable “Blackness.” Norma went on to describe the arsenal of makeup that was in front of her, an elaborate assortment of colors used as part of the daily ritual of lightening her skin and narrowing her features. Norma described the process rather matter-of- factly between chuckles saying, “It’s just White makeup … it’s just, White you know?”

While one would be hard pressed to find television station owners and management saying that narrow physical features are the most marketable and desirable,36 their hiring practices say it for them. Norma sees her co- worker’s makeup process as a means of achieving a “better” look. She explains:

White makeup … She puts that on her face—because she’s pretty dark and she also wants to even up all of her skin tone … She had a makeup consultant come in and help her with her makeup so that she would look better under the lights and so she starts off … with an empty canvas with no makeup on and she puts on a light base to lighten her skin tone I guess and then over that she puts on medium base and then she does contouring, she uses a darker makeup with a little brush to contour her nose … and then she does contouring on her cheekbones—to define her cheekbones, and contouring underneath her chin so that there’s no hint of a double chin (laughs through the next phrase) should there ever be one … but the whole process from start to finish it takes her about an hour to do makeup … everyday.37

Despite reporting that this process makes her colleague’s features “better” and more visible, “the change was adjustment without improvement.”38

Norma’s indictment of her colleague’s skin color is masked as a compliment in saying that the extensive makeup process creates “better features.” Hierarchies of physical features become apparent in observing who gets

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hired and promoted and who does not. Keeping her position as main anchor at the television station requires that

Norma’s colleague adhere to the visual representation demands of news management as communicated through station owners and the image consultants they hire. Norma’s privileged position as a White woman means that she may feign ignorance about how power operates in this industry despite the fact that she and her colleague are working under a Black male news director. Out of concern for her job security, Norma’s colleague and the image consultant hired by television station owners were not interviewed about the one-hour makeup process. Nonetheless, Norma’s perspective and the fact that a Black news director is following the directives of White male upper-level management and station owners, informs our understanding of the pervasiveness of White supremacist notions of beauty in newsroom culture. It speaks to the courageousness of marginalized journalists who choose to disrupt racist newsroom practice. Black journalists must remain vigilant (Wells 1970) regarding the strategies and tactics they engage toward advancing in this industry. It is also a testament to just how much “free reign” one has as Black management.

Black women in the news business understand what it takes to get considered for a job in television. One strategy of containing difference in the case of Norma’s colleague is physical appearance in terms of facial features, skin color, hair, and weight. Suggestions regarding physical appearance are usually made by image consultants who are hired by the news director. The image consultant at the television station where Norma is employed used “politically correct”39 language to communicate the need for the anchorwoman to lighten her dark skin, contour her nose—which lends it a narrow appearance—hide the double chin, and define her cheekbones according to management’s scale of beauty and professionalism. The anchorwoman is expected to be grateful; after all, they are “help(ing)” her construct a look that is expected to win over an imagined audience deeply invested in the “myth of ‘sameness.’”40

Norma’s colleague’s transformation serves as a policed and measured spice, seasoning to “liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture.”41 Once the White base makeup is applied, her face becomes “an empty canvas,” a No Wo/man’s Land42 of her brown face painted White. It is in this passage through Whiteness that she gains access to the promise of rewards to come with palatable “Blackness.” After the voyage toward defined cheekbones, contoured nose, and lightened skin, she is branded, marketed, and at times validated. She will chase this phantom image for the

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rest of her career in exchange for the promise of continued employment, career advancement, and other rewards. The amputation43 of her humanity is in exchange for false promises. It was an amputation that Norma found amusing.

She then transitioned into a conversation about reverse discrimination44

saying:

… I do think a lot of times … just because we have more of a Black population than we have a White population, I see reverse discrimination a lot of times, and I see where we’re sent out on stories, told to go get the Black perspective, and in a lot of ways it seems, you know, that they maybe slant stories more, a little bit. They try to find racism when it may not necessarily be there.45

Norma tells of cookie-cutter anchor teams made up of White men and Black women with a tone of frustration. Statistics reveal that the percentage of minorities working in television news—particularly in management46

positions—is low47 reflecting the disparities in hiring and promoting practices. Her frustration comes not from the pattern and practice of racism in terms of Black journalists’ struggle over unequal pay, least desirable story assignments, and shifts—but from frustration with the image consultant and news management of her station in deciding that pairing a Black anchor man with a White anchor woman is too taboo: “whoa, oooo,” she says forebodingly, “that might disturb people.”48 Norma said that instead of focusing on serving the Black demographic—the city has about an 85- percent Black, 15-percent White population—management should be focused on the affluent White population in the outlying areas.

She disagrees with station management’s approach to journalism in their focus on hiring Black anchors—particularly Black women—to relate to the large Black population, what she calls “the highpoverty city.”49 Norma’s suggestion for the hiring process is not only as racist as the use of demographics in the hiring process, but it reeks of classism.

Norma does not see the pervasiveness of racism, despite her coworker having to undergo an intense one-hour makeup process that renders her skin lighter in color. Norma’s understanding of racism at times blames those of whom bear the brunt of racism within the industry. Norma’s approach is out of tune with the statistics on who gets hired in top tier positions and who does not—it is also out of tune with the observable racial hierarchy operating in the newsroom and most other newsrooms across the country.

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She turns a blind eye to how racism operates in the branding and marketing process when she says herself that the image consultant who was hired by a Black news director, suggested that the makeup process will “improve” her colleague’s job performance. Management of color have either not been able to hold their positions or get promoted. The disparity between White journalists and those of color is staggering although some television news corporations have a better record than others.50 While Norma thinks that Black journalists, at times, “try to find racism,” Sojourner is quite open about how race matters in the newsroom at every turn. Sojourner, a veteran Black journalist shares:

I had a woman, who was a weekend anchor, say to me, “you’re so lucky you’re Black because when you send a tape out … (smiles) clearly your tape is gonna stand out to someone, a news director because you’re Black,” and … I said to her, look around in this newsroom, how many people do you see who look like me? One? Just me, right? One? And she said, “‘yeah,” and I said, “that means that if that person … if they already have one in the newsroom, what are the odds that they’re gonna be looking at my tape?” And that was something that she never understood … They don’t … she may have gotten it after that but I don’t think so, I don’t know if she ever did.51

Sojourner says it is frustrating that some of her White colleagues do not see racism happening right under their nose, particularly when they are the perpetrators. She says, “Everybody is looking for a scapegoat. …”52 Racist remarks in the newsroom are about more than scapegoating. Sojourner and her White colleague see53 the same reality differently. Sojourner witnesses the daily reality of racial discrimination, her colleague subscribes to the rhetoric of post-racialism to interpret the world. In other words, her White colleague decodes racist practice as an anomaly if not a thing of the past. Her colleague also sees racism as irrelevant because her understanding of Sojourner’s access to opportunities means that the rare sight of Black journalists in newsrooms makes Black journalist stand out compared to White journalists who are predominantly represented in newsrooms.

News management who subscribe to the myth of post-racialism see different perspectives Black journalists have on offer as untrustworthy. As a result, they devise and organize strategies of containment (Fiske 1987, 283) in a profession that touts objectivity. The news business is difficult on anyone who falls outside the boundaries of a network’s image campaign goals regardless of race. Journalists marked with indelible “Blackness”

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face more intense scrutiny. Of the few Black women hired in television news, women with dark skin

usually work behind the scenes or as field reporters. They rarely get consideration for the in-house anchor desk. Another strategy of containing difference is placing Black journalists in the background. The darker the journalists, the farther in the background they are placed.

STARING IN THE FACE OF POWER

Although Kindle, a veteran reporter in the Southern U.S. has invested long hours, skill, and talent to the journalism profession, she holds no illusions about her membership status in newsroom culture. Kindle recalls her last job evaluation saying:

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so demoralized and humiliated, and I have been a manager here … it’s just like a nibbling away at your confidence, your spirit, and in this business you need a little of both of those … to last … what had happened prior to that was in our newsroom they’ve created a sort of … dividing line. There’s definitely a caste system. There are the golden reporters … considered superior, award winning, and they are the … go-getter reporters … the go-to reporters … they are all White; they are male and female, but it is all White at this point. And then there’s the second tier that are your working reporters. They’re just kind of your utility, your mules, they just kind of go out and get it, and then you have this third tier that’s kind of like (as if management is saying,) “how the hell did they get here? And why the hell are they here? … and as soon as we can figure out how to get them the hell out of here, we will” and … that would be where a lot of the minorities are (laughs) to be honest.54

Kindle says she went from being a reporter in the second tier to a third tier reporter. She has never been considered a reporter in the “superior” group —the first tier—of White reporters even though under previous management, she covered stories “that were considered superior group reporter stories,” like the Oklahoma City bombing. Kindle says that reporters in the second and third tier always secretly referred to reporters “in the superior group” as “golden booty” reporters. She says she felt horrible about the name-calling, and it is little relief when all of the minority reporters are designated somehow beneath the superior White

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reporters. Kindle says this type of racial hierarchy operates in the newsroom despite the fact that there are minority reporters who have better skills than White reporters.

She says that every now and then management would give second tier reporters “plum assignments.” As a second tier reporter, Kindle would recall what it was like to “get a taste” of being assigned a major story like the Oklahoma City bombing, but as she puts it “you were never really there” in that superior group of reporters. All of the minority reporters wanted membership into the so-called “golden booty” reporter status because they are allowed to command their own stories. They are the journalists management listens to, the assignment desk manager treats them with kid gloves, and they get a certain level of respect. Kindle says that “if something goes wrong, the first assumption is not that you are incompetent; the first assumption is ‘what happened? Something must have happened because this person is competent. … ’ It’s not the assumption … ‘what the hell did you do wrong this time?’”55

When the new management came, all of the minority reporters felt like a target—fearing they would be next to get fired. During those times, she felt lucky that she was underpaid and under the radar of a television station that was economically sinking. Management shifted their focus to budget cuts and the older higher paid “golden booty” reporters. They cleaned house by offering early retirement packages. After getting rid of all the older high salaried reporters, the other shoe dropped. Kindle feared the worst saying:

My number came up and … all of a sudden, nothing I did was right. … My evaluations did not become completely negative until the management changed, and it wasn’t immediately after, it was after all the “golden” first set of “golden booties” were kicked out and then there was nobody else around, and I was like one of the oldest reporters here and then all of a sudden it seemed like I could do nothing right. …56

The dividing line57 to which Kindle refers is the caste system operating in the newsroom—knowing that under those terms and conditions, as a dark- skinned Black woman, she is at the bottom. She also knows that she has been branded by the news director a mule,58 the station’s “utility”—in the third tier of the newsroom culture caste system along with other minority journalists. Kindle further informs that “when you’re in that middle range, you do stories every single day and when you’re that middle … we call it a workhorse. When you’re the workhorse reporter, that’s what you do; you’re

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running out on stuff the desk gives you all the time.”59 Management usually piles on more assignments to the third tier workhorse reporters.

Kindle never complains about the workload because she feels “the unvoiced terror”60 of knowing that she is next on the firing line. The newsroom hierarchy brands marginalized journalists unworthy of the most desirable story assignments and shifts and places them on the bottom tier of respectability and professionalism in relation to their White colleagues. Kindle also considers other possibilities for her third tier status saying that she became a mother during that time, “I heard things like, ‘oh she’s on the mommy track now, oh I hope she doesn’t think she’s gonna use her kid to get out of doing stuff’ and a newsroom is not a place where there’s a lot of family—it’s not a family oriented place. …”61 This interview is one of the few spaces Kindle has indulged speaking against the oppressive newsroom practices she witnesses every day. She seems uneasy throughout most of the interview as indicated by her stammering and the speed with which she tells of her experience as a Black woman journalist. She is also apologetic and hesitant about telling her story—as indicated when she asks, “Am I going on too much?”62 and “Is this okay to say all of this?”63 Feeling overwhelmed, Kindle also began to cry. She explained that she was exhausted and between tearful recollections said, “I’m truly trying to get out of the business because I’m tired. I can’t fight anymore. …” She further explains that the braids she returned to work wearing after maternity leave did not help her situation, but she was not prepared for what came next from new management.

I didn’t know that he was on this terror, because he has this anger thing … where he just gets really angry, just loses it … and he loves to make women cry you know and I’m a crier and a couple of other producers in there, and he just never stops until he sees some tears, then he knows, “I’ve gotten through,” and he’ll go and then he’ll move on. There’s this, there’s a sexist thing going on in there too. …64

Kindle had been blind-sided by the news director’s abuse. She says when he called her into his office, she was thinking that he was about to finally compliment her on doing such a great job. Kindle had sacrificed everything that week so that she could focus more intensely on her work. It had been a very productive week—she generated “good” stories every day. She felt rejuvenated and looked forward to a few appreciative words from a news director who had never complimented her work. Instead, she was verbally gut punched saying, “he unloads on me and he pulls this sheet out—yelling —‘do you see this? There are no stories on here!’” She did not understand

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his accusation because she had generated more stories than her colleagues that week, but he continued his “rant”65 yelling, “‘how am I gonna fill a newscast like this?’ I know how he is when he gets in this really angry mode so I just kind of sit there and think okay, my goal is not to cry” but the abuse continues. She tries to ignore him, but she knows his mode of operation is to continue the abuse until he provokes tears.

Kindle says that when he began shaking and turning red, watching him became painful. She says, “I just actually feel kind of sorry for him ’cause he’s just rantin’ and ravin’ so I said … ‘maybe we should talk about this some other time when you’re not so angry. …’” Her request was reasonable enough given the circumstances, but her professionalism, calm demeanor, and the fact that she looked him in the eye66 in the face of being terrorized enraged him even more. Kindle recalls that moment of fear, panic, and sheer terror saying:

Oh my God! Why did I say that? That’s when he stood up yelling “you don’t tell me …” and that’s when he told me, “I don’t need you! I can get another reporter that’s 20 years old and pay ’em half what I pay you! What do you think they’re doing over at channel 2? I can do that, I can do that! I don’t need any of you!” and so at that point I just … I was like okay Ah’ma lose it now and I said … “You know I’m doing my best, I don’t know what you want from me!” and I’m losing it, and so I feel myself losing it so I just leave out and I try and walk out like okay nothing happened nothing happened and then I just make it outside.67

She had already been assigned her story to cover for the day before she went into his office. She walked up to her photographer and said, “meet me at the truck” as she continued walking. She said she could not control the stream of thoughts that followed. It was a week where she had a lot going on at home: Her child was sick, and she managed to get someone to keep him so that she would not have to call in sick. She says, “It’s like—am I going to be a good mommy today or a good reporter … ? And I try to balance it out.” It was a week where family lost. Overwhelmed with guilt, she says:

I had been a good reporter that week … and I’m just like, inside saying, “Oh my God! How could you do this? Don’t you know, this week I’ve let everything go, I’ve let my sick kid stay with somebody,” and … all of that, it just frustrated the hell out of me … so when I got in that truck, I just went to pieces and I said “I’m quittin’, I’m fuckin’ quittin’, take me to my car now!” And the photographer happens to be from Argentina and

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they are a little chauvinistic, (and the photographer says) “Call your husband first,” I said, “I’m not callin’ him; take me to my car; I’m not doing anything!” and … he says, “I’m takin’ you to get a bagel.” [And she responds] “I don’t want a bagel; take me to my car; I quit! I fucking quit; I quit, I don’t care; I don’t care! We’re just gonna move to the projects; I’m not gonna go back in there!” And so he says, “call your husband; girl, you got to call your husband!” And so I call my husband, and I can’t get him, and so he says, “call human resources.”68

Kindle called human resources and told the representative who happens to be a Black woman that she wanted to quit her job effective immediately. The human resources representative talked her out of it. Kindle decided instead to leave for the day—“it was like I couldn’t see; I was so angry and so hurt; I couldn’t even see straight. …” She needed some time off.

I cried for an entire week. I stayed in the bed and cried and I said, (she begins to cry as she explains further) “God I can’t; you know I can’t; this isn’t me; I can’t do this.” So finally, I had to end up going to get a colonoscopy and ended up having heart surgery in the middle of all of this.69

She said it so matter-of-factly, I sought to clarify and she confirmed that she almost died and called it “a blessing from God” because her hospitalization and subsequent recovery gave her some time off, but she still worries. Black journalists who complain to human resources usually become targets of more intensified harassment. If whistleblowers are not fired, they usually move to another television station or out of the business completely. She fears retribution for taking time off for heart surgery.

The fact that others in management—assignment desk editor, producers, assistant news director, and the general manager—said nothing about the news director’s abuse and lack of professionalism allows the abuse of power to reproduce itself through the hierarchy of the newsroom. It is also indicative of relations of power within corporate newsroom culture. The news director uses his position to exert power, to dominate, and terrorize the women he hires. He wants to intimidate and coerce them into submission, and if that is not enough to satiate his desire to dominate, he devises other ways to terrorize them sometimes with witnesses and other times without. Kindle says that the news director isolates women in his office and attempts to break them—as one would break a mule.

It is not the first time that an abuse of power in news management has

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been challenged—the station has a history of complaints of racism and sexism. Kindle says just about every woman coming up for review has asked her for help strategizing on how to deal with the tyrannical news director; she, after all, is the only woman there known to somehow stay employed after filing a complaint with human resources.

… and that’s how bad it is and these are White women who will come up to me and say, “Well what happened? What did you do? What do you do? What should I say?” you know because he has this anger thing, and he has this thing with women and so it goes beyond race; I think it’s sexist. I honestly do but anyway, it’s harder for us [Black journalists] because we’re already on the bottom, but several of the female reporters … even the new ones have come up to me … and I’m like what am I the poster child for?70

She warns her colleagues to leave his office “before it gets bad”—Kindle says she believes he was going to hit her and warned the others. Whether he likes her work professionally or not, she says she does not understand his level of hatred.

When she returned from surgery she says, “nobody would talk to me … it’s just been, it’s horrible. So … I’ve been here a thousand years, you know, won employee of the year and all this kind of stuff and now, I’m like the pariah. …”71 The silent treatment she gets from the new crop of colleagues in the newsroom does not affect her productivity—she presses on. The news director who terrorized her no longer works at the station—he was recently promoted. She questions why violent, abusive managers are continually rewarded in the industry. Working with new management gives her hope.

HIJACKING “BLACKNESS”

Violet, a mid-career journalist says she works to “flip the script”72 as often as possible when coming up against management. Violet says she understands how to navigate the system73 while struggling against invisibility in the news business. Violet says some colleagues are not to be trusted, which is why she strategically lays the foundation for protecting the integrity of a story. She does so by employing preemptive measures:

If you can back into a story, then you’ve got a better chance of getting it

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on the air and if you pitch … 20 stories a year, don’t make all 20 stories Black stories, make 15 of those stories White stories that you’re pitching —because most of them aren’t gonna get on the air—and make five of them African American stories that you really care about … and you have a better chance of getting your stuff on the air.74

Violet says she wants to be known as a producer who generates all types of stories as opposed to being labeled a producer who only generates stories pertaining to Black individuals. She says that this approach makes it easier when she wants to generate a story on Black groups and individuals who are really important.

She offers as an example a story she generated that was important because it debunked many of the stereotypes circulating on television about young Black men. One of the five stories she cultivated was under attack. She had already risked hard earned credibility amongst her sources in the process of gaining their trust to cover the story about a young hip-hop artist without using the usual stereotypes circulating in the news stories. She also had to prove to her colleagues that there are other ways to tell a story about hip-hop artists without relying on the very stereotypes she is working against.

The compulsory branding of Black masculinity as evil, hyper sexual, violent, womanizing, and typical of Black male hip-hop artists weighs heavily on her spirit and sense of responsible journalism. Violet says she is committed to flipping the script.

We were doing a whole hour on rich teenagers … and I had a list of everyone else who was going to be in the show … they were all White … I always wanted to do a story on … the richest man in Rap music … I wanted to do this story on him because he came from New Orleans, then he ended up in Oakland … he was part of the whole Bay Area music scene for a long time, and as a Black woman it was important for me to do a story at some point on this person just to illustrate that A, not all Rap stars are womanizers; they’re not all violent. …75

She knew that he was married and had six children by one woman he met in low-income housing also known as “The Projects” about two decades prior to our interview. They were both poor. She says what most people don’t know is that he stayed with the mother of his children even after making millions of dollars and moving his family to Beverly Hills. His son was worth $50 million. Violet says these little-known details are never revealed

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in stories about hip-hop artists—she knew there would be a struggle. She pitched the story to management and colleagues who outranked her within the newsroom hierarchy.

I pitched a story on (his son) and they were kind of like hmm, lukewarm … I took the story and I ran with it. And it was personal for me because I needed the world to know that not all Black men abandon their children and their families, not all Black men who have money are drug dealers, and not all Rappers are violent, and these are just issues and notions that have been hammered into the minds of mainstream America, and I wanted to do a story, the first story, a positive story on a Rapper. …76

When she brought the visuals and interviews back to the newsroom for editing, she faced immediate opposition and gathered strength for another round of scrutiny.

Violet wanted to be optimistic about her colleagues’ reaction to the interviews, but she knew that seeing the visuals and interviews would not change their minds about how the story should be told. She says they don’t care what the interviews and visuals say, they don’t care that the hip-hop artist lives a life that turns stereotypes about hip-hop artists and Black men in general upside down—the executive producer wanted a say in how the artist is depicted. Violet says most of her colleague’s attitudes in the newsroom became painfully obvious:

In their minds, Black men who are Rappers are still violent, they still use drugs, they’re still womanizers, and so it was a challenge to make sure that this story stay positive. And it took a lot of work, there were a lot of arguments, lot of … fights, and it was … the one time in my career where I said, “you know what, I don’t want to be a producer anymore” because I had to deconstruct the thinking of an entire group of the people who are my superiors, who are my bosses, who pay me, who hired me, but who have stereotypes about African Americans in their heads that are so just engrained, that even after they saw the tapes, it just could not be. …77

Violet said that she had to “deconstruct the thinking of an entire group of the people” who she describes as her “superiors,” while justifying her already proven abilities as a producer. One of her biggest opponents was a White male executive producer who assigned himself to oversee the story. Violet

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says it became personal when the editor said that he did not want to do the story, he hates Rap, and Rappers—citing Puffy and Tupac getting shot at night clubs as proof of their innate propensity to violence. Her script was under attack, and power moves were made to re-present Black masculinity. The fact that Violet saw the attack coming did not make it easier.

This is the person who has been designated to cut this piece, and we’re supposed to work together and he already hates Rap without even looking at one stitch of tape. And so, it was personal because the comments were racist, and they were very negative, and the interesting thing was after he watched the tape, then he tried to take over the project and took my script and basically threw it away and wrote his own script and put in his own bites (soundbites/interviews) and did not want to collaborate but instead wanted to tell the story that he felt that needed to be told the way he thought it should be told. So you have a man who’s gone from hating Rappers, ‘gangster’ Rappers to becoming so enthralled and enamored at this story that he decided to take it over and become the producer. … It was … a hijacking, and I spoke to my Executive Producer and I fought every step of the way, and we ended up being forced to collaborate and merge two scripts, but here you went from the man who hated everything that Rap stood for to someone who took my work. …78

Violet was in familiar territory; it is not the first time she has gotten pushback from management for including different perspectives. She became a target and was under constant attack by the executive producer who named himself “co-producer” to her story. He used his position to take over her script. She was determined to tell the story from a perspective rarely heard, while the executive producer turned co-producer “wanted to be the first to redefine the way that White America looks at Black Rappers …” She called it “a forced collaboration” and by the end of the ordeal, she says, “I wasn’t speaking to him, and he was not speaking to me.”

He attempted to silence her perspective, render the possibility of a Black rapper’s humanity—invisible. She says she always feels like certain people have a problem with producers who are young women and especially with producers who are young African American women because a producer in network news is the force behind everything viewers see in a story. Violet says that for a White man to have to accept it, accept a producer who is 20 years younger and African American, is “a tough pill to swallow if you’re a 55 … year old aging man who’s struggling to maintain his hip factor. …”

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Being forced to allow the executive producer to oversee her project was offensive particularly given the stereotypes he held against rappers.

Violet made sure that she framed the interview questions in a way that made it difficult for the executive producer to distort the interviews that she had already conducted. She says it is not the first time her knowledge of a subject was held to higher scrutiny compared to a White coworker whose limited knowledge was deemed more valuable and trustworthy. The executive producer’s attempt to control, construct, enact, circulate,79 brand, and market notions of Black rappers on a scale of human otherness was prevented. The power behind forced collaboration was met with her determination to fight him “every step of the way.”80 Violet proves quite adept at “playing the game.”81 Violet demonstrates the contentiousness of power and says that “Black culture vultures” like him are in most newsrooms. She added that the irony in all of this is that when they won an award from a Black organization for such an innovative story, he was “proud as a peacock” to join her in accepting the award.

SUMMARY

This chapter points to branding and marketing practice that treats “Blackness” as reprehensible and redeemable by recognizing marginalized journalists as an empty canvas—written upon, scripted, and marketed by standards established by newsroom culture. Such branding and marketing practices build upon the notion of a monolithic White imagination. This is done using image consultants, talent agents, and focus groups to support racist assumptions about the demography of the market.

Violet exercised individual agency when the executive producer attempted to hijack the story that she cultivated and produced. All of the journalists interviewed say they must choose their battles strategically and maintain a thick skin against the latest insults on the job. “Blackness” is valued through a hierarchy of skin color with light skin being more valuable than dark skin. One reporter said that she is often approached by Black individuals—particularly elders who tell her that it is no coincidence that men and women with dark skin are a rare sight in television news. White viewers have learned to expect to see Black journalists with a light skin color. Ida was told by a White male viewer that he thought she was an affirmative action hire, or, as he put it, “a Black woman twofer.” When it is revealed that darker complexioned journalists lighten their skin for job security, many of their White colleagues do not see it as racist; rather, they

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see it as a means toward looking “better.” The reverse racism that some White television journalists claim, are not

substantiated by the sheer number of working Black journalists compared to White journalists. They also say that “Black journalists try to find racism.” This is said despite finding that most television journalists are White and most often male. Sojourner told one of her White colleagues to look around the newsroom and see how many people look like her in order to bring the reality of race discrimination in hiring practice to the forefront of her colleagues’ misguided discussion of how easy it is to get a job on air as a Black journalist.

Black journalists say that there is a color caste system in the newsroom. Furthermore, women working in television news, particularly at the network level, tend to be “a size three.” Journalists interviewed say that racism and sexism do not happen in a vacuum. Minority journalists are often seen as the station’s utility—the mules. Minority reporters who do better and more work are not promoted while White less skilled reporters and/or anchors are promoted, rewarded, and assumed capable of doing their job. Black anchors and reporters tend to be paid less than their White colleagues. Abusive news directors are usually rewarded by promotion. Black journalists in this study have battled and overcome the ravages of depression, heart surgery, and cancer to name a few diseases of living and working as a journalist while Black. Marginalized journalists work and thrive under fears of retribution, tyrannical news directors, race, gender, and sexual discrimination. They also struggle over representations of “Blackness” and forced collaborations by fighting “every step of the way” against what one journalist called the “Black culture vultures.”

NOTES

1. bell hooks, Black Looks Race and Representation (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1992), p. 116.

2. Pamela Newkirk, Within the Veil (New York: NYU Press, 2002). Newkirk tells of a Black journalist frustrated with the double standard her White newspaper editors deploy when dealing with a crime story involving White versus Black subjects. One of the journalists she interviewed said, “When I talk to people about journalism, I say don’t talk to me about objectivity, talk to me about fairness because objectivity doesn’t exist,” p. 158. Objectivity as exercised and understood in newsroom culture is often translated through the notion

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of colorblindness and post-racialism despite sustained racial hierarchies and biases. This approach to objectivity disenfranchises journalists who speak the unpopular truths about the world in which we live. Different perspectives that come with complicated identities of race, gender, sexuality, etc. are read as tainting a story or placing personal opinion where “the impersonal generic interpretation” should be. In order to be taken seriously in the corporate television news business, marginalized journalists must “dye their voice universal” (Trinh 1989).

3. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New York: New Press, (Jackson, Tennessee, 2011). Distributed by Perseus. Val Burris, “The Academic Caste System: Prestige Hierarchies in PhD Exchange Networks,” American Sociological Review. Vol. 69, No. 2, April 2004. Anu Thakrar, “The Origins of the Caste System in India vs. (and how it relates to) The Formation of Race in America,” Undergraduate Review: Vol. 13, Issue 1, Article 4. 2001.

4. Macro and micro management is also practiced on a much larger scale. In 2005 all network affiliate stations found “hubbing,” useful; in other words, the local stations act as “spokes” while large metropolitan areas like New York act as the “hub” where upper management ultimately makes the final decision on the integrity of branding practice. Most commercials are out of metropolitan areas while “promos” or promotions are disseminated through local stations. AT&T and a smaller communications company operate within a “redundant system.” AT&T handles the “long hall fiber” that distributes the products from New York to the station’s city while a smaller communications company handles the “local fiber” that distributes the products regionally. There are a total of three hubs: New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. The older technology began being updated in the early ’90s when the transfer of commercials went to New York,” says Sharp, IT, lines 452–460. With technological advances, this system is continually changing.

5. Sharp, Interview Transcript, lines 372–388, 2004. 6. Stanley Roberts, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CBS Broadcasting Inc.,

2003. Gwen Owens Plaintiff, v. COMCAST Corporation, 2004. Slobodzian, Joseph A. Inquirer, “Mistrial declared over ex-QVC host’s lawsuit.” July 2, 2004. Lisa Lake-Campbell, individual Plaintiff, v. McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Company, Inc., 2010. Mark C. Nelson v. Gannett Co., Inc. D/B/A Today’s THV Channel 11, 2014. Richard

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Prince, “Fired Over Facebook Posting.” Maynard Institute. December 9, 2012. http://mije.org/richardprince/fired-over-facebook- posting#Rhonda%20Lee. Jamil Smith, “Meteorologist fired after defending her ‘ethnic’ hair.’” MSNBC, December 12, 2012 and September 13, 2013. http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris- perry/meteorologist-fired-after-defending-her-ethn Matt Potter, “San Diego’s ABC station sued for gender harassment and race discrimination by African-American anchor,” San Diego Reader. August 22, 2013. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news- ticker/2013/aug/22/san-diegos-abc-station-sued-for-gender- harassment-/#.

7. Gwen Owens Plaintiff, v. COMCAST Corporation, 2004. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid.

10. Helene Cixous, Coming to Writing and Other Essays (Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 1991) p. 52.

11. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 1947), pp. 3–4.

12. hooks, 1992, 116. 13. Zora Neale Hurston. “My People! My People!” Dust Tracks on a

Road, An Autobiography (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984), p. 229.

14. James, Interview Transcript, lines 5–12, 2003. 15. hooks, 1992. “… marginalized groups, deemed Other, who have been

ignored, rendered invisible, can be seduced by the emphasis on Otherness, by its commodification, because it offers the promise of recognition and reconciliation.” Nathan Irvin Huggins, Black Odyssey, The African-American Ordeal in Slavery (New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 1990), pp. 34–35. “Like a ritual of renaming, a rite of new identity … the fire of the brand was to burn out of him who he was and to mark him as property and a thing.”

16. hooks 1992, 21–22. 17. Ibid., hooks explores how Blackness is linked to the idea of the

American Dream saying, “When the dominant culture demands that the Other be offered as sign that progressive political change is taking place, that the American Dream can indeed be inclusive of difference, it invites a resurgence of essentialist cultural nationalism.” I argue that the “nation” is constructed in terms of the dominant culture order and policing practices of news management. Within the context of

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http://mije.org/richardprince/fired-over-facebook-posting#Rhonda%20Lee

http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/meteorologist-fired-after-defending-her-ethn

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2013/aug/22/san-diegos-abc-station-sued-for-gender-harassment-/

management’s commodity value assessments, Black journalists, who are acknowledged for their value “must assume recognizable forms” that are deemed palatable toward higher ratings and revenue.

18. Ida, Interview Transcript, lines 315–317, 2002. 19. Ida, lines 620–622, 2002. 20. Ida, lines 382–383, 2002. 21. Hall, Stuart. “The Work of Representation.” Representation, Cultural

Representations and Signifying Practices – Culture, Media, and Identities (London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1997). This is what Stuart Hall discusses in terms of meaning and absence. There are times when meaning manifestly has to do with the relationship between what Ida’s elders expect to find in the newscast, which is not visible in newscasts aired across the U.S. When her elders or anyone for that matter, contrast this reality with the White faces or predominantly light skin people of color in newscasts speaks to the inequities of the color caste system that dominates television news. In other words, as Hall so astutely put it, “absence means something, it signifies as much as presence.”

22. Ida, lines 376–385, 2002. 23. Minh-ha Trinh, Woman, Native, Other Writing Postcoloniality and

Feminism (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 1989). Trinh says that “When history separated itself from story, it started indulging in accumulation and facts. Or it thought it could. It thought it could build up to History because the Past, unrelated to the Present and the Future, is lying there in its entirety, waiting to be revealed and related. The act of revealing bears in itself a magical (not factual) quality – inherited undoubtedly from ‘primitive’ storytelling – for the Past perceived as such is a well-organized past whose organization is already given. Managing to identify with History, history (with a small letter h) thus manages to oppose the factual to the fictional (turning a blind eye to the ‘magicality’ of its claims); the story-writer – the historian – to the story-teller. As long as the transformation, manipulations, or redistributions inherent in the collecting of events are overlooked, the division continues its course, as sure of its itinerary as it certainly dreams to be. Story-writing becomes history-writing, and history quickly sets itself apart, consigning story to the realm of tale, legend, myth, fiction, literature. Then, since fictional and factual have come to a point where they mutually exclude each other, fiction, not infrequently, means lies, and

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fact, truth,” pp. 119–120. 24. Ida, lines 415–423, 2002. 25. Audrey Smedley, Race in North America, Origin and Evolution of a

Worldview (Second Edition) (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 1999), p. 240.

26. Ida, lines 388–394, 2002. 27. Ida, lines 429–434, 2002. 28. Norma Alarcón, “The Theoretical Subjects of This Bridge Called My

Back.” In The Second Wave, A Reader in Feminist Theory Edited by Linda Nicholson (New York: Routledge, 1997, p. 297. Joan W. Scott, “The Evidence of Experience.” Critical Inquiry, 17.4 (Summer 1991): 773–797.

29. Maurice Blanchot, “The Infinite Conversation.” Theory and History of Literature, Volume 82 (1983). Translation and Foreword by Susan Hanson (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1983), pp. 31–32.

30. Cixous 1991, 52. 31. Roland Barthes, Image, Music, Text (New York: Hill and Wang,

1977), p. 21. Barthes says, “The methodological interest of trick effects is that they intervene without warning in the plane of denotation; they utilize the special credibility of the photograph—this, as was seen, being simply its exceptional power of denotation—in order to pass off as merely denoted a message which is in reality heavily connoted; in no other treatment does connotation assume so completely the ‘objective’ mask of denotation”

32. Pierre Bourdieu and Loïc J.D. Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp. 14– 15. Loïc J.D. Wacquant says of Bourdieu that “… Classes and other antagonistic social collectives are continually engaged in a struggle to impose the definition of the world that is most congruent with their particular interests.” Franz Fanon, Black Skin White Masks (New York: Grove Press, 1967). Imposed definitions that dehumanize are what Fanon discusses in terms of the thematization of “Blackness.” Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1963). Fanon argues that racism does psychic and symbolic violence to Black subjects.

33. hooks 1992, 23. hooks is useful for understanding the different characters of White supremacy saying that in many ways contact with the Other embedded in the deep structure of White supremacy is a

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contemporary revival of interest in the ‘primitive,’ with a distinctly postmodern slant …” She argues that when race and ethnicity become commodified as resources for pleasure, the culture of specific groups, as well as the bodies of individuals, can be seen as constituting an alternative playground.

34. The coworker’s routine described by Norma is eerily reminiscent of the Post-Civil War era when “Blackface” performances became popular. Burnt cork, greasepaint, shoe polish, and other harmful substances were used in the application process of Black men who would not be hired as actors without performing in “Blackface.” These types of performances played into the racial stereotypes of the time.

35. Tom, Interview Transcript, line 127, 2002. 36. Smedley 1999, 164–165. Smedley says that physical characteristics

are linked with behavioral ones, along with such psychocultural features as temperament, disposition, and moral character. It is also important to note that racial stereotypes were validated in science. Smedley says that 18th century “scientists” deemed “European whites … the most physically attractive of the varieties of humankind. … and that people with black skins, thick lips, and wooly hair compared unfavorably with those who had white skins, straight hair, and narrow features.”

37. Norma, Interview Transcript, lines 537–549 and 572–578, 2004. 38. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (New York: Washington Square Press,

Publication of Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1970), p. 22. Making adjustments to one’s physical appearance toward a standard of beauty that valorizes Whiteness is one of the points of focus in Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye. Morrison’s work critically explores Whiteness, its value and affect on individuals marked in terms of human otherness. Morrison’s work is a testimony to the affects of day-to-day psychic and symbolic violence against Black individuals. In the context of television newsroom culture, what appears to be “better features” to Norma, speaks to the tenets of White supremacy, that are linked to ideas about beauty. The notion that White physical features are “better” than features linked to “Blackness” is the not so hidden message behind Norma’s comment.

39. This widely used term has come to mean language that is considered acceptable enough to avoid anything from embarrassment at the very least, to a lawsuit at the very worst and is usually separated from the actions of individuals deploying this type of communication.

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40. hooks 1992, 167–168. 41. Ibid., p. 21. 42. Richard Wright, Native Son and How Bigger Was Born (New York,

NY: Harper Perennial, 1993), p. xxiv . This is in reference to Richard Wright’s discussion of how Bigger was born in a “No Man’s Land” in terms of conditions under which he lives as a raced and gendered individual.

43. Fanon 1967, 112 and 140. Fanon conceptualizes amputation in terms of being stripped of one’s humanity by the thematization of “Blackness.” Fanon argues that to be seen through the revision of one’s self, despite every effort to the contrary, is shattering .

44. Stanley Fish, “Reverse Racism, Or How the Pot Got to Call the Kettle Black,” The Atlantic Monthly, November 1993, pp. 128, 130, 132, 135–136, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1993/11/reverse-racism- or-how-the-pot-got-to-call-the-kettle-black/304638/. Stanley Fish mentions that in a 1991 speech to the United Nations, George Bush argues against affirmative action saying that “two wrongs don’t make a right.” Fish says his argument falsely assumes “two more or less equal” victims. Cornel West, Race Matters (New York: Vintage Books, 2001).

45. Norma, Interview Transcript, lines 691–695, 2004. 46. The people who set the news agenda and make personnel and coverage

decisions are defined in the 2012 National Association of Black Journalists Diversity Census as holding the title: general manager, news director, assistant news director, managing editor, assignment manager or executive producer.

47. Bob Butler, “An Examination of Television News Management,” 2012 National Association of Black Journalists Diversity Census (College Park, MD: NABJ, 2012). Getting statistics was a challenge; participants of the study said that “After repeated attempts to get this data from the companies, NABJ began conducting its annual census to find out how many of its members worked in television newsroom management. The report is the only one of its kind,” and focuses on two studies examining current diversity figures within 295 television stations owned by 19 companies and the diversity of newsroom management at the major networks. The study found that “… the picture remains bleak for journalists of color who want to make decisions about news coverage and hiring practices.” Of the 295 television

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stations owned by 19 corporations, “More than half (153) of the television stations in the report have no one of color in management, despite being located in cities with significant diversity such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Antonio, Atlanta and Little Rock. In fact none of the four television stations in Little Rock, where 30% of the population is non-White, has any diversity in management. … Another 86 stations each have only one person of color in management. This includes stations located in other cities with large minority populations including Dallas, Houston, and El Paso. Out of a total of 1,647 managers, 1,447 (87.9%) are White, 115 (6.98%) are Black, 56 (3.40%) are Hispanic, 27 (1.64%) are Asian and 3 (.12%) are Native American”

48. Norma, lines 700–701, 2004. 49. Norma, lines 717–722, 2004. 50. National Association of Black Journalists 2012 Diversity Census, “An

Examination of Television Newsroom Management,” Edited and produced by Phillipa Mould et al. (College Park, MD: NABJ, 2012.) “The company with the highest diversity percentage is NBC at 27%, followed by ABC (20%), Belo Corporation (19%) and Raycom Media (17%).”

51. Sojourner, Interview Transcript, lines 41–56 and 60–61, 2003. 52. Sojourner, lines 41–69, 2003. 53. Darnell M. Hunt Screening the Los Angeles “Riots”: Race, Seeing,

and Resistance (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 141 and 144. Hunt argues that raced differences are echoed in viewers’ decoding of televised representations of the events, individuals, and groups. When surveying inter-group patterns in pronoun use, in attitudes toward event-related activities, in-group viewing modes, and in polarization outcomes, evidence begins to mount for “raced ways of seeing,” a term that is “always a probabilistic one, never a deterministic one.”

54. Kindle, Interview Transcript, lines 219–243, 2004. 55. Kindle, lines 219–259, 2004. 56. Kindle, lines 219–277, 2004. 57. W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (New York, Scarborough,

Ontario: A Signet Classic, New American Library, 1969), pp. 54–55. Dubois tells us that, “THE problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line,-the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men …” which plague society today.

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58. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1937), p. 29. Hurston’s work is insightful in conceptualizing Kindle’s use of the term “mule.” In saying that Black women are “de mule uh de world,” Hurston is speaking to the added burden of being Black and woman in a society that devalues and dehumanizes both categories. While Kindle confirms that predominantly Black minority journalists are marked by the term “workhorse” she also points out the intensified nature of the oppression she endures as a woman in a newsroom culture that marks women as the mules.

59. Kindle, lines 475–477, 2004. 60. DuBois 1969, 44–45 and 227–228. Dubois discusses the “unvoiced

terror” he felt as the shadow of the Veil passed over his newborn baby as a symbol of struggle and what that means for his child’s future. Kindle’s very valid concern and “unvoiced terror” of being placed in the third tier group of reporters branded incompetent means a rough road ahead as a working journalist.

61. Kindle, lines 280–283, 2004. 62. Kindle, line 329, 2004. 63. Kindle, line 412, 2004. 64. Kindle, lines 497–503, 2004. 65. Kindle, line 457, 2004. 66. hooks 1992, 115–116. bell hooks’ concept of “the oppositional gaze”

brings into view the intimidation the women in the newsroom felt. hooks argues that one’s gaze can be dangerous because there is power in looking. hooks places these looking relations in historical context saying that White slave owners punished enslaved Black people for looking because it was a symbol of defiance and the enslaved individual’s humanity. The oppositional gaze is employed by Kindle and the other women in the newsroom as a moment of intervention against the news director’s terrorism, coercion, and dehumanization. bell hooks, Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (Boston, MA: South End Press, c1989). The oppositional gaze is also about “talking back,” which is much more than the surface appearance of silence, erasure, and tears that Kindle observes when the women in the newsroom confront the news director.

67. Kindle, lines 531–539, 2004. 68. Kindle, lines 546–558, 2004. 69. Kindle, lines 516–567, 2004.

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70. Kindle, lines 617–632, 2004. 71. Kindle, lines 666–668, 2004. 72. Violet, Interview Transcript, line 272, 2003. 73. Violet, line 120, 2003. 74. Violet, lines 297–303, 2003. 75. Violet, lines 311–321, 2003. 76. Violet, lines 327–335, 2003. 77. Violet, lines 345–354, 2003. 78. Violet, lines 367–383, 2003. 79. Herman S. Gray, African Americans and the Politics of

Representation Cultural Moves (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2005), p. 2.

80. Violet, lines 380–381, 2003. 81. Violet, line 600, 2003.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alarcón, Norma. “The Theoretical Subjects of This Bridge Called My Back.” In The Second Wave, A Reader in Feminist Theory, edited by Linda Nicholson, New York: Routledge, 1997.

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press, (Jackson, Tennessee): Distributed by Perseus, 2011.

Barthes, Roland. Image, Music, Text. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977. Blanchot, Maurice. “The Infinite Conversation.” Theory and History of

Literature, Volume 82 (1983). Translation and Foreword by Susan Hanson. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

Burris, Val. American Sociological Review. “The Academic Caste System: Prestige Hierarchies in PhD Exchange Networks,” Vol. 69, No. 2, April 2004.

Cixous, Hélène. Coming to Writing and Other Essays. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 1991.

DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York, Scarborough, Ontario: A Signet Classic, New American Library, 1969.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 1947.

Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin White Masks. New York: Grove Press, 1967.

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Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1963.

Fish, Stanley. “Reverse Racism, Or How the Pot Got to Call the Kettle Black,” The Atlantic Monthly. November 1993. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1993/11/reverse-racism- or-how-the-pot-got-to-call-the-kettle-black/304638/.

Gray, Herman S. African Americans and the Politics of Representation Cultural Moves. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2005.

Gwen Owens Plaintiff, v. COMCAST Corporation, 2004. Hall, Stuart. “The Work of Representation.” Representation, Cultural

Representations and Signifying Practices – Culture, Media, and Identities. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1997.

hooks, bell. Black Looks Race and Representation. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1992.

hooks, bell. Talking back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston, MA: South End Press, c1989.

Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Black Odyssey, The African-American Ordeal in Slavery. New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 1990.

Hunt, Darnell M. Screening the Los Angeles “Riots”: Race, Seeing, and Resistance. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Hurston, Zora Neale. “My People! My People!” Dust Tracks on a Road, An Autobiography. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1937.

Lisa Lake-Campbell, individual Plaintiff, v. McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Company, Inc., 2010.

Mark C. Nelson v. Gannett Co., Inc. D/B/A Today’s THV Channel 11, 2014. Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Washington Square Press,

Publication of Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1970. National Association of Black Journalists 2012 Diversity Census, “An

Examination of Television Newsroom Management,” Edited and produced by Phillipa Mould et al. College Park, MD: NABJ, 2012.

Newkirk, Pamela. Within the Veil. New York: NYU Press, 2002. Potter, Matt. “San Diego’s ABC station sued for gender harassment and race

discrimination by African-American anchor,” San Diego Reader, August 22, 2013. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news- ticker/2013/aug/22/san-diegos-abc-station-sued-for-gender-harassment-

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http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2013/aug/22/san-diegos-abc-station-sued-for-gender-harassment-/

/#. Prince, Richard. “Fired Over Facebook Posting, Meteorologist Responded

to Critic of Her Short Afro,” Journal-isms, Maynard Institute. December 9th and 11th, 2012.

Scott, Joan W. “The Evidence of Experience.” Critical Inquiry, Chicago: The University of Chicago, 17.4 (Summer 1991): 773–797.

Slobodzian, Joseph A. “Mistrial Declared over Ex-QVC Host’s Lawsuit.” Inquirer, July 2, 2004.

Smedley, Audrey. Race in North America, Origin and Evolution of a Worldview (Second Edition). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 1999.

Smith, Jamil. “Meteorologist Fired after Defending her ‘Ethnic’ Hair.” MSNBC, December 12, 2012 and September 13, 2013. http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/meteorologist-fired-after- defending-her-ethn

Stanley Roberts, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CBS Broadcasting Inc., 2003. Thakrar, Anu. Undergraduate Review: Vol. 13, Issue 1, Article 4. “The

Origins of the Caste System in India vs. (and How It Relates to) the Formation of Race in America,” 2001.

Trinh, Minh-ha. Woman, Native, Other Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 1989.

West, Cornel. Race Matters. New York: Vintage Books, 2001. Wright, Richard. Native Son and How Bigger Was Born. New York, NY:

Harper Perennial, 1993.

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3 From Stumbling Block to Stepping Stone

You always feel, or at least in my own experience—you feel as if your opportunity is on a certain level limited to the ratio of the employees there. I mean … I’d like a chance to anchor a show, well, if there are already a couple of African American females anchoring, then that’s gonna lower my chances for being able to get that opportunity. The same with shifts. …1

—Driven

TV newsrooms across the country operate like factories. The moment you walk into newsrooms, the movement is fast paced. Individuals working in the control room where the newscast is directed position themselves to deliver a methodical flow of news production. Editing bays, which are quickly becoming a thing of the past with advanced newsroom technology on the horizon, are equipped to assist editors in cutting stories down to “minute-thirty” or less news packages. Assignment editors, news producers, writers, directors, and other media management can be found tapping keyboards, shouting across the room, and monitoring the news wire services for breaking news. They can also be found performing other managerial tasks, which include the task of keeping close watch over reporters out in the field.

The newsroom hierarchy undermines diversity. Hierarchies of race, gender, and sexuality operating in the newsroom speak to inherent inequities that on the surface appear benign. Even the process of getting clearance to conduct field observations reveals a race and gender dynamic that exemplifies how power is exercised, particularly in the negotiation of access. By observing and analyzing relations of power and access, research findings in this chapter uncover how Black journalists navigate the subtleties of racism and sexism exercised in newsrooms across the country.

In this chapter, I highlight the clues left un/knowingly by individuals whose activities of the day have a bearing on newsroom politics Black journalists engage on several levels. I went on a few ride alongs with reporters and their assigned photographers. The rest of the research time was spent observing the newsroom environment, particularly the individuals

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working in the editing bays and “control room” where news product is directed, prepared, and disseminated. The interviews and field observations described herein summarize the ways that Black journalists and editing crews have responded to newsroom culture. I also capture how journalists make attempts to endure and in some cases outsmart “the suits,” who are typically White heterosexual men who occupy managerial positions in the newsroom.

My analysis of resistance to newsroom culture derives from observations of different forms of silence that emerged while I was in the field. Working within the newsroom affects the career mobility of the predominantly Black news crew as well as their capacity to endure the rigor of newsroom culture. Taking into account marginalized epistemologies opens possibilities for writing and research practices that disrupt notions of objectivity (as explored in chapter 5) that deny a diversity of perspectives Black journalists bring to the newsroom. The Black news crew may at times engage resistance through silence. While this approach is useful as a personal strategy, it may be misconstrued as supporting ideas of Post-Racial and/or gender equality content when there are actually tensions boiling underneath the surface. Such an approach to working in a predominantly White male media industry warrants further examination. The evidence in this chapter illustrates how Black women journalists and similarly situated people of color in the newsroom navigate a White male dominated industry while working the graveyard shift and how some have transformed their silence into tangible action.

What Maurice Blanchot describes as “speaking without saying or being silent”2 is a critical tool for reading, writing, and research practices. They go beyond boundary setting strategies that privilege dominant modes of communication capable of closing off opportunities to better understand issues of power, agency, and resistance. Black journalists are presented with several challenges related to their placement in television news jobs. Blanchot’s work is used to help interpret what tends to mask as silence in the everyday interactions among marginalized journalists working in corporate television news.

SETTING THE STAGE: THE CHAOS WITHIN

Storm, who is a seasoned editor, appears to be going in circles, but there is actually a point to his movements. He goes from one wall lined with the day’s tapes (which is quite a difference compared to the wall outside his

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domain in the hallway that consists of archived tapes of past newscasts), to another adjacent wall that has three long sheets of story titles that make up part of a newscast rundown. Storm seems to be doing some sort of checking and balancing system of his own creation when he notices me standing there and says, “Hey kiddo, is she about ready?” It was about time for Driven’s voiceovers, and Storm assumed correctly that my sudden appearance was an indication that Driven was almost ready to get started. This was a good time for Storm to give me unsolicited background on some of the changes he’s seen working at the station over the past 30 years.

“You see this shit here,”3 before I can answer, Storm offers an explanation, “I been working the graveyard shift for ten years and before that, I worked midday,” I’m looking a little confused about his point, then Storm says, “okay, this shit you see here, is six playback machines—when I started at this place, there were only four (playback machines), and I have fewer staff working with me now. What kinda shit is that? I’ll tell you, it’s bullshit baby and they don’t care, they want you to get it done—bottom line,” Storm shakes his head in disgust at this last point and continues working. I thought he might add more information to what he had already said, so I allowed a moment of silence, but nothing else was said on the subject. Driven had arrived, done her voiceovers, apologized for my not being able to go on the ride along and said her goodbyes. Storm added, “no guarantees here, but you’ll get what you need if you hang around long enough.”

Storm lived up to his name. Duane had an acutely alert look on the seemingly permanent calm on his face. There was also a new person, named Bea, working with the graveyard shift editing crew. There was no time for introductions, formal or otherwise. Bea’s body language and conscious decision to remain silent throughout the observation speaks to her invisibility during moments of crisis in the control room. Through her silence came Storm yelling, “I need maintenance!” Storm accompanied that demand with a low toned, “fuck!” Things looked out of control in the “control room.” The entire editing crew rushed around in a panic, which at that moment seemed to consist of three people—one of whom was in training. Apparently two machines stopped working, or at least that’s what I heard in the rushed announcement that came through one of the several transmitters into the control room—meant for Storm’s ears. He apparently caught the message. “This is fucked,” exclaims Storm, adding, “13 doesn’t work—this is stupid!” One of the editors, a Black man named Byron, came into the other half of the control room to view the reporter about to go live with the story watched on one of the many television screens lined in a

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checkerboard along the walls of the control room. Byron says, “Oh man, this is what you call the result of bad management”—he is referring to the suits —a tone of frustration in naming a problem that may not be resolved anytime soon. Rumors circulating of things worse to come had already triggered a mass exodus from this particular television station.

Driven, one of the hangers-on, was preparing to report live from a major metropolitan airport. She is heard practicing her live shot that is apparently at risk of not happening due to the two machines mentioned earlier going “down.” She appears calm as she listens to what’s being said to her by the producer through her earpiece. The live shot happens despite problems with the equipment—the in-house anchor, a White man in his thirties, who could be viewed from one of the television monitors, tosses the story to Driven and she handles it flawlessly.

All goes well from the perspective of the viewing audience. The story is about a Delta airplane headed to Japan that was refused clearance into Russian airspace and forcibly diverted to another airport. The story includes sound bites from weary passengers who were looking forward to their trip to Japan, a Russian aviation spokesperson trying to explain the apparent “mix up,” and a spokesperson from the airline. Driven closes out the story unaware of the chaos in the control room. She looks relieved that the hasty preparation for the live shot is over. Although she had maybe 20 minutes to gather and prepare her information on this story, she was well versed on the details.

WORKING THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT

The (Lack of) Opportunities Within Black journalists work a large number of the least desirable shows/shifts in television news, which means that they are often relegated to weekends and the graveyard shift. The graveyard shift is not only undesirable due to the time of day, but also because the work executed by a person on this shift is less likely to reach the target audience and gain the recognition necessary for promotion and career success. Working the graveyard shift is considered career suicide by most in the industry, particularly for anchors and reporters. However, the graveyard shift may also be a safe haven for up and coming anchors and reporters looking to gain experience and make their mistakes during a time slot that has a smaller audience than primetime newscasts. The graveyard shift is also beneficial to newsroom interns who want to get more hands-on experience because union rules restrict them

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from primetime shows. For individuals working behind the scenes, including editors, photographers, and live truck operators, the graveyard shift is an opportunity to get as much experience as possible before moving on to a better shift and/or network affiliate.

Individuals in the television newsroom working in positions other than anchoring and/or reporting understand that the graveyard shift may mean better job security, particularly for those with an eye on the prize who strive to avoid the added pressure of coming in contact with the “talent”4 and “the suits.” While the graveyard is not a desirable shift for journalists with more than five years experience working on air, it is where most journalists of color can be found.

Limited Access to Decision-Making Positions One of the major struggles Black journalists face in the television news business both on air and behind the scenes is gaining access to key decision- making positions within a newsroom, becoming major players in the production of a newscast, and having some influence on newscasts. Although the focus of this study is Black anchors/reporters and how they meet the challenges of their journalism careers, understanding how social groups are sorted within the newsroom environment is crucial to understanding relations of power. Workers behind the scenes feel the intensity of job instability5 as newsroom jobs are becoming obsolete due to cost-saving advances in newsroom technology, such as robotics in studio camera operations.6

Black news reporters on the graveyard shift lack agency, especially over the stories they tell. The function of the graveyard shift is to disseminate news product quickly. Most stories are canned, but if time allows some are re-cut from the stories assigned and reported the day before during the more desirable shifts and shows. Day shift reporters and anchors have more input into the decision-making process of news production than reporters and anchors working the graveyard shift. Day shift workers tend to get more “face time” and attention from management, which may be beneficial in terms of career and promotion opportunities.

FORMS OF SILENT RESISTANCE FROM THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT

While Black journalists are a highly underrepresented and embattled group

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working in television news, many continue to find ways to operate in opposition to hierarchies of race, gender, and/or sexuality. Some Black journalists and editors manipulate these hierarchies by using the tools at hand. They quickly figure out how to meet the daily challenges of their journalism careers under the radar of management.

“I Do the Shit Myself”: Storm’s Loud Silence while Working the Graveyard Shift Storm, a Black man dressed in trendy faded blue jeans and a fashionable colorful sweater, moves fast, with what seems to be an uncontained burst of energy. His eyes are constantly darting from the news rundowns to the video feed machines and back to the tedious task of keeping track of the paperwork on all the video requests, story completions, and audio-visual editing in progress. Between the darting of his eyes, he gives a quick hello to passersby. His tone makes it clear that he doesn’t want further conversation—in television news, coworker cordiality has strict limits. He does not speak to everyone and is quick to tell you why, unabated by those within earshot. At times, he will pepper his comments with an occasional, “oh yeah, these mother fuckers don’t mess with me, and I won’t fuck up their shit and that’s business, that’s real cause the shit’s got to get done PERIOD, and I do it—you better believe it. …” In his more than 25 years on the job, Storm has learned that the tactic of retribution is sometimes the only form of payback when one has little or no time to prepare an offense for those looking to blame him or his editing crew for problems caused by the “day shifters.”

As the managing editor of the graveyard shift, Storm will battle with anyone over the integrity of his editing crew. He turns his body quickly and steps out into the long hallway that separates the newsroom from the control room and yells in the direction of one of his editors that he needs a tape. His voice always assumes a right now, fourth quarter, two points needed to win with only a few seconds left in the game coaching tone. The graveyard shift editing crew has a great deal of respect for Storm and enjoy working with him because, as he puts it and they confirm, “I do most of this shit, and when the suits come around on the day shift, the day shift editors like to pretend like they’re doing it all. But they really hand off the work that they could be doing themselves and give it to the editors working with their editing crew —I don’t do that, I do the shit myself, and they (graveyard shift editing crew) appreciate that and it gives them time to do a good job on what they need to get done.”

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For Storm “the suits” are those who can ruin his career without much effort and who for the most part actually wear suits to work. The suits exude power and seem to communicate in a language everyone in the newsroom understands (Hall 1997). The quest for power is expressed in the wearing of a suit itself; suits are understood as embodiments of symbolic capital (Hall 1997; Bourdieu 1992) that reflect a person’s level of power within the news organization. Some of the suits wear power on their sleeves, displaying expensive cuff links, while others find no need for such display; they, after all, are usually White men who call the shots in hiring, firing, and promotions. Some of these suits are also known for helping push forward the careers of Black journalists who have worked hard and were overdue for a promotion, while most suits remain shortsighted on issues of diversity in the newsroom and news product.

Avoiding the Gaze: Perceiving the Graveyard as a Shield Despite its reputation as the least desirable shift, the graveyard is the shift to work if one wants to avoid the suits, according to Yolanda, a Latina working mom in her early 30’s. Duane, a Black man in his late twenties, who also works as part of the graveyard editing crew, agrees. Duane edits on the latest video editing equipment on the market, while Yolanda prefers to continue working on the more familiar outdated equipment that the station plans to eventually phase out. While their friends and family sleep, Yolanda7 and Duane8 say they prefer working toward an opportunity of getting their foot in the door and gaining experience in the television news industry without the added pressure of being under the strict scrutiny of the suits.

Ultimately, Yolanda and Duane view and experience themselves and their work differently than the hierarchy that places them at the bottom of the established newsroom culture. Yolanda and Duane orchestrate and perceive their positions in the newsroom in terms of a stepping-stone toward their career goals rather than a dead-end opportunity. Despite the challenges newsroom culture presents, they produce, survive, innovate, and thrive.

The Graveyard Shift as a Stepping Stone: Driven’s Silent Refusal To Be Denied Driven, the reporter I was planning to ride along with, pops her head in, and Storm introduces us. She is a Black woman whose smile puts you at ease immediately. She smiles when she’s tired and a little under the weather, her eyes the only indication of what would be a frown if she felt she could

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afford to walk around the newsroom with anything other than a smile. Her Black pants suit does not fit her body—it swallows her up and is an indication that she does not get the same amount of hair, makeup, and clothing allowance as the tailor fitted suit clad morning anchorman, who also happens to be White. Much of the data collected speak to not only inequities in story assignments and promotions, but other “perks” as well. Driven notes the disparity saying:

I do know for a fact that if you’re a male and especially if you’re a White male, you’re going to make more money and … I don’t know how close we are to bridging the gap, but I would be willing to … bet the disparity between salaries of men and women is staggering in a lot of cases, and it’s a sad fact but … on another level, there are strides that are being made … women in high positions are making lots of money and getting good contracts.9

Driven remains hopeful as she applies the makeup that covers the dark circles around her eyes from sinus pain and lack of sleep. Although she works just as hard if not harder than her White colleagues and is not compensated fairly, she perseveres. As it gets closer to airtime, the dark circles are no match for the extra layer of foundation makeup Driven applied earlier; she looks perkier than she appeared while helping put the graveyard shift newscast together. Driven says on the particularly tough days, she reminds herself that she and her husband will soon be on a long- awaited vacation. She also reminds herself of how fortunate she is to be on television even if she is “at a bit of a disadvantage working on the overnight shift” which has “considerably fewer people that are in the decision-making role in the news room at that time.”10 One of the ways Driven says she meets the challenges of her career is by cultivating a “thick skin” and confidence in her skill and talent. She had been tracked to work behind the scenes of a newsroom early on in her career. She remembers the discouraging words and says,

You know, all along, the White people will tell you how difficult it’s gonna be to get your first job and what it’ll be, and actually to get a reporter position as my first job was also considered unheard of at that time because everybody had told me, oh, you’ll be a writer to start off, maybe you can do an associate producer (job), something like that, but, I just stuck to my guns and I was just fortunate. …11

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Many interview participants speak to the ways in which their perceived “Blackness” is being constantly placed; at the same time they struggle to place themselves outside a White mainstream epistemology and representation of “Blackness” by outperforming, outsmarting, simply outlasting the barrage of White journalists who, for the most part, do not see her as a threat. This assumption often works to the advantage of Black journalists competing with their White colleagues for coveted positions in the newsroom.

The photographer assigned to work with Driven for the day has been working at the station for more than 20 years. Shadow moves reluctantly fast; perhaps years of carrying heavy camera equipment taking its toll on his back, which is visibly bent. His eyes low, the brightness gone, he smiles as we are introduced and remarks that he remembers when I started out in television years ago. His outfit consists of faded blue jeans, a flannel shirt, and a casual, sporty vest jacket. The abundance of gray hair on his head curls slightly at the ends. His five o’clock shadow sets him apart from the clean-shaven younger editors and camera workers who still appear to have something to prove. Shadow has a resolute calm about him. Storm throws out a few rushed comments about how I “got authorization” and how I’m just waiting for my letter to go through and get the final word of approval from The Boss. Shadow nods, smiles, and says, “Okay, good seeing you again, Libby,” and treks off to an undisclosed spot in the newsroom.

THE BOTTOM-LINE OF DEADLINE

Since this particular station is about to lose its New York based network affiliation, the new owners now require editors to use news feeds from a different company that provides video feed service. The previous video feed will not be available to this station once they lose their affiliation. When I asked Storm who owns the news video feed service they now use, he said he didn’t know. In fact, he didn’t seem to care who was providing the information, as long as it came in on time. For Storm, time is everything and news source and accuracy are placed somewhere after that. During Storm’s tenure at this particular station, he has seen people fired because they didn’t have a healthy respect for deadlines and time, two things for which Storm will fiercely take people to task if they threaten his reputation as the deadline specialist. He and his three person crew of editors have over 100 tapes to “cut” (edit), which made my question about changing the video in stories that are used in more than one show ridiculous to Storm.

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Storm sought clarification, “You mean re-cut some shit?” I nodded, and he snapped, “Naw … we ain’t got time for that—I got over a hundred tapes not to mention the feeds and people bullshittin’, naw I just re-cue ’em and let them (the day shift) deal with it.”

Storm is constantly employing little “time saving” techniques including marking the tapes that need to be re-cued for other shows in yellow, so that when he’s done using the collection of tapes for his newscast he can quickly pick out the yellow marked tapes and re-shelve them on a shelf marked for tapes that need re-cuing for the next newscast. He also marks on the rundown those stories that will be replayed for a particular show during the day; thereby syncing the re-shelved tapes with the news rundown. While Driven is doing her voiceovers for her story assignment in another room, Storm takes a break from whatever he’s doing and flips a switch that allows him to listen in on her voiceover “takes” and marks down the exact time- code at which she gets a voiceover correct. He can then go directly to the voiceover done correctly instead of shuffling through all of her voiceovers during the editing process.

This way, Storm is ahead of the game, but it does not come without some maneuvering. Storm has to pay attention to the feeds, the rundowns, and any changes in the scripts or rundowns, listen to the reporter’s countdown, and mark the time. If the reporter messes up he marks the “take two” time-code, then goes back to his other tasks until he hears her doing the next voiceover for the same story. Most stories have two to four voiceovers. He could simply wait until she is finished doing all of her voiceovers for a particular story and figure out which voiceovers are the better ones, but time- conscious Storm won’t have it. Getting everything expected of him done and done well requires performing several tasks at once with no room or tolerance for error—something that could be overwhelming for anyone, but Storm thrives in this environment. The graveyard shift has the most people of color working at the station, not including the janitorial or security staff, according to Storm. It’s the shift that no one wants but seems to be the only shift “available” for most people of color and decidedly Black journalists who come to work at the station.

ON STOMACHING THE AFTERMATH: “YOU GOTTA KNOW HOW TO DO EVERYTHING”

Duane, one of the editors on Storm’s crew, began to transform to his usual calm demeanor after the chaotic but successful live shot. Byron seemed to

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be doing just fine in the corner of the control room, appearing quite busy shuffling tapes and papers. He then turned and entered the other half of the control room lined with multiple television monitors, where I was able to observe everything from several different perspectives. Byron told me that Storm was short staffed on this particular day, which made a bad situation worse. He then added, “man if I was Storm, this would be the last straw for me.”

Storm pokes his head in the other half of the control room—divided only by swinging double doors (one half of which stays closed) and says, “Thanks for your help, man [Byron],” Storm sounds exhausted and relieved, but his face still appears panicked. He is wearing his red rimmed glasses that are usually only worn when he is reading the story rundown sheets and rests on the lower portion of his nose. Storm admittedly does not like wearing glasses, so taking them off signals to those in the know a start toward relaxing a bit; his glasses remain. Storm quickly swings around in a circular pattern, looking at tapes, marking some with a yellow highlighter, turning to another wall where the story rundown sheets lay, nervously jerking around in a “I-forgot-something” manner, and pressing a button on one of the playback machines that is decidedly working today. Signs of anxiety still show on his face from the line in his forehead to the constant shifting in his eyes leaving one to wonder if he is reliving the chaos in his head that is now over, rewinding and playing back the moment of quandary over how to resolve the downed transmitter problem.

Storm is visibly stressed from the unpredictability of human coupled with technical error at moments that may compromise his reputation in the newsroom for getting seemingly impossible tasks done—his anger bubbles underneath the surface of professionalism as he attempts to transition back into his “routine.” In another room he begins highlighting the tapes that will be used for the next show while Byron wraps up his conversation with a coworker, “much love, much love … six o’clock? Will do, alright Ron, I’ll talk to you,” Byron hangs up and for the first time since the chaos, I am invited to engage in conversation. Byron sounded contemplative, “this is the kind of day that gives you a headache,” then adds as he leaves the room, “pressure cooker.”

Storm enters and says, “did you see that shit?” He is finally able to let off some steam. Bea is present and silent but taking everything in. She doesn’t know Storm well enough to know if he has cooled down since the chaos and keeps a safe distance. She comes and goes in total silence—no complaints, no jokes, no casual bantering, just silence. Storm continues, “The Boss leaves me with a skeleton crew—one person down—doesn’t replace ’em,

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and I got two machines that wouldn’t play. I should have let the shit burn; that would teach em’ a lesson, but I don’t work like that and neither does my crew,” Storm reiterates, “You don’t do that kind of shit to a number one show! We were two minutes to air with two machines down,” Storm points to the machines in a look at my troubles gesture, then his demeanor takes a turn. He removes his glasses and begins joking about the video of an elephant in the newscast—a true sign that his stress levels are lowering— but remnants of the earlier intensity remains.

Just when I thought his moment of frustration was exorcised by bantering about an elephant, Storm says “and I had to set up the live truck in all this shit ’cause the guy who usually does it was in here (the control room) helping me with this shit. That’s why you gotta know how to do everything, everything [everybody’s job] because if you don’t [know everybody’s job], your ass will burn!” Storm says this last part as an absolute. He says, “I could kick my heels up and let them do the work [pointing to the crew of Black editors], but I don’t. You see ’em over there [pointing again to the crew who are sitting around, laughing and joking during a self-authorized break time], but I don’t mind because when I need them to work—they work!”

Everyone looks at ease. If one of the suits entered the room at this moment, s/he would swear the graveyard shift editing crew did not have enough work to do. In a moment of self-reflection, Storm says, “I trained everybody on this crew—we got Blackwatch going on here—didn’t no White boy keep this shit afloat. Blackwatch kept this shit running, and they don’t even get paid what they’re worth.” Yolanda who is Latina identifies with Storm’s signification of “Blackwatch” as a marginalized editing crew who handles business despite its extraordinary challenges because as she put it, “being Latina doesn’t open any doors; raising a family working graveyard doesn’t make it any easier. This [“Blackwatch”] is my in [opportunity].” Most of the individuals working the graveyard shift do not receive health benefits because they are temporary instead of permanent editors. The graveyard editing crew that works through the night is often unrecognized for the challenges of its job in the everydayness of struggle that brought them together by design. Devalued, overworked, and underpaid, the self-described editing crew “Blackwatch” does not allow boundaries of time, place, and space to dictate their movement within the television industry.

“Blackwatch,” has since been disassembled by the ravages of technological advances in the newsroom: Two members of Storm’s editing crew were promoted to the day shift, while others moved on to other

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positions and/or television news stations. Storm was transferred to the day shift and given odd jobs since his position was protected by the union; he was one of the lucky ones during a recent series of budget cuts and layoffs because he has worked at the station for so many years that he could not— under the union contract agreement—be laid off, as were most of his editing crew. The work ethic of “Blackwatch” continues to influence the experiences of the crew members, who were able to take the skills they have learned on the graveyard shift to competing stations and other television markets.

SUMMARY

Black journalists meet the challenges of their newsroom jobs in terms of time, place, and space limitations of “Blackness.” The chapters ahead will explore placing “Blackness” in terms of boundary setting geographically and bodily. The field observations and interviews discussed in this chapter provide insight into some of the challenges of working on a shift that most in the news business do not value. It also offers an understanding of the challenges faced by marginalized newsroom workers behind the scenes in television newsrooms across the country. Furthermore, the evidence illustrates how Black newsroom workers, particularly editors like Storm, speak against power without actively resisting and/or attempting to change the newsroom culture.

Black journalists like Driven are at a disadvantage working on the graveyard shift and are usually discouraged from applying to on-air jobs, especially early in their careers. Some newsroom workers attempt to gain respect by taking a different perspective on the lack of staffing and resources on the job. For instance Storm, a managing editor, says to anyone in earshot that as long as they “don’t mess with me … I won’t fuck up their shit, and that’s business.” Protected by union rules and on his way to retirement, Storm’s bravado tends to go unnoticed.

Graveyard shift workers say they employ time-saving techniques to get everything done on time despite the lack of workers and resources, which is usually the case in most newsrooms and more pronounced when a shift has predominantly Black workers. Although there are no guarantees in working the graveyard shift, most of the workers say they get what they need to make their next career move if they are willing to hang around long enough. Most Black journalists and newsroom workers say they are not paid what they are worth. Since most of these newsroom workers have temporary positions,

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they do not have access to health insurance and are easily expendable. They work in a “pressure cooker atmosphere” and suffer from sleep deprivation —especially individuals with children. At the same time, the newsroom workers who stick around learn how to make adjustments to this environment in order to survive the chaos and deal with the feelings of powerlessness that emerge. Toward this end, they take self-authorized breaks when “the suits” are away and live to fight another day. They come to understand the bigger picture and begin to see the graveyard shift as a stepping-stone to better positions within the newsroom and other competing stations. They also come to understand that power is not absolute in the newsroom; the contingency of the boss’s power to define the limits of one’s position and career in the news business is demonstrated by how graveyard shift workers create and work out their own definitions of position, capability, and opportunity that simultaneously counter how they are defined within the newsroom hierarchy and invest in self-definitions that take them beyond the limitations of how they are positioned and placed by “the suits.”

NOTES

1. Driven, Interview Transcript, lines 163–168, 2002. 2. Maurice Blanchot, “The Infinite Conversation.” Theory and History of

Literature, Volume 82: 31–32. Translation and Foreword by Susan Hanson (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1983).

3. Storm, Interview Transcript, lines 82–86, 2002. 4. This term is commonly known in television newsrooms as a reference

to journalists working in front of the camera, on-air, and in this case, White male journalists who hold the majority of key decision-making positions in a given newsroom.

5. April Turner, “Industry Wide and Industry Wise: Diverse Newsrooms Matter,” NABJ News & Press: President’s Corner, January 6, 2012. http://www.nabj.org/news/80585/Industry-Wide-and-Industry-Wise- Diverse-Newsrooms-Matter.htm.

6. Arthur Greenwald, “Robotic Camera Market Solidly On Track,” TV News Check, August 16, 2012. http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/61552/robotic-camera-market- solidly-on-track.

7. Yolanda, Field Observation Note, 2002. 8. Duane, Field Observation Note, 2002.

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http://www.nabj.org/news/80585/Industry-Wide-and-Industry-Wise-Diverse-Newsrooms-Matter.htm

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/61552/robotic-camera-market-solidly-on-track

9. Driven, lines 398–404, 2002. 10. Driven, lines 134–136, 2002. 11. Driven, lines 37–42, 2002.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bourdieu, Pierre and Loïc J.D. Wacquant. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Greenwald, Arthur. TV News Check, “Robotic Camera Market Solidly On Track,” August 16, 2012. http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/61552/robotic-camera-market- solidly-on-track.

Turner, April. “Industry Wide and Industry Wise: Diverse Newsrooms Matter,” NABJ News & Press: President’s Corner, January 6, 2012. http://www.nabj.org/news/80585/Industry-Wide-and-Industry-Wise- Diverse-Newsrooms-Matter.htm.

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http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/61552/robotic-camera-market-solidly-on-track

http://www.nabj.org/news/80585/Industry-Wide-and-Industry-Wise-Diverse-Newsrooms-Matter.htm

4 Owning the “Ghetto” Shows

Primetime in my market … still looks like Mount Rushmore with one or two exceptions. We kind of own the weekends, the ghetto shows.1

—Ida, TV News Reporter

Ida is referring to Black journalists working in a newsroom culture that structures temporalities and spatialities of “Blackness” under the terms and conditions of Whiteness.2 Primetime newscasts are dominated by White journalists with few exceptions while Black journalists are placed on newscasts known for low audience numbers. The racialization of television news presents major obstacles to the advancement of Black journalists. Some of the obstacles include managements’ totalizing quest of the “it” factor, policed boundaries of Black mobility, and the hypocrisy of population parity. The imperative to find ways to resist3 managements’ attempt at controlling4 career advancement outcomes is more daunting for marginalized journalists because of their tenuous positions in the newsroom and limited opportunities compared to White colleagues. Management places Black journalists on the least desirable shifts—also known in the business as “the ghetto shows”—and in cities where there is a predominantly Black demographic.

At times, image consultants and talent agents collude with management in placing limitations on Black journalists’ advancement. They also determine who has the “it” factor. Black journalists often find themselves struggling to meet the ambiguous standards of the “it” factor that dictates marketability and therefore career mobility. Furthermore, population parity, which is factored into decisions regarding job placement, is policed by “the good ol’ boys’ network.”5 The contradictions of population parity are uncovered in the double standards practiced in a predominantly White newsroom where the market reflects a predominantly Black demographic.

Television news media owners and managers place a lot of stock in omniscient Whiteness. Due to this quest to translate humanity through the lens of Whiteness, journalists are often kept in their designated places in newsroom culture. The placement of Black journalists on the “ghetto

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shows” is one of the many strategies of containment in an imagined omnipotent Whiteness.6 News directors across the country police the perimeters of the acceptability of being journalists while Black.

Media management’s practice of territorializing journalists using demographic justifications in the mapping of Black bodies to particular markets becomes evident in hiring, firing, and promotion practices of television news. Whether it is hair, a particular body part, or the body itself that is being mapped, most news directors are expected to disseminate “Blackness” in prescribed doses. A systematic mapping and measure of “Blackness” in North American television news media becomes apparent. Driven, a mid-career journalist says:

Geographies have a lot to do with it. I just feel that that’s the way it is being an African American female, I would have a greater chance at being accepted or moving up in my field or position in Chicago, in Detroit, in New Orleans because there are more of us there. If I wanted to wear braids or dreads in Portland (laughs), that’s not going to go over well. I mean … that’s just something that you have to know and understand. … I think … you would be better accepted wearing something or having a hairstyle that reflected more of your background in an area of the country where there are more of you, of your particular race or culture. …7

Driven laughs at the mere idea of wearing braids as an on-air journalist in Portland, Oregon. North American news directors become the border patrol of “Blackness” revoking journalists’ passport into what is deemed exclusive territories of Whiteness—with blue eyes and blonde hair, the quintessential Whiteness. Although it is not written in her contract, Driven understands the repercussions of violating the standard appearance enforced by news directors. The repercussions are measured in the number of employed on-air Black journalists with hair other than that attained via weave, wig, chemical, and/or hot iron “straightening.” Although the creativity that springs from those methods of straightening are fiercely stylish, Black journalists are held to standards that occlude their existence in terms of allowing equally fierce natural hair textures and styles.

Most Black journalists fight the battle of human recognition throughout their careers. The static notion of “Blackness” that management enforces constructs journalists in ways that go beyond hair8 and individual physicality. Even Driven’s experience9 as a television reporter and anchor speaks to the ways her body is mapped with policed routes in the structure

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of the newsroom. The way she expresses herself in terms of hair aesthetics, lips, speech pattern, self-identity, perspective, etc., is placed in the domain of the graveyard shift. The embodiment of difference is reiterated as she becomes the familiar territory of news management and automatically linked with marginality.

There is a lot at stake for television owners and journalists if diversity is not actively embraced. The continued quest to shape and control differences in television news—whether those differences are expressed in language or perspective—are a result of the lack of diversity in newsrooms across the country and the inequitable structure of the news business. Attempts at normalizing newsroom culture will never be successful in terms of ratings and revenue given the U.S. Census projections10 and the imperative to draw a larger audience share within a given market. However, persistent strategies to contain the differences that exist among journalists and the markets they serve will continue, using the coded language of professionalism and objectivity toward the maintenance of race, gender, and sexual hierarchies operating in the news business. These strategies of containment are exposed in interrogating the totalizing quest of the “it” factor, examining the policing, placing, and producing of a palatable “Blackness.” The peculiar instituting of race, gender, and sexual hierarchies is a form of territorializing Black journalists under the terms and conditions of Whiteness. This approach places extreme limitations on Black journalists and their access to upward career mobility.

This territorializing and monopolizing of humanity informs the struggle11

over “Blackness” in the television news media. Her body scripted and branded as palatable, Driven is shaped for a particular market and placed by talent agents who say they demonstrate “expertise not just to find a job” for journalists “but to tell them how they can improve themselves”12 in order to be placed in a higher paying and more prestigious position. Most journalists do not risk a job search unassisted. The road to palatable “Blackness”—improvement and employment—is often paved and negotiated through talent agent representation.

THE TOTALIZING QUEST OF THE “IT” FACTOR

Talent agents get about ten percent of the salary for each journalist they are able to place. Their profitability depends heavily on their relationship with television news management and owners. In other words, they have incentive for maintaining an amicable business relationship with

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management, so that when talent agents call a news director or general manager about possible employment for a client, news management “won’t pretend to be in a meeting, or on the other line, or when a tape comes in … they don’t throw it in the garbage.”13 Their relationship with news management becomes more than simply garnering enough journalists to keep their business afloat; talent agents must protect their earning power by protecting their reputation as resourceful overseers of human capital.

It’s been said in the television news business, “you either have ‘it’ or you don’t,”14 but what does having “it,” mean? Tom, a talent agent representing a majority demographic of White men who play major roles in hiring and promoting television news journalists across the United States, says having “it” means:

Good is not good enough. … You have to be really … special ’cause when a news director has one opening, and he or she gets 250 tapes, you better be special; otherwise, you’re not gettin’ that job. So I really have to feel something, I have to be moved when I watch the tape whether it be of an anchor, reporter, sports, or weather caster, it doesn’t matter. I have to be moved, there’s gotta be something that hooks me as a viewer and as a professional, as an agent to see if there’s something marketable there.15

Statistics show that marketing Black television journalists becomes quite challenging when there are limitations on where and when it is okay to be journalist while Black. Tom says his advice is the same to every client “no matter the color of their skin … all things being equal,” having a “pleasant appearance”16 means more job opportunities. Having “it” more often than not means marginalized journalists must fit the television station’s brand of acceptability. Such branding requirements are met by policing hair, makeup, clothing, body language (Hall 1997), etc., toward what management finds palatable to a particular demographic audience. Branding requirements are used as the compass for appropriate palatable representation of race, sexuality, and gender. The definition of palatability matters17 because of the hierarchies of difference used in decisions regarding hiring, promoting, and firing. Relations of power always play a role in who gets access to opportunities and who does not. Journalists whose complicated identities go against the grain of newsroom culture and management standards of acceptability do not find that “all things” are “equal.” Most journalists say that power is exercised to their detriment in the form of lower salaries; fewer promotions; fewer entry level, mid-career, veteran television news

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reporter and/or anchor job offers; and fewer news management opportunities. They put their morale, careers, and at times their bodies on the line to carve out a space of difference against the racial hierarchies of the newsroom.

Station management, usually White and male, promotes a newsroom culture that exercises fixed notions of “Blackness” that fit with their demographics argument18 to push Black journalists out of key positions in the newsroom and highly sought-after markets including but not limited to Miami, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. The demographics argument serves to justify racism in hiring, promotion, and story assignment. Black journalists report being marooned in the television news industry and held hostage to a demographics argument that allows White journalists to work anywhere in the United States and the world, including newscasts occupying primetime. Black journalists are continually being placed in lower level positions and markets that are routinely deemed their place in the television news profession.

Black journalists report that management’s use of demographics to support racist hiring practices has taught them a lot about those who view the news and those who think they know how to run the news industry. They report that owners and management who claim to have difficulty putting Black journalists in key positions due to the demographics of a particular market are not being honest when there are examples contesting the demographics argument particularly for on-air talent. The myth of the demographics argument is part of the practice of policing knowledge boundaries and stifling diverse ways of knowing our communities and the socio-political realities they constitute. This approach to news management goes against the tenets of the journalism profession and misrepresents the lived realities in the communities television networks profess to serve.

BLACK MOBILITY IN DOMINANT IMAGININGS

Talent agents work with news directors in their hiring decisions when the news director has an 80-percent demographic of Black individuals in the community and wants to reflect that on air. One talent agent says it makes sense, “Odds are I would send them African American clients, thinking that’s what they were looking for.”19 However, the odds are against Black journalists seeking jobs from news directors who rely on the demographics argument in making decisions on hiring in a predominantly White market. Demographics become less important in news directors’ hiring practice of

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White journalists, who are presumed to be a viable fit in any market. This is reflected in the sheer number of White journalists working in the United States regardless of the demographics of a given market.

Challenges to Black mobility abound, and the rationale most relied upon in controlling Black mobility is the demographics myth. The graveyard shift, known amongst the workers of that shift as “Blackwatch” (chapter 3), is no coincidence. Black journalists on any shift including the graveyard shift are key targets of budget cuts and downsizing. It is no secret that the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has issued several statements regarding the peculiar pattern and practice of firing black media professionals at some of the top news networks.20 Attempts at silencing Black journalists who complain about the scaling back on diversity at the network have been reported by the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, one of the nation’s oldest organizations committed to holding the news media accountable for excluding marginalized perspectives. The Institute reported that CNN operated in retaliation21 of NABJ openly expressing concern over the network’s pattern and practice of firing Black journalists.

Attempts at controlling the flow22 of Black journalists’ mobility and career advancement harken back to Jim Crow Era23 policing of Black mobility. Creating access to opportunities for advancement in the careers of White journalists while closing off opportunities for other journalists produces a separate and unequal approach to diversity claims. Black journalists disclose their struggle against limited opportunity in media markets24 as they continually get passed over on promotions to larger more lucrative markets and big story assignments. The lack of diversity has a lot to do with who is making decisions at the top. NABJ shows persistent inequities in the racial make-up of television news networks in 2012.

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Figure 4.1 Percentage of Black Journalists Employed by Selected Television News Agencies in 2012. © 2012 National Association of Black Journalists Diversity Census, an Examination of Television Newsroom Management. Used with permission.

Senior level positions at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC were held predominantly by Whites, 66 percent; Blacks, 20 percent; Hispanic/Latinos, 8 percent; Asians, 5 percent; and American Indians/Alaskan Natives, 1 percent. The Census also revealed that there weren’t any “Hispanic/Latino or Asian Sr. Vice Presidents, or Vice Presidents at MSNBC, or ABC News. CBS News lacked any Asian employees among those ranks. NBC remains the most diverse in this particular category.” Overall, presidents, sr. vice presidents, and vice presidents were predominantly Whites at 74 percent, Hispanic/Latinos at 9 percent, Blacks at 8 percent, Asians at 8 percent, and 1 percent undetermined.

Attempts to uncover inequities have been met with some challenges. FOX News Channel officials did not supply the information requested by NABJ and therefore could not be reflected in the chart. An interesting note: A year prior, according to the NABJ Diversity Census 2012 Report, FOX officials said that they could not supply the information requested because they did not receive the request “in a timely manner.”25 The issue of inequality and lack of diversity persists. “The higher up you go in the management ranks the less diversity you see. There are no people of color among the Presidents of any of the networks” surveyed.26 It becomes painfully clear

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that White journalists have a freedom of mobility and a broad structure of opportunity within the broadcast industry that Black journalists have yet to see. The stories behind the Census data are very telling. The experiences of Black journalists sometimes gets relegated to off-air private discussions, buried public speeches, news department memos, the latest buzz at journalism conferences, and water cooler banter.

Figure 4.2 Percentage of Black Journalists in Senior Management Positions. © 2012 National Association of Black Journalists Diversity Census, an Examination of Television Newsroom Management. Used with permission.

POPULATION PARITY

Marginalized journalists are not constructed as trustworthy in terms of reporting the news of the day to a predominantly White demographic. Media managers often justify not hiring Black journalists in markets that serve a predominantly White demographic. Frank, a Black journalist since 1973, says he worked in a small town on the East Coast where the Black population at the time was less than 10 percent while his following was 80 percent of the market. What he thought would be the most racist area of that market became his biggest fan base; his bosses witnessed White individuals stopping him on the street to compliment his work, giving him their children to hold and take pictures with, and expressing their appreciation for his work. Despite the naysayers of the demographics argument, his experience is that “the viewers … really do see ability and personality … if the individual is given the opportunity to get out there and perform.”27 Frank

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becomes noticeably frustrated by what he sees as the continued ignorance of television news executives who still use the demographics myth as justification for denying Black journalists jobs in key markets. Challenging the rationale, Frank offers an analogy:

The thing that really just pisses me off about that—I mean what’s the demographics on the NBA team? You got an NBA team in a predominantly White city, you’re gonna sit there and say we can’t have a starting five for Black people because no one will come to the games??? Bull! They’re still there, they’re at the games!!! Because the fans want to see the talent and I believe fans … for television, radio, and sports, they’re not looking at race, not when it comes to looking for that product. … they’re looking at talent, the stats, period. And, that became very evident to me. … I was the number one, recognized, appreciated journalist in that town. …28

Whether justifications of hiring practices are about body parts that fit a particular standard of palatability or what is thought to be the more appropriate, “proper” placement of Black journalists, the demographics myth continues to place a strangle hold on Black journalists’ job opportunities in television.

Not surprisingly, there are talent agents who claim that racism has little to do with management decisions on body image and/or the placement of journalists in particular markets or newscasts. Those in positions of power continue to claim that media managers do not want to “alienate the viewer”29 by not “just giving the viewers what they want.”30 The argument that there has to be uniformity of image and demographic representation proves to be just another smoke screen for the prevailing racism in the television news industry. If the bottom line of higher ratings and profit are what the television news executives were interested in achieving, the demographics argument would be scrapped immediately and replaced with an ever-widening space of diverse and underrepresented perspectives.

Whether journalists are geographically placed based on the race-gender hierarchies of television news networks or placed according to the racialized positions of newsroom culture, they often respond with strategies and/or tactics that speak to the contentiousness of power. Frank says much of the challenges in his television news career came from the powers that be within the industry. He recalls the time a news director flew him in as prelude to a job offer for a network affiliate in a much larger market. He says he remembers being invited by the news director to sit in the office of a

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general manager “from the good ol’ boys network.”31 While casually smoking a cigar, the general manager looked Frank in the eyes and said, ‘well tell me why in the fuck I should hire you?’32 Taken aback but aware of his value as a journalist, Frank returned the gaze33 and responded, “why the fuck should I come here?”34 The general manager then responded with a smile saying, ‘I like you! Don’t go runnin’ up your price. …’35 Frank says the message was clear, “you can’t be a wimp in this business. …”36 Frank translated the general manager’s behavior to a matter of toughness in the news business that most journalists say requires a “thick skin”37 regardless of one’s race, gender, and sexuality.

Frank’s interaction with the general manager reflects the challenges of navigating “the good ol’ boys network” knowing that the only opportunity for a huge promotion to a much larger market may be at stake. Frank demonstrated the contentiousness of the general manager’s power in his calculated38 response to the general manager’s lack of professionalism and respect during the meeting. Frank calculated and seized the opportunity39

during the meeting to reflect back to the general manager the level of disrespect, lack of professionalism, and patronizing tone that Frank was shown.

Frank used that moment to put his reputation as a highly skilled journalist in perspective—they, after all, sought him out for his talent and not the other way around. In other words, the general manager had to scale back his overt racism in order to facilitate closing the deal—a deal that could be very lucrative in terms of what Frank has on offer: “talent, the stats, period.” Whether he is aware of it or not, Frank’s response to the general manager speaks against the racist remarks without saying or being silent.40 Frank’s experience highlights the veiled41 attempt at ignoring his value while mocking and belittling his position as a potential hire.

The hiring process gives Black journalists an opportunity to observe the terms and conditions of working in a particular newsroom as a raced, gendered, and sexualized subject. In other words, the routine meet and greet moments of the hiring process are opportunities for journalists to discover their perceived place within the newsroom hierarchy behind the mask of smiles and newsroom banter among potential colleagues. The disrespectful tone of the general manager toward Frank is but one example of what Black journalists say they experience42 during job interviews. Such experiences are barometers and often warning signs of what is deemed acceptable modes of communicating and relations of power among management and

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journalists. Unprofessional treatment of marginalized journalists by management

serves as a signal within newsroom culture that there are few boundaries to unprofessional practices that journalists are expected to endure. Marginalized journalists have more at stake during such moments of psychic and symbolic violence given the relations of power within the dynamic of newsroom culture. Meeting with prospective employers may also serve as career strategy for embattled journalists seeking jobs in other markets less hostile to their race, gender, and sexual self-identities. In Frank’s case, the off-the-cuff remark simultaneously established his designated place within the newsroom hierarchy and set the boundaries of future re-negotiations of salary, hair, clothing, and makeup allowances. Despite knowing his value as a journalist, management did not want Frank “running up (his) price”—a price that was never stated by Frank.

Population parity is used to validate the limitations placed on hiring marginalized journalists, but it is not a factor in hiring or promoting White and most often heterosexual journalists to top paying anchor positions. As Ida, a veteran reporter put it, “L.A. is primarily Mexican, but [their] anchor desk is not made up of Mexicans Monday through Friday—it’s still primarily White and … they [White individuals in Los Angeles] are a minority group … So why is [their] anchor desk 100-percent White? Nobody has ever been able to explain that to me.” This is not even taking into consideration the number of Latinos who are not Mexican and living in Los Angeles. The rhetoric of racial population parity attempts to mask discriminatory practices in television news. On-air opportunities for White journalists are not predicated on the presence of White individuals in the market, yet news directors often hold journalists who are other than White to a different standard. Ida says:

I was told during one interview some years ago … guy turned me down and said, “instead of looking here, you know, you have a good tape, you’re really ready for a break, you should go to Detroit, they’ve got a lot of Black people in Detroit. You should have no trouble getting a job there.” Like he was shocked that I was even trying to get a job at his shop ’cause he already had one Black woman. And then [he] said, “and we love her you know ‘n’ she’s not going anywhere if we can help it so, you might wanna look in Detroit” and I said, “oh, okay” ’cause I got so angry, I took my tape and my resume and I went to his competition and they hired me, and so that was satisfaction in working for the next 18 months kickin’ his ass ’cause I went to the number one station; whereas,

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he was number two. And I said, “I think that’s why they’re number two, they have no vision.”43

Ida says she tries not to hold grudges, but the memory of that moment stays with her. She tells herself to compartmentalize,44 to “keep plugging away,”45

“go against the grain.”46 She recalls47 the struggle of her mother who could not go to college, her in-laws who as children were “pulled out of school every picking season to go pick beans in South Florida.”48 Ida remembers the painful compartmentalized moments and decides to “keep pluggin’ away”49 in honor of those who sacrificed and struggled so that she could continue to reach beyond the limitations of racial population parity and White supremacy. She chooses “not to forget,”50 to “never let it go,”51 and continues to struggle—at least so she “can sleep at night.”52 Ida chooses not to dwell on the negative, saying, “it’s like a cancer, it will eat you alive if you spend all of your life agonizing about the breaks that didn’t come based on complexion, you know.”53 The news director’s attempt to render “Blackness” as static by sending Ida to Detroit demonstrates his lack of vision, which keeps his station from being number one in the market.

Diane started in the TV business in July 1972 doing one show called, “Black Dimensions” one night a week with no pay because it was not sponsored by public affairs. After two years, she was paid for gasoline to get to the ABC affiliate in Rochester, New York. She was the first Black person and woman on air in the predominantly White market when she was promoted to the news department. Then she had her meteoric rise to another predominantly White market as an on-air reporter for KPIX-TV in San Francisco in 1979. She says back then racism was more covert than “overt” when “they [White male colleagues] began to realize they could not say or do certain things that were considered illegal—racist remarks or sexist jokes. …” She also says that race has no place in deciding who should and should not work in a particular market demographic.

They [News Directors] too narrowly define their audience and underestimate their audience … your audience is no longer a monolith … I think there’s a certain amount of racism; it’s entrenched in a line of thinking that is very hard to break through and it’s frustrating, it’s very frustrating because you do see them going lock step with what has been done and not really looking at how the audience has changed—how the world has changed54

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Although Diane attributes “fear” of making the wrong decision as a reason news directors stay with the status quo, Ida’s observations also point to racism as a major factor.

MAKING A WAY OUT OF NO WAY

The racist practice of placing “Blackness” goes beyond demographics. Journalists speak candidly about the tendency of management to police the stories of journalists so that the content will be recognizable55 through the lens of Whiteness—occluding different perspectives. Management insists upon disseminating the dominant culture perspective that is reflected in newsroom culture. Management’s attempt to control the flow of information and other perspectives goes against one of the tenets of the journalism profession—objectivity. Angela, a mid-career journalist, says that this is particularly disturbing when the target audience is underrepresented and Black.

Angela’s story is unique in that she worked hard to avoid the pitfalls of being a high school dropout and teenage mother. She met the challenges of a temporary job, initially as a receptionist, she then began commentating, producing, and organizing focus groups for a teen show at a major television network. She says she became a full-time reporter for a network affiliate in the south through tears, prayer, and determination. She worked harder than her colleagues, often volunteering to do work that was not in her job description because she says she needed to make up for not going to college. She knew that her race and gender would not afford the opportunities of a White man like Peter Jennings who reached the peak of the journalism profession with only a high school education. Motivated by the necessities of living as a single Black teen mother, encouraged by the strides she had made by working harder than her White colleagues, she hit the wall of race- gender discrimination that obliterates the myth of meritocracy.56

Although Angela works in a market where reporters are not required to shoot their own stories, she has been forced to do the work of two individuals. She says a continual lack of resources to cover her story assignments shows that management does not see the value in perspectives outside their frame of reference and understanding. After both of her shows got nominated for regional awards, management eventually provided her a photographer—something other reporters expected. One year later, her photographer was reassigned to another reporter. Angela says it was like a slap in the face, “once you take me to that next level, I’m not stepping

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backwards. … You get the reward of being able to continue to prove yourself. So you get nothing.”57 She is often warned to be “very careful” about the “type” of stories she pitches to the news director and executive producers; she is also warned that the language and tone of her stories must be geared toward the mainstream—code for White audience—even though her show is supposed to target the Black demographic in the market. Often times she is required to “do the leg work”58 and then asked to turn the fruits of her labor—the script, interviews, and visuals—over “to somebody who is more experienced.”59 The fact that she has worked as a reporter for several years has no bearing on management decision on this issue. In other words, her work is heavily policed—her resources are used to gain access to a Black target audience, the story is high-jacked, constructed, and reported from the dominant culture grid of intelligibility.

Angela is also not allowed to contribute to primetime shows. She says, “I am not allowed to have a presence on the five and six o’clock news where my information is just as accurate, just as valid.”60 She responds to what she sees as racist practice in the newsroom by holding herself and her work to a higher standard of journalism, working harder than her White colleagues because her only other option is to quit—something she and the communities she covers cannot afford. She says she struggles against overwhelming anger.

… while they let me in the door they’re not gonna give me the opportunity that I deserve, they’re not going to give me the opportunity that I need, so I’ve got to keep pressing on, and I would be angry on the inside and let that drive me, and while they would see an angry Black woman in the newsroom, they also knew that I was on point with everything that I did. So that said, that’s where my confidence came from —anger … annoyance.61

Moments like this can become potentially volatile as she struggles to hold the anger inside while planning a viable strategy that keeps her from joining the statistics of Black journalists who have been fired or left the business because of the lack of access to opportunities toward promotion. She instead decides to “laugh it off,”62 regroup, and weigh her options. “I know I can’t change being Black, so … I finally learned how to pray. …”63 It would anger and annoy anyone who consistently has the doors of opportunity closed … but she knows she has “to keep pressing on”64 by masking the anger and staying “on point with everything”65—something

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journalists strive for regardless of race but which becomes more intense for Black journalists who have a lot more at stake. Even some veteran journalists say when opportunity knocks, “It’s always an area of turmoil.”66

Most journalists interviewed for this study report that they are not being compensated fairly given the work they do. They often vent to colleagues they trust.

Black journalists across the country are meeting the challenge of working in newsrooms that are not supportive and in some cases hostile to different perspectives. They share their stories of individual struggle with colleagues; they console each other, collaborate, create, and celebrate the strategies proven useful to being journalists while Black. Journalists interviewed say they continually evaluate and re-evaluate new approaches to collective and individual struggle over how they are perceived and marketed by management. They also attest to the power of sharing their struggle with other embattled journalists both formally, as talking points during journalism conference panel discussions, news articles, and lawsuits,67 or informally as “war story” banter amongst colleagues. A critical move is being made toward retention of young Black journalists who may internalize the lack of opportunities as a problem of their own creation; or worse, they may begin to believe they are “hallucinating,”68

imagining, or exaggerating their very real feelings of isolation, devaluation, and invisibility when it comes to getting their foot in the door, promotions, and being assigned the most sought after, “big stories.”

Flashing a smile of satisfaction across a table of Black journalists, Ida, a seasoned field reporter, reminisces about how she “luck(ed) into” covering Jesse Jackson running for president on the campaign trail as well as covering the Republican Convention in 1988, a major story originally assigned to a White colleague. Ida said she “lucked into” covering the Republican Convention after she proved her worth at the Democratic Convention, which had an overflow crowd that forced the Fire Marshall to lock convention goers out. Among the people who got locked out were the entire King family, including the late Coretta Scott King, and Ida’s White co-worker. She had to pick up his story plus cover her own. She says her boss was thrilled that at least one of the assigned reporters “had the good sense to not leave the place knowing it would be standing room only.” As a result, when the time came four or five weeks later to go to New Orleans for the Republican Nomination Convention where former President Ronald Reagan handed off the Presidency to George Bush Senior, Ida says she was the only one to go. Management told her White colleague—the only political

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reporter at the station at the time—that he had dropped the ball. Ida seized the opportunity saying, “I could count on one hand how many Black reporters were covering the Republican Convention in 1988. We all went out for a drink … and I told them my story and then they fell out, like, ‘you kicked the White boy’s ass?!’ I said ‘yeah.’”69 Although management assigned Ida to someone they knew would not be taken seriously on a national scale, she understood the importance of covering someone like Jesse Jackson who is a dynamic speaker—she also knew what was about to happen.

I knew Jesse was going to be the centerpiece of that convention, Who couldn’t know—Jesse (versus) Dukakis. Who would you wanna hear speak? So anyway … that was one of those validating moments that you know, their willingness to stick me on what they thought was a lesser story, turned out to my benefit.70

One of the major threads for combating racist practices in the television news profession comes from the knowledge that there is no room for mistakes and the need to work harder than everyone else in the newsroom. Sometimes, it pays off.

The teller tells as listeners laugh knowingly, a means of easing the pain of unprovoked suspicion, countless times of being passed over on a major story assignment, and devalued for the crime of being journalists while Black. These shared feelings and honest exploration of them become sanctuaries, spawning grounds, and safe-houses for the most radical and daring of ideas71—whether those ideas manifest into forming a National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) organization to deal with employment and job inequities, becoming an active member of NABJ in hopes of making a difference in newsroom diversity, or simply helping a colleague with her/his next strategic move to another, more appreciative shop (TV news station). Black journalists working from the margins of newsrooms across the United States continually bear witness to the myth of post-racialism. Assigning a Black reporter to a perceived “lesser story” as a strategy of containment72 became a transformative moment of tangible action73 in terms of Ida’s reputation and journalism career. Ida’s skill and talent has nothing to do with whether or not she meets some sort of standard set by dominant imaginings of the “it” factor, nor can her journalism savvy be attributed to a formula of success in terms of population parity. Ida is a veteran television news reporter who has earned several awards for her work—she engages struggle over how her body, her “Blackness” is

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represented in the television news industry—something that her colleagues respect, especially during times of increasing marginality of Black journalists in the news industry. She also understands her worth and uses that knowledge as leverage when she is fighting to get assigned the major stories, seeking a promotion, and renegotiating her contract.

SUMMARY

News media managers attempt to control temporalities and spatialities of “Blackness.” The totalizing quest of the “it” factor, Black mobility in dominant imaginings, and the hypocrisy of population parity are some of the major limitations journalists must navigate if they are to have a sustainable career in television news. Black journalists engage strategies and tactics against management whose limited vision of the world supports White supremacist ideology and works to the detriment of the journalism profession.

Black journalists are usually assigned to work the weekend or other undesirable shifts known in the business as “the ghetto shows,” which most journalists attribute to racism and a lack of vision in management. Some journalists say they go against the grain of their self-identities to get ahead in the business and maintain the strategy that they “just have to keep pluggin’ away” to survive and thrive in such a competitive industry. Driven says she would have a greater chance at being accepted or moving up in her field or position in Chicago, Detroit, or New Orleans because there are more Blacks there—something echoed by most of the journalists interviewed. News management often chose not to hire Black journalists in media markets reflecting a predominantly White demographic.

Talent agents usually support such notions of when and where it is okay to be journalist while Black saying that they have incentives for maintaining an amicable business relationship with management, which is why they send employers what they think they are looking for in news talent. If the demographics do not show a large number of Black individuals, talent agents are not likely to send a video resume of Black journalists’ work to the news director at that particular station. Some news directors specify race when communicating what they are looking for in a potential hire. Journalists also find themselves struggling to meet the ambiguous standards of the “it” factor—meaning you either have “it” or you don’t. Tom, a veteran talent agent says, “there’s gotta be something that hooks me as a viewer and as a professional, as an agent to see if there’s something marketable there.”

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Management, talent agents, and image consultants say such hiring practice is not racist; it is simply a matter of “giving the viewers what they want,” but all of the Black journalists interviewed disagree.

Frank says the hypocrisy of population parity has been unmasked. That said, Black journalists are not constructed as trustworthy in terms of reporting the news of the day to a predominantly White demographic. Frank says that the viewers “really do see ability and personality … if the individual is given the opportunity to get out there and perform.” Most journalists report that “the good ol’ boys network,” continues to wreak havoc on Black journalists’ employment opportunities and television ratings.

Angela said that even when the target audience is Black, management continues to insist upon disseminating a dominant culture perspective. All of the Black journalists interviewed say they are expected to do the work of two individuals, while their White colleagues reap the rewards of plum assignments and less workload. Management, White and most often male, does not see the value in perspectives outside their frame of reference and understanding. Black journalists are constantly working to prove themselves and are often warned to be careful about the “type” of stories they pitch to the news director and executive producers especially if the story falls outside their perceived “place” of expertise.

NOTES

1. Ida, Interview Transcript, lines 487–489, 2002. 2. Cheryl I. Harris, “Whiteness As Property.” Harvard Law Review,

Volume 106, Number 8, 1993. Vance v. Ball State University ET AL. No. 11–556. Argued November 26, 2012, Decided June 24, 2013. In a 5-to-4 ruling, the justices restricted the definition of a supervisor to someone whose “harassment culminates in a tangible employment action.” The court provided further definition saying, a supervisor is someone who has the power to create “a significant change in employment status, such as hiring, firing, failing to promote, reassignment with significantly different responsibilities, or a decision causing a significant change in benefits … the employer is strictly liable.” University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar. No. 12–484. Argued April 24, 2013, Decided June 24, 2013. In a 5-to- 4 ruling, the justices set limitations on what juries can consider and award in discrimination cases. The decision divides workplace-

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discrimination lawsuits into two defining causation standards: “status- based discrimination” under 42 U.S.C. _2000e-2(a), which prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee because of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. The other causation standard is “employer retaliation” under Title VII’s anti-retaliation provision, which makes it unlawful for an employer to take adverse employment action against an employee “because” of certain criteria. Television stations are the domain of “Whiteness” in terms of White male ownership and upper management. White men set the terms and conditions for chain of command protocol, which include basis for hiring, firing, and promotions. While hiring, firing, and promotion decisions are made by the news director with the approval of the general manager, lower level management usually builds the case against a targeted employee. Lower level management is also in direct contact with employees more often than upper level management and usually carries out forms of harassment. The latest Supreme Court decision makes it nearly impossible for the harassed to win a case based on “employer retaliation” causation when a “supervisor” is so narrowly defined. Employees may become targets of harassment because of upper management hidden directives that are carried out by lower management in order to compromise the employment status of the harassed.

3. Steve Pile, Geographies of Resistance. Edited by Steve Pile and Michael Keith (London and New York: Routledge, 1997). The policing of “Blackness” in terms of time and space is resisted in a multitude of ways that do not involve overt actions of resistance. Pile argues against the idea of resistance as self-evident or overt, which is an idea that is useful within the context of television news. He says, “spatial practices of oppression do not mean that resistance is forever confined to the authorized spaces of domination. Indeed, one of authority’s most insidious effects may well be to confine definitions of resistance to only those that appear to oppose it directly, in the open, where it can be made and seen to fail.”

4. Sylvia Wynter, “On How We Mistook the Map for the Territory, and Re-Imprisoned Ourselves in Our Unbearable Wrongness of Being, of Désêtre Black Studies Toward the Human Project.” NOT ONLY THE MASTER’S TOOLS African-American Studies in Theory and Practice. Edited With an Introduction by Lewis R. Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon (Boulder, London: Paradigm Publishers, 2006). Journalists working under contract are marked as “territory” of the

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television news network, its station owners, and management. Competing stations within the same market must abide by the State recognized non-compete clause of other television stations. If a television station wants to own another station’s territory, that station must wait one or more years before it can legally make a move to acquire another station’s territory. In other words, when journalists lose their job, they cannot accept employment from another television station in the same market for the time period stipulated in their contract with the former employer. This allows management control over its territory and prevents journalists from accessing better opportunities at another television station within the same market.

5. Frank, Interview Transcript, line 270, 2003. 6. Michael Eric Dyson, The Michael Eric Dyson Reader (New York:

Basic Civitas Books, 2004). Dyson argues that the fundamental strategy of White supremacy is the forging belief in the omnipotence of Whiteness, which secrets a racial epistemology whose function is akin to omnipotent narration.

7. Driven, Interview Transcript, lines 508–514, 519–522, 2002. 8. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (New York: Washington Square Press,

Publication of Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1970), p. 68. In Toni Morrison’s discussion of the effects of racism on the everyday lives of Black individuals, she highlights the psychic and symbolic violence of self policing “Blackness” as exemplified by the main characters saying, “the laugh that is a little too loud; the enunciation a little too round; the gesture a little too generous. They hold their behind in for fear of a sway too free; when they wear lipstick, they never cover the entire mouth for fear of lips too thick, and they worry, worry, worry about the edges of their hair.”

9. Norma Alarcón, “The Theoretical Subjects of This Bridge Called My Back.” In The Second Wave, A Reader in Feminist Theory. Edited by Linda Nicholson (New York: Routledge, 1997). Joan W. Scott, “The Evidence of Experience.” Critical Inquiry, 17.4 (Summer 1991): 773– 797.

10. United States Department of Commerce. Census Bureau (Washington: Government Printing Office, 2010). Tim Wise, Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority (San Francisco: City Lights Publishers, 2012).

11. Frantz Fanon, Black Skin White Masks (New York: Grove Press, 1967), p. 11. This is “the particularity of the black experience” that

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Frantz Fanon identifies in the context both of the global anti-colonial struggles and the social movements internal to the West itself. Fanon says that “beside phylogeny and ontogeny stands sociogeny” and brings a better understanding of the significance of the social development of an individual and/or group that, when examined in terms of our present order of knowledge, its art, and its aesthetic reveals the territorialization of the human or as Sylvia Wynter so astutely calls the “monopoly of humanity” (Wynter 2006).

12. Tom, Interview Transcript, lines 151–152, 2002. 13. Tom, lines 324–326, 2002. 14. Tom, line 78, 2002. 15. Tom, lines 405–411, 2002. 16. Tom, lines 439–440, 2002. 17. Cornel West, Race Matters (New York: 2nd Vintage Books, 2001).

Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” (New York: Routledge, 1993), p. 27.

18. The demographics argument discussed in the Introduction is what media management rely upon to support decisions of when and where in the United States Black journalists are deemed acceptable, marketable, and valuable toward higher ratings and revenue. Media management logics of demographics are centered on the notion of palatability discussed in chapter 1.

19. Tom, lines 28–33, 2002. 20. Rahel Gebreyes, “Author Cornel West: MSNBC And Many Black

Journalists ‘Just Want Access,’” Huffington Post: Black Voices, October 9, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/black- journalists/. Eddie Scarry, “Black Journalists Group ‘Concerned’ About CNN,” Mediaite, October 10, 2014. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/black-journalists-group-concerned-about- cnn/.

21. Richard Prince, “CNN ‘Reconsidering’ NABJ Sponsorships,” Maynard Institute, Journal-isms, October 17, 2014. http://mije.org/richardprince/cnn-reconsidering-relationship-nabj. Sandy Fitzgerald, “Journalists’ Group: CNN Cut Support after Diversity Complaint,” Newsmax: Independent. American, October 20, 2014. http://www.newsmax.com/Newsmax-Tv/CNN-black- journalists-diversity-layoffs/2014/10/20/id/601816/.

22. Raymond Williams, Television Technology and Cultural Form (London and Fontana: Technosphere, 1974), p. 5. Black journalists are

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/black-journalists/

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/black-journalists-group-concerned-about-cnn/

http://mije.org/richardprince/cnn-reconsidering-relationship-nabj

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsmax-Tv/CNN-black-journalists-diversity-layoffs/2014/10/20/id/601816/

placed at particular television stations based on the unwritten rules of engaging the demographics argument. This form of racial segregation via the hiring and promoting practices of television news management is normalized and coded in terms of the demographics argument and the population parity imperative. This pattern and practice disrupts the “flow” of different perspectives across the United States.

23. The majority of North American states enforced segregation through “Jim Crow” laws, which is marked from the 1880s into the 1960s. Cities across the U.S. imposed legal punishments for associating with members of another race. This law made it illegal for business owners and public institutions to integrate their Black and White clientele.

24. This is a common term that is often used to describe television station market ranking based on a ratings system of “viewership.”

25. National Association of Black Journalists 2012 Diversity Census, “An Examination of Television Newsroom Management,” Edited and produced by Phillipa Mould et al. (College Park, MD: NABJ, 2012).

26. Ibid. 27. Frank, Interview Transcript, lines 139–142 and 146–157, 2003. 28. Frank, lines 170–192, 2003. 29. Tom, line 164, 2002. 30. Tom, line 164, 2002. 31. Frank, line 270, 2003. 32. Frank, line 280, 2003. 33. bell hooks. Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston, MA:

South End Press, 1992), p. 116. bell hooks discusses the gaze within the context of master/slave relations of power, but it also becomes meaningful within the context of employer/potential employee relations of power. hooks says that by courageously looking, we defiantly declared: “Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality.” This approach “opens up the possibility of agency.” The gaze has been and is a site of resistance for Black journalists.

34. Frank, line 287, 2003. 35. Frank, lines 291–292, 2003. 36. Frank, line 296, 2003. 37. Angela, Interview Transcript (IT), line 304; Ed IT, line 1289; Ida IT,

lines 93–109; Kindle IT, lines 213–229 and 372–395; Saul IT, lines 506–512; Sojourner IT, lines 206–215 and 452–457; Violet IT, lines 351–356; Driven IT, lines 352–356 and 371–373.

38. Michel De Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Los

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Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1984), p. xix. 39. Ibid. This theory also takes up how anchors and/or reporters engage

certain “tactics” in response to racism by examining the ways in which marginalized journalists are “always on the watch for opportunities that must be seized ‘on the wing.’” … “constantly” watching to calculate the best time to “manipulate events in order to turn them into ‘opportunities.’”

40. Maurice Blanchot, “The Infinite Conversation.” In Theory and History of Literature, Volume 82. Translation and Foreword by Susan Hanson (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1983), pp. 31–32.

41. W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (New York, Scarborough, Ontario: A Signet Classic, New American Library, 1969), pp. 254 and 350. W.E.B. Dubois discusses the challenges of living within “the shadow of the Veil” and navigating “a land whose freedom is to us a mockery and whose liberty a lie.” The general manager’s behavior exemplifies the complicatedness of diversity claims. The general manager was prepared to hire Frank while using coded language to normalize the power dynamics of race-gender hierarchies operating in newsroom culture and the television news profession as a whole.

42. Alarcón 1997, p. 297. Scott 1991, 773–797. 43. Ida, lines 517–528, 2002. 44. Ida, line 529, 2002. 45. Ida, line 536, 2002. 46. Ida, line 550, 2002. 47. Zora Neale Hurston, “My People! My People!” Dust Tracks on a

Road, An Autobiography (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1942), p. 229. Hurston discusses “transmitted memory” as a form of communication based on oral histories, lessons, and memories that are carried over as an African American cultural tradition. The pervasiveness of racism and the simultaneity of past, present, and future compels a “transmitted memory” of her ancestors’ struggle that continues to haunt Ida today. Transmitted memory is an act of self- preservation and sustainability that affords Ida her own “vision” of infinite possibility in knowing from whence she came.

48. Ida, line 540, 2002. 49. Ida, lines 534–536, 2002. 50. Ida, line 534, 2002. 51. Ida, line 530, 2002.

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52. Ida, line 552, 2002. 53. Ida, lines 534–536, 2002. 54. Diane, Audio Transcript, 500–530, 2004. 55. hooks 1992, 26. bell hooks says that “When the dominant culture

demands that the Other be offered as sign that progressive political change is taking place … The acknowledged Other must assume recognizable forms.”

56. On White Privilege: Racism, White Denial and the Cost of Inequality. Directed by Tim Wise. United States: Media Education Foundation, 2008. DVD, 57 min. Tim Wise, White Like Me, Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press, An Imprint of Counterpoint LLC, 2008).

57. Angela, Interview Transcript, lines 123–129, 2003. 58. Angela, line 158, 2003. 59. Angela, lines 158–159, 2003. 60. Angela, lines 180–181, 2003. 61. Angela, lines 211–216, 2003. 62. Angela, line 247, 2003. 63. Angela, lines 259–260, 2003. 64. Angela, line 213, 2003. 65. Angela, line 215, 2003. 66. Frank, Interview Transcript, line 50, 2003. 67. Gwen Owens Plaintiff, v. COMCAST Corporation, 2004. Joseph A.

Slobodzian, “Mistrial declared over ex-QVC host’s lawsuit.” Inquirer, July 2, 2004. Lisa Lake-Campbell, individual Plaintiff, v. McGraw- Hill Broadcasting Company, Inc., 2010 a corporation, KGTV Channel 10, and unknown business entity, Sean Kennedy, an individual, and does 1 through 25, inclusive defendants, Filed April 16, 2010, by S. Klais, Deputy. Joshua D. Gruenberg, Esq. SB #163281, Corey P. Hanrahan, Esq. SB #256835, Law Office of Joshua D. Gruenberg, 2169 First Avenue, San Diego, California, 92101–3542, Telephone: (619) 230–1234. Erik De La Garza, “Broadcaster Calls Gannett TV Racist,” in Courthouse News Service, February 26, 2014. Mark C. Nelson v. Gannett Co., Inc. D/B/A Today’s THV Channel 11, 2014. Stanley Roberts, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CBS Broadcasting Inc., 2003.

68. Barbara Christian, “The Race for Theory.” In Making Face, Making Soul, Haciendo Caras, Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color. Edited by Gloria Anzaldúa (San Francisco: Aunt

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Lute Books, 1990), p. 343. 69. Ida, lines 671–676, 2002. 70. Ida, lines 678–681, 2002. 71. Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider, Essays and Speeches (Freedom, CA:

The Crossing Press Feminist Series, 1984). 72. John Fiske, Television Culture (London and New York: Methuen &

Co., 1987), p. 283. 73. Lorde 1984, 16.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alarcón, Norma. “The Theoretical Subjects of This Bridge Called My Back.” In The Second Wave, A Reader in Feminist Theory. Edited by Linda Nicholson. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Blanchot, Maurice. “The Infinite Conversation.” Theory and History of Literature, Volume 82 (1983): 31–32. Translation and Foreword by Susan Hanson. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex.” New York: Routledge, 1993.

Christian, Barbara. “The Race for Theory.” In Making Face, Making Soul, Haciendo Caras, Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color. Edited by Gloria Anzaldúa. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1990, 343.

De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1984.

DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York, Scarborough, Ontario: A Signet Classic, New American Library, 1969.

Dyson, Michael Eric. The Michael Eric Dyson Reader. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2004.

Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin White Masks. New York: Grove Press, 1967. Fiske, John. Television Culture. London and New York: Methuen & Co.,

1987. Fitzgerald, Sandy. “Journalists’ Group: CNN Cut Support After Diversity

Complaint,” Newsmax: Independent. American. October 20, 2014. http://www.newsmax.com/Newsmax-Tv/CNN-black-journalists- diversity-layoffs/2014/10/20/id/601816/.

Garza, Erik De La. “Broadcaster Calls Gannett TV Racist,” Courthouse News Service, February 26, 2014.

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http://www.newsmax.com/Newsmax-Tv/CNN-black-journalists-diversity-layoffs/2014/10/20/id/601816/

Gebreyes, Rahel. “Author Cornel West: MSNBC and Many Black Journalists ‘Just Want Access,’” Huffington Post: Black Voices October 9, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/black-journalists/.

Gwen Owens Plaintiff, v. COMCAST Corporation, 2004. Harris, Cheryl I. “Whiteness As Property.” Harvard Law Review, 106.8

(1993): 1710–1791. hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston,

Massachusetts: South End Press, 1992, p. 116. Hurston, Zora Neale. “My People! My People!” Dust Tracks on a Road,

An Autobiography. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1942.

Lisa Lake-Campbell, individual Plaintiff, v. McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Company, Inc., 2010 a corporation, KGTV Channel 10, and unknown business entity, Sean Kennedy, an individual, and does 1 through 25, inclusive defendants, Filed April 16, 2010, by S. Klais, Deputy.

Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider, Essays and Speeches. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press Feminist Series, 1984.

Mark C. Nelson v. Gannett Co., Inc. D/B/A Today’s THV Channel 11, 2014. Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Washington Square Press,

Publication of Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1970. National Association of Black Journalists 2012 Diversity Census, “An

Examination of Television Newsroom Management,” Edited and produced by Phillipa Mould et al. College Park, MD: NABJ, 2012.

On White Privilege: Racism, White Denial and the Cost of Inequality. Directed by Tim Wise. United States: Media Education Foundation, 2008. DVD, 57 min.

Pile, Steve. “Opposition, Political Identities and Spaces.” Geographies of Resistance. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.

Prince, Richard. “CNN ‘Reconsidering’ NABJ Sponsorships,” Maynard Institute, Journal-isms. October 17, 2014. http://mije.org/richardprince/cnn-reconsidering-relationship-nabj.

Scarry, Eddie. “Black Journalists Group ‘Concerned’ About CNN,” Mediaite. October 10, 2014. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/black- journalists-group-concerned-about-cnn/.

Scott, Joan W. “The Evidence of Experience.” Critical Inquiry, 17.4 (Summer 1991): 773–797.

Slobodzian, Joseph A. “Mistrial Declared over Ex-QVC Host’s Lawsuit.” Inquirer, July 2, 2004.

Stanley Roberts, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CBS Broadcasting Inc., 2003.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/black-journalists/

http://mije.org/richardprince/cnn-reconsidering-relationship-nabj

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/black-journalists-group-concerned-about-cnn/

United States Department of Commerce. Census Bureau. Washington: Government Printing Office, 2010.

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar. No. 12–484. Argued April 24, 2013, Decided June 24, 2013.

Vance v. Ball State University ET AL. No. 11–556. Argued November 26, 2012, Decided June 24, 2013.

West, Cornel. Race Matters. New York: 2nd Vintage Books, 2001. Williams, Raymond. Television Technology and Cultural Form. London

and Fontana: Technosphere, p. 5, 1974. Wise, Tim. Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority. San Francisco:

City Lights Publishers, 2012. Wise, Tim. White Like Me, Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son.

Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press, An Imprint of Counterpoint LLC, 2008. Wynter, Sylvia. “On How We Mistook the Map for the Territory, and Re-

Imprisoned Ourselves in Our Unbearable Wrongness of Being, of Désêtre Black Studies Toward the Human Project.” NOT ONLY THE MASTER’S TOOLS African-American Studies in Theory and Practice. Edited With An Introduction by Lewis R. Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon, Boulder, London: Paradigm Publishers, 2006.

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5 Rules of Engagement

The Politics of Race, Gender, and Sexuality

We reporters train ourselves to detach emotionally from our subjects, but sometimes it is impossible to do1

—Belva Davis

Are we dealing here with the old rule of objectivity we have been taught in school in every composition class? Achieve distance, they keep on saying, as much distance from your own voice as possible. … For a woman, such a distance easily takes on the face of Alienation. … In order to be taken more seriously, she is therefore bound to dye this voice universal …2

—Trinh T. Minh-ha

Ok, it’s a new thing gay marriage—right? So everybody is kind of focusing on that gay or lesbian couple and saying oh now you can’t be objective in covering this issue because it relates to you. Well, I just think that you need to look at the body of work of that individual and find out whether or not they have agenda-based reporting before you ask that question. So I just don’t think that that’s fair at all to raise that question without any basis that that individual has demonstrated that they’ve fallen away from the tenets of journalism3

—Jacquelyn

Methods of measuring and policing objectivity in television newsrooms across the country reveal an attempt at closing off perspectives outside the dominant culture order under the guise of protecting viewers from “partial reporting” and building public trust. Marginalized journalists treat each strategy of containing perspectives outside the dominant culture order differently depending on the stakes, their position, and relationship with management. Keeping one’s job as a journalist who identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender requires that they detach from their lived identities and adopt the outdated “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT)”4

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approach. As a result, this type of approach attempts to silence sexualities outside the heteronormative newsroom culture standard and has nothing to do with maintaining journalistic integrity. Choosing to be “out” whether journalists are “out” to their colleagues and/or the communities they serve, weigh heavily in determining employment and promotion opportunities. Sexualities outside heteronormative newsroom culture require differences to be translated through the lens of Whiteness. LGBTQ and marginalized journalists must learn to dye their voices of difference universal. The universality requirement is one of the rules of engagement that supports and sustains “diversity” under the terms and conditions of homonormativity5.

Impersonalizing individual voice and self-identities places boundaries on marginalized journalists and allows free reign to journalists whose selfhood aligns with the dominant heteronormative newsroom culture. Most journalists are expected to self-police their identities of difference in order to fit into newsroom culture and network brand. Marginalized journalists are televisually milked for the network’s claim of diversity while the unwritten rule of DADT renders the status quo. This is particularly problematic for Black LGBT journalists who must face the double and triple bind of complicated identities that are seen as out of step with the default heteronormative image promoted by the network. Most of the journalists interviewed say that their complicated identities bring broader understandings of the world that resonate in the stories they report.

In conversations about story assignments among journalists and management, the connotation of reporting a story brings a denotation of covering a story. Covering implies an inclusion of a variety of perspectives. When different perspectives are policed and silenced, popular brand messages promising “coverage you can count on,” “number one news coverage,” “best team coverage,” and variations thereof in network affiliate promotions are disingenuous. Black journalists who identify with marginalized groups in their market are expected to alienate, distance, and impersonalize their voice of difference or be held to suspicion. A former president of a major journalism organization and 40-year veteran of television news, Jacquelyn, suggests that gay and lesbian journalists are being accused of engaging in “agenda-based reporting” or are pulled from stories about gay marriage because they are assumed to be incapable of covering the news objectively despite the lack of evidence demonstrating agenda-based reporting.

The universality requirement of objectivity promises newsroom recognition and credibility but never delivers in terms of promoting Black gay and lesbian journalists to primetime positions. Despite attempts at

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detachment, most journalists say that “There is no such thing” as objectivity, “it is a goal yet to be achieved.”6 Norma, a White veteran news anchor/reporter laughed and said, “Girl, it’s all about time! It doesn’t have to be fair or objective … time constraints make us less objective”7 Bliss, a Black reporter “who happens to like sports,” said that objectivity means she has “… absolutely no opinion one way or the other” on whatever she’s covering. She made reference to baseball legend Barry Bonds to drive her point home saying, “I may think that you’re an ass but I would never try to portray you as one.”8 The rule of objectivity in television news operates on the premise that journalists do not necessarily interpret—they simply report what they see. The problem with “objectivity” is that it centers “Whiteness” and places journalists’ interpretations of what they observe at the margins. The power to define objectivity means the power to enforce the universality requirement of objectivity. Media owners and the managers they hire, who are White and most often male, make decisions based on their understanding of how the rules of objectivity should be put into practice. They decide what is objective reporting and what is agenda-based. Objectivity is policed during copy, audio, and video editing.

Designations such as columns, commentary, and so-called specialized television through community affairs shows are the place of opinion—not to be taken as accurate and balanced accounts of the news of the day. This type of placing signals to journalists and viewers working definitions of opinion and objective news and information. Any deviation from the universality of objectivity as defined under the terms and conditions of Whiteness automatically indelibly marks marginalized perspectives covered in news stories as agenda-based, distracting, disruptive, and therefore untrustworthy.

Individual and collective human histories and perspectives are often held hostage to the Master narrative9 of objectivity. The select few Black journalists in management positions must meet the challenge of being heavily watched as they navigate the land mine of “false incorporation”10 of their race, gender, and sexual identities within newsroom culture. Black journalists who pitch stories that do not fit within the prescribed notion of objectivity are often sidelined and punished for the effort. “Objectivity” is a tenet of journalism that is practiced as an “us” versus “them” epistemology. Most Black and marginalized journalists know that in order to be allowed to sit at the decision-making table, they have to check their differences at the door, bite their tongue, and “nibble at the bait of Lies”11 regarding diversity claims and the inclusivity of perspectives. “Us” members hold powerful positions in the newsroom. They also include but are not limited to talent

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agents and image consultants. Most news directors will not even look at a video resume or accept calls from prospective journalists unless they come- by-way-of an “Us” member. “Objectivity” may become in practice an exercise in exclusive one-perspective-fits-all approach by management who are charged with hiring, assigning stories, and editing news reports. Marginalized journalists bear the brunt of false incorporation and other strategies of containment that are both promising and degrading. Changes in leadership from the top may translate into an inclusiveness of marginalized perspectives without losing revenue.

Most news managements understand the bottom line of the television news business—the two drivers for a station are the news product and the revenue it brings. Sharp says his general management style is very different from the way general managers usually interact with the news department. He believes it is important to give a great deal of latitude to the news director and qualifies his approach saying, “as much as that department head deserves.”12 It is the general manager’s job to set the tone, culture, philosophy, and strategy for taking the station forward.13 This means that the general manager is “always apprised of what the news director is doing” and offering counsel when necessary.14 While the news director and Sharp usually make daily contact, as a general manager Sharp says he tries not to get involved with the daily decisions of what the news product looks like. The general manager plays a major role in setting the boundaries through which objectivity is defined and instituted. The general manager also makes long-term decisions15 that influence the daily processes of the newsroom. The news director is given enough scope or leeway for some freedom of choice, action, or thinking that accommodates difference while still providing an “acceptable” news product. Policing the boundaries of news product acceptability may be what’s turning millions of North Americans away from network news toward alternative and/or specialized media. Accommodating difference and avoiding a heavy handed approach to management seems to be key to Sharp’s longevity as general manager of a major news network. The relatively small number of general managers who identify as other than White, male heterosexuals is translating into decreased news ratings and revenue.

“DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL,” AND OTHER STRATEGIES OF CONTAINMENT

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Sharp, who describes himself as an openly gay Black man, says that diversity of perspectives through hiring practice becomes “an assist” toward a better news product and increased revenue. He says he was fortunate enough to work with people who saw what he could contribute to the company and what he could contribute to their careers—they promoted his talent. He started out in the news business over 35 years ago, at a time when he was “naïve enough … to not realize that being openly gay could be a problem.” Although he knew some of his coworkers were gay and “in the closet,” he knew that a decision to be closeted was far more work than he was willing to do. He chose to put all his energy into his job instead of “disguising” his “personal life.”16

Black gay and lesbian journalists who are not in positions of power like Sharp check their sexual difference at the door by simply not disclosing their sexuality and making the necessary adjustments in order to get or keep their jobs. Negotiating one’s sexuality in heteronormative newsroom culture requires an understanding of the boundaries established by the unwritten rules of engaging self-identities in the newsroom. In other words, Sharp is “out” to his colleagues, but he understands the limitations of being “out” when working with his supervisors and dealing with clients. There are currently no “transgender”17 or “transsexual”18 television news anchors or reporters, which speaks to the gender binary dominating the corporate television news industry. The New York Daily News reported that an ABC News producer named Don Ennis “was axed … for ‘performance-related issues’” after the producer “showed up to work wearing a little black dress and a wig and told co-workers to call him (her) Dawn.” Not long after, the producer requested to be referred to as “Don,” and said that he suffered from “amnesia.”19 When the producer came into work a few months later requesting to be referred to as “Dawn” again, her colleagues became concerned. Gender dysphoria20 is a very serious issue that should have received better reporting than this particular story, which egregiously lacked an inclusiveness of perspectives. Some journalists also say that if the White producer had been Black, getting “axed” would have been more immediate.

Gay and lesbian journalists also understand the constraints of heteronormative newsroom culture. Journalists marked as identifying with a sexuality that is considered “deviant” are often held in contempt if they do not find ways to slip under the radar of a heteronormative newsroom culture. Various forms of assimilation become crucial to appeasing heteronormative sensibilities and maintaining job security. Sharp, a Black gay man in a top management position, says “putting it really in their

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face”—being explicit about how an individual self-identifies without being asked—is offensive. Black LGBT journalists learn to walk a fine line between navigating racist newsroom practice and the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell approach to newsroom diversity. While putting one’s sexuality in their (colleague’s, management’s, viewer’s, and advertiser’s) face may bring additional challenges on top of those associated with being Black, Sharp says that never choosing to speak with friends, colleagues, or clients about anything personal becomes awkward since “people are not as dumb as we think … people figure it out.”21 To avoid putting his sexuality “in their face,” Sharp is preemptive. “I would just in the most sort of non-offensive way, depending on the situation, say, ‘hey you know, a bunch of us guys went to Province Town,’ I mean, you know and let them fill in the blanks.” Sharp says people will ask questions if they’re more curious, or “they will sort of go into denial if they don’t wanna know.”22 Instead of denying his sexuality, Sharp left denial to those who seek it—understanding the ways in which “friends,” colleagues, and clients throughout his career broach the subject of his race, gender, and sexual identity.

Sharp has become comfortable with being uncomfortable with the approach of “friends,” colleagues, or clients as a means of thriving despite their own ignorance and heteronormative limitations. Intellectually outmaneuvering individuals who are uncomfortable with his sexuality is familiar territory. Sharp also understands that he has to be better than most at his job.

I knew that I had to live with myself, and I was not going to misrepresent myself. I think it almost became a don’t ask don’t tell situation for some people and I think they realize that there’s probably something about me … you know, ‘are you married,’ they’d ask me, and I’m a certain age, and you’re not. And you say, ‘no’ and then they would sort of just leave it alone. And we could still socialize and as long as I was doing a good job for them …23

He shrugs as if to say—what can they do? His talent and success speaks for themselves. Sharp says it is not coincidence that out of about 20 jobs with hundreds and hundreds of clients over the years, he was never asked to be removed from his job based on either his race or sexual preference.”24 By letting “friends,” colleagues, or clients fill in the blanks, it becomes a “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell situation for some people,” and curiosity about his “personal life”—his sexuality becomes an “opportunity”25 to create a space of resistance against narrow-minded individuals. Sharp’s form of resistance

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is putting a mirror up to the denial of clients who “realize that there’s probably something about (him)” but who would rather disavow his sexuality by shifting the focus, changing the subject, and “leave it alone.” He leaves them to seek solace in the discomfort of their own denial by speaking without saying or being silent26 about his sexuality.

Sharp acknowledges that prejudice and discrimination exist, saying, “I have been extraordinarily lucky.”27 He also suggests that some journalists get in the way of their own success when challenges come from journalists who are choosing to express their complicated identities in the newsroom in a way that puts individual careers in danger. Sharp says:

Libby, I will tell you, I’ve worked with Black people, I’ve worked with Hispanic people, I’ve worked with gay people, who I as a person of color, as a gay person found offensive in how they wore that part of their life. There are people that are gay who absolutely push it in their employer’s face and make it an issue and I think sometimes force the inevitable.28

How people wear “that part of their life”—their sexuality—may determine whether or not they are considered for promotions. Black journalists do not “absolutely push it in their employer’s face” to be perceived as offensive— one’s “Blackness” within the racial hierarchies of the newsroom, may be offense enough. The challenges to job security for Black gay, lesbian, and bisexual journalists are overwhelming despite Sharp’s admittedly feeling “lucky” to hold a top management position.

Sharp says he has witnessed more openness to his race, gender, and sexuality in large “ethnically diverse” cities than small cities lacking diverse demographics. He was fortunate enough to start his career in a major city that is ethnically diverse. The only time he recalls ever being made aware of his “Blackness” was when he would have a phone conversation or a phone relationship with a client for a long time before meeting in person. Sharp says since he doesn’t “speak in a way that is considered by many people to be a stereotypically Black vernacular” most clients expect to meet “a White person” and show surprise when they find out he’s Black saying:

… they’d come out into the lobby and it’d be me and a White guy … they would turn to him (the White guy) … this would happen often and I would see their surprise and I can say honestly that the relationship never changed for the worse once they saw who I was, ah, it was just a

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matter of surprise and that’s when I would be reminded about people’s assumptions on who they’re dealing with especially.29

Automatic assumptions based on the racial hierarchies observed in our everyday lives place Black journalists and news management in competition with the barrage of stereotypes circulating every day. Sharp does not see the client’s surprise as racist. He makes sure that the relationship never changes for the worse once they see who he is, in other words, once they get to know him, they are able to fully attend to the business at hand. Once Sharp has won the client over, he must also be prepared to navigate what may be another moment of “surprise” if his sexuality becomes apparent. Marginalized journalists and management often find themselves having to negotiate their race, gender, and sexuality to convince White “straight” men that they are capable, reliable, and trustworthy.

Sharp’s experience highlights the pervasiveness of preconceived notions of race, yet he reduces the client’s surprise to a matter of “assumptions” without problematizing how assumptions are constructed and the histories of those constructions. The American Heritage Dictionary defines objectivity as the quality of being accurate and independent of individual perceptions. Sharp has fine-tuned his ability to embrace the universal approach to objectivity and achieve some level of distance from his voice and perspective in order to shift the focus from his client’s surprise and preconceived notions of “Blackness” to a focus on the job he was hired to do. How one negotiates race, gender, and sexuality despite the statistical odds of employment in television news while Black is key to career advancement.

The code of ethics30 in the journalism profession does not apply to everyone. While some owners of news media outlets may contribute to political candidates and engage in other forms of political support, journalists are held to a different standard. Some news media owners discourage reporters from having yard signs, bumper stickers, and other signifiers of political support. Furthermore, the Radio, Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) makes clear in their code of ethics that journalists must “Determine news content solely through editorial judgement and not as the result of outside influence. … Resist any self-interest or peer pressures that might erode journalistic duty and service to the public.” Debates over boundaries of political participation may continue to be seen as an affront to objectivity, disqualifying journalists as legitimate practitioners of the journalism profession. Jacquelyn and many other journalists push back on the idea that certain journalists are not capable of

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covering stories connected to their individual and/or group identities. Such has been the case for LGBT journalists engaging in what may be seen as activism around the issue of gay marriage by marrying their same-sex partners. Sharp shared his thoughts on San Francisco Chronicle reporter Rachel Gordon being pulled from reporting on gay marriage by Editor Phil Bronstein because she is a lesbian who recently married her longtime partner, photographer Liz Mangelsdorf, also a member of staff.31 Sharp says that the threat to objectivity is singularity of perspective rather than actually having a reporter’s perspective reflected in a story. According to Bronstein, editors in the newsroom agreed with his decision. They questioned whether Rachel Gordon would be able to be objective enough to cover the fight for the right to same-sex marriage. Although Sharp disagrees with Bronstein’s decision, others in television news management agree with the Editors at the Chronicle.

Sharp bases his daily measure of objectivity in the stories reported, on “FAB”—fair, accurate, and balanced—everything must be held to that standard. Whether it’s the Confederate flag issue, “gay marriage,” or the Gay Pride parade, Sharp says there’s a sort of protocol that “the good news directors” follow when they analyze how a story is being covered and the ways in which they measure “FAB.”32 How news management checks story details, determines fact from fiction, defines “all the sides,” and monitors objectivity depends on the management style of an individual. Methods of measuring objectivity also must speak to a particular protocol of a network’s “chain of command,”33 the top of which consists of White men.

Richard is the former president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and an East Coast television news editor, who strongly believes in fairness and says he does not subscribe to the universality requirement of objectivity.

… all of us have thoughts, all of us have opinions, and in fact … I wouldn’t hire a reporter who was so bland that they had no ability to think critically and form thoughts and opinions about anything that they’re covering. The question is—how do those opinions and thoughts impact their reporting, their writing, and what they deliver because you have to approach something with a critical eye so that you can see all the sides, and then you present all the sides through fairness, and you also analyze to make sure that nobody is spinning you … or you call them out in the spin and that’s about fairness. I think there’s a myth about objectivity … for instance, Lynn Downie [Leonard Downie, Jr.], the editor of the Washington Post says he doesn’t vote. He doesn’t vote

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because he doesn’t want anyone to think that he is politically this way or that way—I think that’s ridiculous.34

Richard says as “a member and a participant of this society” journalists have a right to participate in politics to an extent. He does not think that journalists should be kept from political reporting if they are “actively involved” in promoting political candidates or politics saying, “if … they donate money, they are out marching, they’re wearing bumper stickers or whatever in a certain cause and they’re covering that—that’s probably not appropriate.” Before the successful push for marriage equality, media managers were more cautious about allowing LGBT journalists to cover stories about marriage equality.

Hans is the former president of a journalism organization who says that taking reporters off stories covering marriage equality because of their sexuality is not necessary. Hans says:

We have to realize that … the whole philosophy that there is one side to the story and another side to the story is just—we need to let that go, that just doesn’t, there is no such thing anymore, actually there probably never was that such a thing. There’s so much more a broad swath of … opinion out there and … yes there should be some sense of objectivity but the way you show that is by doing good coverage. …35

Hans, who is a gay, White man, says he can be “as objective as the next person”36 covering an LGBT issue and/or event. Hans says nothing of the battle against perceptions of him in a heteronormative newsroom culture. Violet, a mid-career television journalist puts what Hans said in context saying, “There are gay individuals in the newsroom. Are they openly gay in our newsroom? No.”37 She says it takes “a tremendous leap of faith”38 for a Black journalist to be openly gay. The challenges of being LGBT and Black in a newsroom seem insurmountable. “… it’s like the army,” says Violet, “‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.’ That’s really the clearest way to put it. There are certain questions that you’re not supposed to ask people that are illegal as you know. You can’t ask me my age at the interview, you can’t ask me my ethnicity even though we wear it, okay, you can’t ask me if I’m a homosexual or heterosexual, you can’t ask me if I’m married. There are certain questions that are illegal.”39 Violet says that protection under the law is small consolation when “things come out” in what she calls, “shop talk.”40 The practice of instituting and policing boundaries of sexuality is pervasive. The message becomes clear, “They don’t want you to be openly

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gay”41 in the newsroom. The unwritten rules of engagement suggest that being openly LGBT in the

newsroom is career suicide, particularly if journalists intend to cover a “much more broad swath of opinion” on LGBT issues and/or events. Violet contends that the networks “don’t do gay stories on gay people”42 unless they are pressured to do so by individuals in the newsroom, the community, or if the issue/event is too big to ignore. Black journalists say retaliation for including bodies of difference and LGBT perspectives may be subtle.

If I go out to scout a story and that person looks butch so-to-speak or is a man who seems especially effeminate I know not to bring this story back home. I know to say, “you know what, we need to find a different character.” We can’t do this story and not because I have a problem with gay people but because my network does and I will be in trouble if I bring it home whether they just say it’s a bad story it does not work for us you should have known that, whether they find a reason it just can’t work. If I come back and it’s an openly gay man and we’ve done an interview with him I’ve just wasted company money and company time.43

What makes a story exceptional is unclear. What becomes clearer is that the attempt to contain different perspectives starts during the hiring process. Journalists embracing perspectives outside of the heteronormative newsroom culture are sometimes able to negotiate their race, gender, and sexuality, which allows them to slip pass the radar and get the job. Once the job is secured past the initial 90-day probationary period, policing content becomes routine. Violet provides some insight:

As long as you’re not flaming—seriously. There are no flaming people in our newsroom, there are no butch lesbians in our newsrooms, no, there are no drag queens in our newsroom, and I say this being someone who … I’m very much a part of the gay community.44

Violet says you learn quickly that “they expect the people in the newsroom to be ‘regular people,’” which is also why she will not “walk up in the newsroom with an afro.”

Job security does not come from sending the message, “I’m not assimilating … I don’t understand the culture of the corporation.” LGBT Black journalists are defined through modes of being that construct “regular people” in terms of heteronormativity and the so-called Will and Grace45

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brand of homonormativity. Some have the “triple bind”46 of race, gender, and sexuality—the signifying markers that include hair, clothing, and deportment. Violet describes such markers as “afros,” “butch lesbians,” “drag queens,” and “flaming people”—all counter to corporate newsroom culture.

THE PSYCHIC VIOLENCE OF HETERONORMATIVITY

James, a mid-career television news reporter who identifies as a gay, Black man, got his start in radio and worked his way up within the radio chain. When the radio station got bought out, television executives took over operations and gave a party for radio station employees and potential employees of the newly established television station. James worked hard and found a variety of ways to get the attention of the television news executives. James tried getting their attention by putting the company brand47

somewhere on his body saying, “I carved … the call letters of the station in the back of my head and they just thought that was the coolest thing in the world,”48 the metaphor appealed to them, “the TV station immediately brought me over to write … the morning news and I was an on-air side kick and then the TV station asked that during the afternoons, I would write for their early evening shows.”49 Being the “on-air side kick” is exactly what journalists like Jacquelyn say Black journalists are struggling against— marginal positions and opportunities in the newsroom. Being the on-air side kick is not very different from being marginalized to work weekends. Jacquelyn says, “We still have problems in terms of the networks and coming off weekends. If you look at many of the networks and cable outlets, you will see that the people of color who are working the weekend shifts on-air are the faces that you see and behind the scenes. Your executive producers and producers are people of color on weekends. So there’s still that area that we have to crack during the week.”50 It is also noteworthy that James felt the need to brand himself to get the attention of White male television executives. James resorted to extraordinary efforts to get noticed, and then to become a “side kick” speaks to the challenges of being a journalist while Black.

James did not see marking himself with the company call letters as demeaning. He saw it as an opportunity to stand out and potentially get employment—and it worked. On the other hand, the power to mark human

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beings with a television station’s brand51 does not necessarily have to be explicitly and directly at the hands of powerful individuals within corporations and institutions. Relations of power operate through systems of reward and punishment that attempt to control practices of representation. In other words, James was rewarded with the job only after he was willing to brand the station’s call-letters onto his body.

James worked early mornings, went to his high school in the afternoon, worked an early evening shift, and hosted and produced two talk shows, which aired on weekends. By the time he graduated from high school, he was working full-time hours as a part-time employee, putting in 60 to 70 hours a week. He went to college and started the TV station at a top university with an excellent journalism program. James says television news became his life, “I eat, drink and read and slept TV, it was fun, just loved it.”52 He also loved the recognition53 that came with hard work. He won his first award before graduating college. James knew the odds of getting an on-air job were slim given who he saw reporting the news— mostly White journalists who were probably heterosexual. In spite of the odds, the hard work paid off—James traveled across the United States getting a series of reporting jobs from small to large market stations, and then the inevitable happened.

Negotiating his sexuality became more difficult. He says, “I was out in the newsroom—not out to the community.”54 Some of his coworkers took advantage of his vulnerability and used the contradiction to engage in masked harassment. One example that James offered was when he pitched a story about a group of gay activists who went to the state capitol to fight against discrimination using the non-discrimination clause. The story was given low priority because it was assigned as a VO/SOT (a reporter’s voice over sound—including but not limited to interviews and natural sound) instead of a PKG (usually given more time than a VO/SOT and may include a shot of the reporter in the story as a bridge of information between story content). James wrote the story he had pitched earlier so that it would translate well with the visuals his videographer captured of the activists at the state capitol.

James decided to end (called the “tag”) the story using a quote from the interview with “the local gay bashing preacher” to balance it with a voice of opposition against the actions of the activists. James used the preacher’s quote that read: “This is just another way gay men will be able to spread AIDS and kill our young men. …” According to James, the preacher also said, “This is all a part of the big gay agenda. …” The preacher’s response

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as a whole was so inflammatory and long winded that James decided to paraphrase. James submitted the report for editor review that included the preacher’s position. James recounts the preacher’s position using the paraphrase: “‘gay men just wanna spread AIDS and disease and this is just a part of the gay agenda’” which according to James, “is essentially what he said.” But after submitting the story to the executive producer, it became clear that the executive producer did not want to use the interview saying, “we can’t say this.” The anchor then told James that he could not use the tag. James says, “the compromise ended up being, ‘it’s just part of the gay agenda’” that was read by the anchor at the end (“tag”) of the story.

After the newscast, James felt the lingering tension of having to defend his use of the quote from the preacher. Whether James’ writing of the tag was appropriate or not, he should not have had to endure what came next. The heteronormativity of the newsroom produced ample space for masked harassment. As the only “out” gay man in the newsroom, James became a target and was repetitively verbally attacked.

The executive producer returned to me and said, “what is the ‘gay agenda’?” And I’m like, “I don’t know what the ‘gay agenda’ is, I have no idea what the ‘gay agenda’ is, this is what he (the preacher) said.” And … somebody else comes up to me and says, “what’s the gay agenda?” (and) I’m like (hands in the air) “just because I’m gay. … I don’t know the gay agenda …”55

This form of harassment through repetitive interrogation continued, and although James said, “it just tickled me that people were asking me about the ‘gay agenda.’” Although his response to them was accompanied with a smile—the same smile he wore to mask his frustration during the interview as he recounted that day—the harassment was painful. He lashed back by showing them what he saw as a reflection of their ignorance, homophobia, and racism. He poured his anger and frustration into a “long memo about the ‘gay agenda.’”56 James recites the memo from memory saying:

After the news story … I decided to find out what the ‘gay agenda’ was; unfortunately, I have no idea what the ‘gay agenda’ is because I’ve been putting in so many hours at the station, I missed the ‘gay agenda’ setting meetings. The President of the … ‘gay agenda’ setting club … Unlike Dickmen … said “you can no longer have your pink jeep because you’ve missed too many gay agenda setting meetings and … your toaster oven will be revoked …” in fact I’ve worked so many overtime hours I

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also missed the Black agenda setting meeting. “I am no longer Black,” says Laba-babah Kalahby …57

He says he went through “these crazy stereotypes” to “speak to the issue that there’s no ‘gay agenda,’” but upon further analysis, the memo was targeted to a specific audience—his White colleagues. His “memo” was not simply about whether or not there was a ‘gay agenda,’ it was about the problem of working with White heterosexual colleagues who are quite comfortable hurling racist, homophobic remarks at a gay, Black reporter. This reflects his poor choice of defense against heteronormative newsroom culture, but it also shows how certain behaviors go unpunished. Nonetheless, James was speaking to his colleagues about their racism and homophobia without saying or being silent (Blanchot 1983) over his contempt for their lack of sensitivity and humanity.

James’s colleagues were not reprimanded for harassing him, but punishment was swift for James. He got one week’s suspension without pay for writing the memo. He was required to write a memo of apology to the very colleagues who harassed him because of his sexuality and race. The memo got leaked to local newspapers, television, and radio stations. It was also leaked that James is gay, it “was out in the open,” and James feared further retribution—not for writing the memo but for being gay or at least for the discrepancy58 regarding his sexuality. James being “out” in the newsroom but not the community reveals the tensions among fully embracing his homosexuality and enduring constant harassment in the newsroom and becoming the target of potential violence in the community. Once his sexuality was leaked, James was punished on record for writing the memo. However, James’s image became a liability in terms of the station’s brand that needed to be fixed.

James exercised—albeit problematically59—opposition to White masculine norms using the memo, which also served to reconstitute these norms. It is important to note the problematics of James’s memo in its reinscribing stereotypes of “Blackness” and gay identities. It is equally important to note the context within which the memo was written.

James’s attempt to unsettle definitions of “Blackness” that tend to rely on hyper-heteronormative masculinity, his decision to be “out” in a heteronormative newsroom, and pitching a story about the fight at the state capitol against discrimination of LGBT individuals reveals his deep desire to punctuate the ignorance of racial stereotypes and outdated ideas of homosexuality while opening space for the potential of alternative

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masculine identifications and modes of being human. James had long feared that the community would harass and reject him for being gay. For the most part, James’’ experience reflects that the level of harassment he experienced in “middle America” came from within his newsroom, not outside.

James said he felt “vindicated”60 after filing a grievance with the union and forcing the station to settle what James sees as a very unsettling experience being journalist while Black and gay.61 Station management took the memo and the issues surrounding it out of his file, and he was given back just about all of the pay that he was denied during his suspension. James says, “I was really scared because I thought now that I’m out to the entire community of conservative(s) … my reputation’s gone, I’m gonna get hate mail …”62 Instead he received “tons and tons of gifts and letters.”63

Although the station did not renew his contract, James says, “I won this one”64 and had no plans of staying anyway. James’s strategy became clear, “… under the union rules, if they fired me, then I would get a huge severance package. If I quit, I get nothing.”65 Thereafter, James says he enjoyed offering educational moments66 in the newsroom against racist and homophobic remarks as often as his colleagues and management presented such opportunities—and took the “huge severance package.”

HOMONORMATIVITY: WHEN A HOUSE IS NOT HOME

Being women together was not enough. We were different. Being gay- girls together was not enough. We were different. Being Black together was not enough. We were different. Being Black women together was not enough. We were different. Being Black dykes together was not enough. We were different … It was a while before we came to realize that our place was the very house of difference rather than the security of any one particular difference.67

—Audre Lorde

Black gay and lesbian journalists must build and sustain community where possible for their own survival in a heteronormative news industry. The revolutionary act of self-revelation—the transformation of silence into language and action, always seems fraught with danger.68 The danger of being marked Other among marginalized friends and colleagues, the danger of fully embracing one’s own difference, may mean betrayal within that

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house. A leap of faith, not knowing what lies ahead, means a house may never feel like home. Such commitment to difference as a dwelling space informs the ways in which Black LGBT journalists struggle to find a journalism organization that they can call “home.” The relationship among UNITY Journalists,69 NABJ, and NLGJA has gone from tenuous to strained between 2008 and 2015. NABJ members and leadership have been very vocal70 about the leadership of UNITY Journalists and what some may say is its shift away from its commitment against White oppression in all of its forms in the journalism profession. NABJ leadership took major issue with what they considered to be a lack of transparency concerning the allocation of convention funds and the 2008 UNITY Journalists of Color Convention expense report,71 which led to a vote to withdraw from “UNITY Journalists of Color.” In order to better understand the split, it is important to examine the tensions between NABJ and NLGJA as well as the concerns of members of both organizations.

Faith says she identifies as a Black Latina lesbian journalist interested in making connections with other marginalized journalists. She knows that she would have challenges based on her race and sexuality no matter where she chose to work. Faith also understands that building allies as a member of a few of the journalism organizations on offer is key to survival in the business. Faith would not feel at home in any one particular journalism organization. She also knows that engaging the work of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), NABJ, and NLGJA would be an eye-opening experience that would help her learn and grow within her chosen profession. She envisioned a professional career with lots of promise and was more than ready to make it happen. Fresh out of journalism school, she needed a job, but not just any job; Faith wanted something she could “just say, ‘wow’” about without compromising her sexuality, Blackness, Latinaness, and gender. After searching online, she found what she believed to be the perfect fit. She applied and was hired for an entry- level position with NLGJA in the summer of 1999. Faith says, “for them to have hired me on and have a consistent person in that position, a face if nothing else you know, that’s gonna connect with all these different people (in the various organizations: NAHJ, NABJ, NLGJA) in ways that they (NLGJA leadership) can’t—really … helped.”72 It helped to have a Black Latina lesbian on board since the organization consisted of mostly White gay men, and their membership of women was at the time embarrassingly low. Even the NLGJA President, said, “historically … NLGJA is seen as a White gay males organization and I wish those walls didn’t exist …

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unfortunately it does [they do].”73 Faith began chipping away at “those walls” toward racial inclusiveness in the organization’s membership. She made connections with Hispanic, Black, and Native American LGBT journalists and saw the improvement as “baby steps”74 in meeting the goal toward a significant increase in members of color.

Five years of having what she described as a “really close really loyal work relationship, friendship”75 with her supervisor, who identifies as a White lesbian, Faith felt she and her coworkers were finally making a difference in the numbers of members of color. Faith took notice of their promotional strategy toward diversity of the organization saying, “my colleagues they started putting me in front of those websites—that was their way of kind of introducing me.”76 Faith also says that during the NLGJA convention (which was at the time just before the “UNITY Journalists of Color” convention), she took on a lot of responsibility; it was the organization’s way of saying, “this is our … face”77 of diversity. Faith believed that “it was really strategic and … it was smart of them.”78 She symbolized the direction that the NLGJA leadership said they wanted to go in terms of diversity. Faith said that part of the strategy toward getting a more diverse membership was in giving scholarships to noteworthy journalists of color who wanted to come to the UNITY Journalists of Color conference “but at the same time” according to Faith, “they could be spokespeople on behalf of NLGJA”79 After she suggested a few projects specifically targeted toward increasing diversity during her last review, Faith said she began seeing the “warning signs”80 that her job was in jeopardy when her immediate supervisor began making her feel unwelcome there, which Faith says kind of threw her off. “I personally hadn’t planned on leaving that organization for at least another three, four years.”81 Faith said her supervisor told her that normally when people are at an organization for a certain period of time … they start to feel they’re growing out of it, but Faith did not agree with this assessment saying, “Maybe you’ve [supervisor] grown out of having me here but I’m not, I haven’t grown out of it because I still figure like there’s still, even beyond this convention (Unity 2004) there’s still a ton … of stuff to do.”82

The need for LGBT diversity initiatives became clear during Faith’s work at the UNITY Journalists of Color conference. She noticed that out of the many booths representing different news, journalism organizations, and journalism schools “NLGJA’s booth … may get scrutinized a lot more than other booths … it’s got a big flag there and it’s ‘let’s see who stops by the

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gay booth, who might be gay.’”83 She says LGBT journalists of color want to connect with members of NLGJA but usually avoid the NLGJA booth during the UNITY Journalists of Color conference because many LGBT journalists are not “out” to their journalism peers and coworkers and “don’t feel comfortable,” but Faith says they do find other ways to seek support, saying some potential members “just … waited until I got away from the booth and came out to me”84 This highlights one of many challenges that became a priority during her tenure with NLGJA.

Other reasons for avoiding the NLGJA booth and organization are the appearance of a lack of commitment to diversity. Faith says that journalists over the years have told her at previous conventions that they were so “turned off by … NLGJA,”85 and did not want to join because all they saw were White men at the booths (prior to Faith being hired) and said they thought it was “a White organization.”86 Faith’s discussion of “diversity” includes “people of color.” Faith says that she would never lie to the people she met about the low number of journalists of color in the organization and would have difficulty doing so since the visual cue would obviously contradict the claim. She says she tries to be encouraging by putting LGBT journalists of color in touch with one another so that they won’t feel so alienated. All in all, Faith says she felt confident in her work performance particularly in terms of moving the organization closer toward the goal of diversity. When the supervisor fired her, she was shocked.

She told Faith that she would have to be released from her position with the outgoing NLGJA president there as witness. According to Faith, the outgoing president stood by the door while the supervisor told her that she had to sign a document. Faith relives that day, and after talking to other members and a lawyer, she realized that she could have refused to sign the document. She says she felt intimidated at the time but in hindsight “what were they gonna do?”87 Faith says she has “no idea what happened.”88 The supervisor did not explain at the time why she fired Faith. It was never made clear and because neither the board nor the incoming chapter presidents were informed of the firing until after the fact, Faith says many believe that racism had a lot to do with the decision. The decision was even more puzzling to Faith because she was “highly praised” at the NLGJA convention for her work just a few weeks prior to the supervisor’s decision to fire her. Faith was bombarded with questions from NLGJA members about being fired.

… there’s 12-hundred members … that may have thought that I made

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them happy … I mean granted she’s the boss … but the face and the voice and the person that they communicated with, that was me … I mean I would like to meet somebody that has anything negative to say about me.89

According to Faith, the board was told that the president of NLGJA and the supervisor could not talk about Faith’s firing. Their silence over the firing of Faith was surprising to journalists in other organizations and members of NLGJA who wanted to know the details of her dismissal. Firing Faith, a Black Latina lesbian, at a time when NLGJA’s leadership was attempting to make deeper connections with UNITY Journalists of Color was according to Faith, “completely stupid.”90 It means poor management and a lack of commitment to diversity when an organization of predominantly White men fire one of the few women of color on staff with no explanation just before the UNITY Journalists of Color conference.

When asked about Faith’s firing, the NLGJA president said emphatically that he as well as the supervisor are “not allowed to talk about it at all … for legal reasons … 100-percent prohibited”91 and when asked if he was committed to diversity, he was “evasive”92 saying he does not “feel comfortable … talking about it”93 because it’s related to “the situation that took place.”94 He refused to comment on the organization’s commitment to diversity or Faith’s firing because he felt that there was no way “to separate the two”95 discussions. A discussion about his commitment to diversity and Faith being fired would have examined his own vulnerabilities to racism and homonormativity.96 In other words, he as well as the outgoing president would be compelled to explore their own condoning and support of the decision that Faith believes was pushed by the supervisor. Both outgoing and incoming presidents of NLGJA exercised their power as White men, who have a legal team to support their decision. Indeed, his evasiveness97

in answering the question of who was placed in Faith’s position makes his claims of being committed to diversity seem disingenuous.

Although the NLGJA president says he will continue to work toward change, he does not say exactly how that change is going to happen besides confronting discrimination of transgender individuals within NLGJA and invoking the now famous quote from Rodney King, the Black motorist beaten by Simi Valley police officers, who were later acquitted of the charges brought against them. The president’s analogy of change is limiting. He says:

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You know there was a time period when transgender individuals were not welcome at all within the organization. It’s gotten better; unfortunately, still, there are people that just don’t understand. It’s like “you know what? There are people who look at gay men and lesbians and think the very same thing that you’re saying about transgender individuals …” and it’s just like can’t we just get along?98

The “we” that the president was referring to at the time was the leadership of UNITY Journalists of Color, NLGJA, and NABJ. Apparently, the leadership and in some cases members of these journalism organizations are not getting along. If they were there would be no need for struggle against racism within NLGJA. Faith would possibly still be working with NLGJA, there would be no need for a gay and lesbian task force in NABJ, and transgender journalists would not feel so alienated within all of the journalism organizations. Faith enjoyed working with NLGJA even though it was a predominantly White journalism organization. She also attempted to make NLGJA a comfortable dwelling space as a Black, Latina, lesbian journalist. When the UNITY Journalists of Color leadership heard about the NLGJA leadership firing Faith, UNITY extended a job offer, and she accepted. Faith saw the NLGJA leadership at the UNITY Journalists of Color conference opening ceremony. Faith was “working the door,” where they had to pass to get into the reception. Faith says they avoided eye contact, looking down and walking around the barrier99 instead of facing her.

Instead of taking a stance on LGBT issues of discrimination, the NLGJA president’s solution to the variety of challenges members of NLGJA face on the job is self-empowerment. He says, “… we’re being ourselves just the same as anyone else in the newsroom. Newsrooms … need to embrace the diversity that’s within the newsrooms themselves … that’s why … again we encourage people to come out and be themselves.”100 He also encourages members of NLGJA to network within the journalism organizations, and learn how to “feel comfortable.”101 The NLGJA president equates the importance of encouraging “people to come out” with “being ourselves” without acknowledging the other components of that equation that shape the world in which we live: racism, classism, sexism, etc., that also negatively impact and constrain LGBT journalists of color. He says it is really difficult to change some news organizations especially if an individual or organization is seen as an outsider coming in to talk about LGBT issues, which is why it is so important to make significant change a priority.

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The challenges seem overwhelming if an organization like NLGJA and its leadership are not making significant change toward diversity. This means making diversity a priority, increasing the membership of LGBT journalists of color, and showing greater opposition to discrimination of LGBT journalists—particularly transgender journalists and LGBT journalists of color who are marginalized within both a homonormative and gender limiting journalism organization and heteronormative newsroom culture. The NLGJA president says that members have often “talked about troubles that they have had in newsrooms”102 and suggests the problem may be solved by having a conversation with management and newsroom workers. He also suggests offering to help them (news management and newsroom workers) “learn more about better journalism,” and acknowledging that LGBT journalists have something more to offer because of their differences.103 While that is a start, it seems a bit naïve in terms of confronting a hostile heteronormative newsroom culture as exemplified by James’s experience discussed earlier. The president of the organization also says “educating the newsrooms” is a better solution to dealing with individual members’ complaints of discrimination. He adds that “whatever decisions have been made—how can you come in from the outside and say, you were wrong, when you don’t necessarily know the full facts of the case …”104 He says he has witnessed his own growth in understanding diversity —what he knew about diversity back in 1992 is a lot different than what he knows as president of NLGJA.105

According to the president of NLGJA there have been reports of difficulties within NABJ as an organization being as welcoming as NLGJA, but he has noted some improvement saying:

There have been problems, and they’ve been discussed. But, a tide has turned; our relationship with the organization has been tremendous … there is much more inclusion at this point. I think by bringing on their task force has proven that.106

NABJ developed a task force focused on better meeting the needs of its LGBTQ members and addressing LGBTQ issues concerning the organization, its individual members, and the journalism industry. James, a member of both NLGJA and NABJ, says both organizations have room for improving diversity within the organizations:

They’ve not gone through what I’m going through as a gay male and a gay Black male, and still there’s so many issues with that still, and this

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is my struggle, this is my struggle now, and NABJ doesn’t seem to even recognize us, which pisses me off, and I’m going to make ’em recognize us … and with NLGJA, they seem to be a lot more tolerant even though they still have a ways to go, in recognizing diversity than Black NABJ. And I think the problem with NABJ is that—I, I don’t know what the problem with NABJ is (laughs) … maybe … I think there’s so much rooted, you know, Blacks are very religious, a lot of ’em are. And gay and lesbian issues, a lot of the deeply held beliefs of Blacks are contrary to what … they believe, you know, and it’s very hard for them to accept. And then there are other Blacks who understand the fact that yes, I’m oppressed, I’m Black, and anybody who’s oppressed whether they’re Black or whatever it is, ahh, I understand what they’re going through. But it’s almost like (for many members of NABJ), “we can’t be bothered with your cause, we’ve got our own cause, you’re not important. …”107

James’s pronoun usage demonstrates his in-betweenness within both journalism organizations of which he is a member. He seems to clearly align himself with NLGJA saying, “I’m going to make ’em recognize us” in reference to NABJ. He then seems to take an outsider position in reference to NLGJA when he says that “they seem to be a lot more tolerant even though they still have a ways to go, in recognizing diversity. …” He does this throughout this portion of the interview.108

In an NLGJA Outlook article in tribute to Thomas Morgan III, NABJ member Mashaun D. Simon said that Morgan asked that he “do what others had attempted to do many years ago: Create a group … that would serve the oftentimes ignored and forgotten LGBT segment of NABJ’s membership.” The task force took a few years to organize—a former regional director of NABJ said, “it was Tom’s influence, motivation and voice that helped persuade the NABJ Board to make NABJ’s Gay and Lesbian Task Force a reality.”109 James participated in the development of the NABJ gay and lesbian task force. NABJ’s gay and lesbian task force is an initial step toward putting difference within the concept of unity to work for its members. NLGJA has significantly increased its “minority” membership, but its current relationship with UNITY Journalists motivated the name change from UNITY Journalists of Color to UNITY Journalists. The work of former NABJ presidents has brought significant change. Richard speaks enthusiastically about working harder toward the inclusion of NABJ’s gay and lesbian journalists.

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the gay and lesbian task force … came to the organization and said, “hey, we’re here, we’re members … and we want to gather around our common interests because they’re also common interests of NABJ,” and just like the copy editors task force, or the visual task force, or the visual task force, or the sports task force … the interests are driven by the members, and so when they came, they actually came to me before they put it … on the agenda and I said, “hey let’s do it, I’m all for it” … they were approved, and they’re kickin’ butt. But it was a reaction only to the needs of the members.110

Some members of NABJ say recognition of sexuality difference within NABJ membership has been a long time coming. If the growth and success of NABJ’s LGBT Task Force is any indication, James has reason to be hopeful. However, UNITY Journalists of Color—now named “UNITY Journalists”—and NABJ remain divided.

SUMMARY

The notion of objectivity should at least be interrogated if not scrapped all together. A White television news journalist said that time constraints make her less objective. Management tends to say that methods of measuring objectivity also must speak to a particular protocol of a network’s “chain of command” while other management says objectivity is a myth.

Black journalists resist strategies of containment that attempt to silence perspectives of difference. The unwritten rules of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” are used to silence sexuality within heteronormative newsroom culture. The pervasiveness of the dominant culture order is apparent in homonormative journalism organizations.

One of the managers interviewed said that journalists may check their sexual difference at the door by being “in the closet” or making adjustments necessary toward employment. Others are explicit about how they self- identify, but being explicit without being asked, says one general manager, is offensive and sometimes forces the inevitable. Violet, a news producer, says most in the newsroom subscribe to an unwritten policy of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Most journalists say it is easier for LGBT journalists in ethnically diverse cities to be “out,” but even then, some are reminded about people’s assumptions and homophobia. Violet says the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy is a small consolation when “things come out” in what Violet calls, “shop talk.” Management is not as welcoming as they should be to openly gay

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employees, and according to Violet, the networks “don’t do gay stories on gay people” unless they are pressured to do so by individuals in the newsroom or the community or if the issue/event is too big to ignore. Black journalists know not to bring such perspectives to the newsroom as James’s situation clearly demonstrates.

NLGJA consists mostly of White gay men with a low membership of women and journalists of color. The journalism organization has set up recruiting booths at several journalism events and conferences and reports that the NLGJA booth is scrutinized a lot more than other booths at conferences. Many LGBT journalists are not “out” to their journalism peers and coworkers and don’t feel comfortable approaching the NLGJA booth to get valuable information on employment and networking opportunities. Some LGBT journalists of color say they were discouraged by the predominance of White men at the NLGJA booth; LGBT journalists of color also report feeling alienated.

While some of the leadership is making strides in improving diversity within their journalism organizations, others avoid talking about some of the very real obstacles toward more diversity—using the cloak of lawyer/client privilege to avoid such topics. One Black gay man says he does not feel totally at home as a member of the National Association of Black Journalists or as a member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. Black LGBT journalists face masked harassment and the lingering tension of having to defend stories covered—signaling the difficulties of being journalist while Black and gay.

The president of NLGJA said there was a time when transgender individuals were not welcome at all within the organization and that there continue to be people who just don’t understand. He also says that even so he believes educating the newsroom is a better solution to dealing with individual members’ complaints of discrimination than confronting management. Meanwhile, there are currently no transgender or transsexual television news anchors or reporters working on air at any of the major news networks and network affiliates at the date of this publication.

NOTES

1. Belva Davis, Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Women’s Life in Journalism (Sausalito, CA & LaVergne, TN: Polipoint Press, 2010), p. 145.

2. Minh-ha Trinh, Woman, Native, Other Writing Postcoloniality and

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Feminism (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989), p. 27.

3. Jacquelyn, former president of journalism organization, Audio Transcript, 700–722, 2004.

4. United States Department of Defense. Armed Forces. DADT Repeal Act Amendment. Pub.L. 103–160 (10 U.S.C. § 654). The law stated that “The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.” The Human Rights Campaign played a major role in ending the discriminatory ban on gay and lesbian service members from military service commonly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT). Service members previously discharged under DADT were able to re-enlist under the Repeal Act. American Forces Press Service. U.S. Department of Defense. “Obama: Americans No Longer Have to Lie to Serve,” Washington, September 20, 2011. http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=65381. After signing the Repeal Act into law (December 2010), President Barack Obama stated that “… patriotic Americans in uniform will no longer have to lie about who they are in order to serve the country they love” adding that the Repeal Act “would enhance our national security, increase our military readiness, and bring us closer to the principles of equality and fairness that define us as Americans.” Cheryl Pellerin, “Panetta Salutes Gay, Lesbian Service Members’ Dedication Duty,” U.S. Department of Defense. Washington, June 15, 2012. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-293204401.html. Just a few days before being confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the next Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta said in a the Department of Defense news article that going forward, he remains “committed to removing as many barriers as possible to make America’s military a model of equal opportunity, to ensure all who are qualified can serve in America’s military, and to give every man and woman in uniform the opportunity to rise to their highest potential.”

5. Karl Bryant, “In Defense of Gay Children? ‘Progay’ Homophobia and the Production of Homonormativity,” Sexualities 11.4 (2008): 455– 475. Homonormativity is the assimilation of heteronormative ideology into homosexual cultures and individual identities. The politics of homonormativity does not contest dominant heteronormative assumptions and institutions.

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6. William E. Burrows, Reporting the News (New York: Department of Journalism, New York University, New York University Press, 1977), p. 38.

7. Norma, Interview Transcript, lines 614 and 633, 2004. 8. Bliss, Interview Transcript lines 266–269, 2004. 9. Nathan Irvin Huggins, Black Odyssey, The African-American Ordeal

in Slavery (New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 1990), p. xxxiv.

10. Trinh1989. Although Trinh is critiquing Anthropology by pointing to the ways in which it may be defined as “gossip,” her analysis of “Truth” and “false incorporation” also problematizes a notion of objectivity in which many media managers stake claim. The universality requirement of objectivity under the terms and conditions of Whiteness becomes a false incorporation of different perspectives.

11. Ibid. 12. Sharp, Interview Transcript, lines 50–51, 2004. 13. Sharp, lines 57–58, 2004. 14. Sharp, lines 57–65, 2004. 15. Sharp, line 70, 2004. Long-term decisions include but are not limited

to who should be producing what show and who should be anchoring what show.

16. Sharp, lines 106–113, 2004. 17. Susan Stryker, “(De)Subjugated Knowledges—An Introduction to

Transgender Studies.” The Transgender Studies Reader (New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2006), pp. 2–3. Stryker says that “Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the whole transgender thing back in the 1990s was the startling rapidity with which the term itself took root, and was applied to (if not always welcomed by) the sociocultural and critical-intellectual formations that were caught up in, or suddenly crystallized by, its wake. Given the struggles that have attended the advent of ‘transgender’ as a descriptive term for a heterogeneous class of phenomena, merely to use the word is to take up a polemical and political position. In the end, we took the easy way out and pragmatically acknowledged that the term ‘transgender,’ for all it(s) limitations and masked agendas, was the term in most common usage that best fit what we were trying to talk about. What began as a buzzword of the early 1990s has established itself as the term of choice, in both popular parlance and a variety specialist discourses, for a wide range of phenomena that call attention to the fact that

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‘gender,’ as it is lived, embodied, experienced, performed, and encountered, is more complex and varied than can be accounted for by the currently dominant binary sex/gender ideology of Eurocentric modernity.”

18. Ibid. 19. Don Kaplan, “ABC Producer Who Changed Gender 3 Times Was

Fired in May for ‘Performance-Related Issues,’” New York Daily News. June 17, 2014. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/abc-fires-exec-changed- gender-3-times-article-1.1832330.

20. Kat Callahan, “Stop Confusing Gender Dysphoria With Body Dysmorphia Already,” ROYGBIV. August 8, 2014. http://roygbiv.jezebel.com/stop-confusing-gender-dysphoria-with- body-dysmorphia-al-1583049920 “Gender dysphoria is a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity … This mismatch between sex and gender identity can lead to distressing and uncomfortable feelings that are called gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is a recognised medical condition, for which treatment is sometimes appropriate. It is not a mental illness.”

21. Sharp, lines 135–143, 2004. 22. Sharp, lines 143–147, 2004. 23. Sharp, lines 153–158, 2004. 24. Sharp, lines 158–159, 2004. 25. Michel De Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, Los

Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1984), p. xix. 26. Maurice Blanchot, “The Infinite Conversation.” Theory and History of

Literature, Volume 82: 31–32. Translation and Foreword by Susan Hanson (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1983).

27. Sharp, lines 164–165, 2004. 28. Sharp, lines 188–192, 2004. 29. Sharp, lines 123–133, 2004. 30. Fred Brown, Editor, Society of Professional Journalists. “Ethics

Committee Position Papers,” 1996–2015. http://www.spj.org/ethics- papers.asp For reporters covering politics, “almost no political activity is OK. Some reporters interpret this as meaning it’s off-limits even to register to vote as a Democrat or Republican or their-party member. Some take it to extremes and even decline to vote in a general

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election. Those are extreme positions, and unnecessarily prim. The proof of a reporter’s impartiality should be in the performance. … For political reporters, yard signs, bumper stickers and even campaign buttons should be considered off-limits. For a broader range of journalists—whether they’re covering politics or not—political activism should be avoided. …”

31. David Shaw, “If Gay Journalists Marry, Is Credibility in Question?” Los Angeles Times. March 28, 2004. http://articles.latimes.com/2004/mar/28/entertainment/ca-shaw28.

32. Sharp, line 245, 2004. 33. Sharp, lines 244–245 and 257–262, 2004. 34. Richard, lines 379–391, 2004. 35. Hans, Interview Transcript, lines 118–123, 2004. 36. Hans, line 127, 2004. 37. Violet, Interview Transcript, lines 204–209, 2003. 38. Violet, line 216, 2003. 39. Violet, lines 229–234, 2003. 40. Violet, line 239, 2003. 41. Violet, line 204, 2003. 42. Violet, line 652, 2003. 43. Violet, lines 665–672, 2003. 44. Violet, lines 249–252, 2003. 45. Kevin Barry, NLGJA Outlook, publication, Volume 18, No. 1,

Washington DC: 2008. The Will and Grace reference came from a media analysis article. Barry, a freelance writer in Los Angeles says, “… we (LGBT “community”) are still seen through a very narrow lens in mainstream media. We are portrayed as perpetually single, predominantly White, asexual and seem to only live in the trendiest parts of the major metropolitan areas. This might be true about some of us, but it ignores a large part of our community in the same way that the exit polls are ignoring us,” p. 11.

46. Trinh 1989. In her chapter, “Commitment from the Mirror-Writing Box,” the triple bind, Trinh writes, “Imputing race or sex to the creative act has long been a means by which the literary establishment cheapens and discredits the achievements of non-mainstream women writers. She who ‘happens to be’ a (non-white) Third World member, a woman, and a writer is bound to go through the ordeal of exposing her work to the abuse of praises and criticisms that either ignore, dispense with, or overemphasize her racial and sexual attributes. Yet the time

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has passed when she can confidently identify herself with a profession or artistic vocation without questioning and relating it to her color- woman condition,” p. 6.

47. Huggins 1990, 34–35. There needs to be a historical context for a better understanding of branding, its histories, and relations of power.

48. James, lines 9–11, 2003. 49. James, lines 22–25, 2003. 50. Jacquelyn, lines 197–214, 2004. 51. Huggins 1990, 34–35. The effects of branding is examined beyond the

realm of hot metal to human skin—limited only to branding irons. I am using Huggins’ work to historically contextualize and broaden our understanding of branding in terms of its potential of doing psychic and symbolic violence to individuals and groups navigating access to opportunities within U.S. corporations and institutions. Huggins’ work is useful, saying “Like a ritual of renaming, a rite of new identity, he and the others, each in turn, were forced to kneel, and a mark or letter was burned into their flesh with a branding iron … the fire of the brand was to burn out of him who he was and to mark him as property and a thing … belonging to a company, no more and no less. It was the company’s mark, and the company had need to know how good a physical specimen it had come by … Their lives had value to the company even if they ceased to have meaning to themselves … and they had been transformed from persons into items of commerce.”

52. James, lines 33–34, 2003. 53. bell hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston, MA:

South End Press, 1992). “… marginalized groups, deemed Other, who have been ignored, rendered invisible, can be seduced by the emphasis on Otherness, by its commodification, because it offers the promise of recognition and reconciliation.”

54. James, lines 65–66, 2003. 55. James, lines 93–97, 2003. 56. James, line 103, 2003. 57. James, lines 103–113, 2003. 58. Barnor Hess, Un/settled Multiculturalisms, Diasporas,

Entanglements, Transcruptions (London, New York: Zed Books Ltd., 2000), pp. 125, 139, and 209. James being “out” in the newsroom yet represented as a heterosexual man to the viewing audience because his sexuality was hidden is a discrepancy that protects the television station’s brand of masculinity as evidenced in their hiring practice.

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This also resonates with what Barnor Hess calls discrepant masculinities—the subordinated racialized gender formations that are marginalized in dominant discourses and are constructed in opposition to White masculine norms and used to reconstitute these norms; “transcruptions,” are performances of alternative masculine identifications that contest and unsettle these definitions. James being “outed” because of the “leaked” information for viewing audience consumption was unsettling to management and is part of the reason James was punished.

59. E. Patrick Johnson, “‘Quare’ Studies, Or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned From My Grandmother.” In Black Queer Studies, A Critical Anthology. Edited by Patrick E. Johnsonand Mae G. Henderson (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005), pp. 124–157. Johnson’s work is useful in examining “transgressive performance”: “I do not wish to suggest that quare vernacular performance do not, at times, ideologically collude with sexist, misogynist, racist, and even homophobic constructions of the Other … while we may all occasionally enjoy the pleasures of ‘transgressive’ performance, we must transgress responsibly or run the risk of creating and sustaining representations of ourselves that are anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-transgender, anti-working class, and anti- black. … Ultimately, quare studies offers a more utilitarian theory of identity politics, focusing not just on performers and effects, but also on contexts and historical situatedness. … Quare studies proposes a theory grounded in a critique of essentialism and an enactment of political praxis. Thus, such theorizing may strategically embrace identity politics while also acknowledging the contingency of identity, a double move that Angelia Wilson adroitly describes as ‘politically necessary and politically dangerous.”

60. James, line 143, 2003. 61. This terminology appeared a great deal in popular culture as “driving

while Black” after charges of police violence and discrimination against predominantly Black drivers was raised by the NAACP and ACLU.

62. James, lines 147–149, 2003. 63. James, line 149, 2003. 64. James, line 150, 2003. 65. James, lines 153–154, 2003. 66. José Esteban Muñoz, Disidentifications, Queers of Color and the

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Performance of Politics (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), p. ix. Muñoz and Johnson are instructive in better understanding alternative ways of thinking about James’s performance strategies and tactics to get his severance package. James’s performance andJohnson’s quare theory keep us vigilant to the ways in which these “disidentificatory performances serve material ends, and they do this work by accounting for the context in which these performances occur” (Johnson 2005, p. 140).

67. Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1982).

68. Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider, Essays and Speeches (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press Feminist Series, 1984).

69. UNITY has undergone a few name changes that reflect the tenuous relationship with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). What was once called “UNITY: Journalists of Color” prior to NABJ’s vote to split from UNITY April 10, 2011, became UNITY Journalists in 2012 shortly after the National Association of Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA)—a predominantly White organization—joined “UNITY Journalists” September 19, 2011. While “UNITY Journalists” remains the name as of 2015, when searching the Internet for “UNITY Journalists” the search results come up as “UNITY: Journalists for Diversity.” So while the name “UNITY Journalists” remains the same, the unfulfilled idea of “UNITY: Journalists for Diversity” will be the brand that “UNITY Journalists” is promoting.

70. Kathy Times, “UNITY: Perception or Reality?” NABJ News & Press: President’s Corner. April 20, 2011. http://www.nabj.org/news/63385/-UNITY-Perception-or-Reality.htm. Steve Myers, “Unity Attendance down after Divorce with NABJ,” The Poynter Institute. August 3, 2012. http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/183921/unity-attendance- down-after-divorce-with-nabj/. Tanzina Vega, “A Rift Divides Members of Journalism Groups.” The New York Times: Media & Advertising. August 1, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/business/media/a-rift-divides- minority-journalism-groups.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.

71. NABJ. “FAQ on UNITY Withdrawal,” April 15, 2011. http://www.nabj.org/?UNITYWithdrawal Concerning the role of allocation of funds in determining whether or not to split from UNITY Journalists of Color, NABJ states that “Allocation of funds was the

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http://www.nabj.org/?UNITYWithdrawal

main reason for the vote to leave UNITY. As with many long-term relationships, needs, goals and the organizational direction shift. The fact is that NABJ has changed a great deal since the UNITY alliance started in 1994 and we must take a close look at how every move affects us financially. Quite frankly, it did not make sense for us to split our hard-earned funds with a group when we couldn’t get an answer on how the money would be spent. There was no accountability and transparency, and that was unacceptable. In our minds, that is just not a good way to operate. At the end of the day, NABJ exists to serve NABJ members, and we made the decision we felt puts us in the best position to do so.”

72. Faith, Interview Transcript, lines 82–84, 2004. 73. Hans, lines 997–999, 2004. 74. Faith, lines 80–81, 2004. 75. Faith, line 47, 2004. 76. Faith, lines 120–121, 2004. 77. Faith, line 486, 2004. 78. Faith, line 494, 2004. 79. Faith, line 225, 2004. 80. Cathy Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical

Potential of Queer Politics,” in Black Queer Studies, A Critical Anthology. Edited by E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G. Henderson (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005), pp. 30–31. Through the demands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people of color as well as others who did not see themselves or their numerous communities in the more narrowly constructed politics of white gays and lesbians, the contestation took shape over who and what type of issues would be represented in lesbian and gay politics and in larger community discourse … the politics of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people of color have been and continue to be much broader in terms of understanding of transformational politics. … While heterosexual privilege negatively impacts and constrains the lived experience of ‘queers’ of color, so too do racism, classism, and sexism. …”

81. Faith, lines 65–68, 2004. 82. Faith, lines 78–80, 2004. 83. Faith, lines 346–348, 2004. 84. Faith, line 359, 2004. 85. Faith, line 363, 2004.

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86. Faith, line 370, 2004. 87. Faith, line 667, 2004. 88. Faith, lines 422–423, 2004. 89. Faith, lines 466–472, 2004. 90. Faith, line 495, 2004. 91. Hans, Interview Transcript, lines 474, 478, 490, 2004. 92. Hans, line 551, 2004. Here he said he knows that what he is saying

sounds evasive, and this study finds that what he is saying is evasive in his refusal to answer the very important question of his tangible commitment to diversity as President of NLGJA.

93. Hans, lines 549–551, 2004. 94. Hans, line 561, 2004. 95. Hans, lines 560–562, 2004. 96. Roderick Ferguson, “Race-ing Homonormativity: Citizenship,

Sociology, and Gay Identity,” in Black Queer Studies, A Critical Anthology. Edited by E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G. Henderson (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005). Ferguson’s work is insightful, “For instance, white homonormative racial formations claim privileges to the detriment of those communities marginalized by normative regulations – regulations that are racialized, classed, and gendered. … Regulating homosexual difference in order to claim coherence as a public citizen is part of the homonormative subject’s entrance into racial privilege. If rights-based action and an affiliation with the illusory and universal community of the state achieves coherence and emancipation for homosexuality, then homosexuality achieves coherence and emancipation by regulating gender and sexuality. That regulation is part of the racialized regimes of American citizenship. In other words, the appeal to gender and sexual normativity by gays and lesbians in this moment, inevitably, operates as a mode of state identification that promotes racial exclusion. Gay rights has become a site of racial exclusion and privilege defined by the rights to marriage, hate crime protection, and military inclusion,” pp. 53 and 61.

97. Hans, lines 777–779 and 858–914, 2004. 98. Hans, lines 1003–1007, 2004. 99. Faith, lines 589–591, 2004.

100. Hans, lines 1066–1074, 2004. 101. Hans, line 1075, 2004. 102. Hans, lines 1104–1105, 2004. 103. Hans, lines 1094–1109, 2004.

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104. Hans, lines 1117–1139, 2004. 105. Hans, lines 577–583, 2004. 106. Hans, lines 237–243, 2004. 107. James, lines 642–648 and 652–659, 2003. 108. Audre 1984. James is grappling with what Audre Lorde refers to as

“triple consciousness.” 109. Mashaun D. Simon, “Tribute: Remembering Thomas Morgan III.”

NLGJA Outlook newsletter. A publication of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), Volume 18.1 (2008): 19.

110. Richard, Interview Transcript, lines 2–10, 2004.

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American Forces Press Service. “Obama: Americans No Longer Have to Lie to Serve,” U.S. Department of Defense. Washington, September 20, 2011. http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=65381.

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Blanchot, Maurice. “The Infinite Conversation.” Theory and History of Literature, Volume 82 . Translation and Foreword by Susan Hanson. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1983.

Brown, Fred, Ed. Society of Professional Journalists. “Ethics Committee Position Papers,” 1996–2015. http://www.spj.org/ethics-papers.asp.

Bryant, Karl. “In Defense of Gay Children? ‘Progay’ Homophobia and the Production of Homonormativity,” in Sexualities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 11.4, (2008): 455–475.

Burrows, William E. On Reporting the News. New York: Department of Journalism, New York University, New York University Press, 1977.

Callahan, Kat. “Stop Confusing Gender Dysphoria With Body Dysmorphia Already,” in ROYGBIV. August 8, 2014. http://roygbiv.jezebel.com/stop- confusing-gender-dysphoria-with-body-dysmorphia-al-1583049920.

Cohen, Cathy. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics,” in Black Queer Studies, ACritical Anthology. Edited by Johnson, E. Patrick, and Mae G. Henderson. Durham and London: Duke University Press, pp. 30–31, 2005.

Davis, Belva. Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Women’s Life in Journalism. Sausalito, CA & LaVergne, TN: Polipoint Press, 2010.

De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley, Los Angeles,

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Hess, Barnor. Un/settled Multiculturalisms, Diasporas, Entanglements, Transcruptions. London, New York: Zed Books Ltd, pp. 125, 139, and 209, 2000.

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Johnson, E. Patrick. “‘Quare’ Studies, Or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned From My Grandmother,” in Black Queer Studies, A Critical Anthology. Edited by Johnson, E. Patrick, and Mae G. Henderson, 124–157. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005.

Kaplan, Don. “ABC Producer Who Changed Gender 3 Times Was Fired in May for ‘Performance-Related Issues.’” New York Daily News. June 17, 2014. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/abc-fires-exec- changed-gender-3-times-article-1.1832330.

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6 Barack and Michelle Obama as Signs of Progress and Threat

I think that we all come to this job with a point of view … but that does not mean that I have to report only from my point of view … and then you report on what you find, not on what you think.

—Diane, TV News Anchor

Objectivity is a non-troversy as far as I’m concerned because you don’t question White male reporters who were following Bush during the campaign. … I did hear during the campaign in ’08 whether or not female journalists would be able to be objective who were on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton, and I just think that it’s nonsense for people to call into question your credibility and your ability to be objective just based on the color of your skin or your gender. You have to demonstrate on some level that you have developed a bias.1

—Jacquelyn, TV News Anchor

The lack of diversity in U.S. media brings suspicion upon the few racial, ethnic, and sexual minority journalists currently working in television news. Black journalists are scrutinized more heavily than their White colleagues despite having more experience in some cases, working harder in most cases, and overcoming obstacles stemming from the race-gender hierarchies operating in the news business. The rhetoric of racial transcendence and claims to diversity in television news, together with individuals who point to the end of racism in North America after the election of a Black president of the United States, presents challenges to the issue of inequities experienced by Black and marginalized journalists in the newsroom. These raced realities confront the myth of post-racialism2 circulating in television news. This chapter relies on selected news broadcasts and interviews with television journalists I use to track the ways in which explicitly racist narratives of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were produced, circulated, and subsequently reported within print and TV news.

Discourse on the overall significance of the Obama phenomenon

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facilitated the resurrection of blatantly racist imagery. Furthermore, the rhetoric that supported the perception of the Obamas as a sign of progress or a threat to the dominant cultural order played out in a variety of ways. On the one hand, the rhetoric of “American Exceptionalism” that argues North America is qualitatively exceptional in its espousing of democratic ideals and freedom became inextricably linked to Obama. Being the first Black president of the United States was symbolic of the shedding of the nation’s racist and violent past. This master narrative of racial transcendence created a schism between the lived racialized realities of Black individuals and how race was being discussed and treated in newsrooms across the U.S. Such contradictory understandings of race may bring tension to the newsroom and serve as a backdrop to the news product itself. Black journalists push for more diversity because it benefits a newsroom. The 4- year-old depicted supporting violence and criminality by a journalist at the CBS affiliate in Chicago (chapter 1) may not have happened in a more diverse newsroom that is open to different perspectives. Black journalists were incensed by the unethical news coverage. The contradiction of the myth of post-racialism and oppressive conditions of working in a society and newsroom that embrace the myth are challenging positions from which to navigate one’s race, gender, and sexual identity. Before, during, and after the headlines touting Obama as “CNN’s Most Intriguing Person of 2012” and “TIME’s Person of the Year,” Black journalists understood that for all of the discourse of North American exceptionalism, their lived realities in the newsroom and society meant there was an added obstacle. Black journalists were faced with living and working with the empty rhetoric of post-racialism and the contradictory practice of everyday life.

The myth of post-racialism served as a collective catharsis3 for correcting the wrongs of a distant past of racial discrimination and White violence. This is precisely why President Obama got so much push back and anger for speaking publicly about race. The fact that there had been a series of murders of young black men and boys—most notably Trayvon Martin4— seemed to be dismissed in terms of criminality as understood through the lens of post-racialism.

The few Black journalists covering big stories like the Presidential Election and later the murder of Trayvon Martin were heavily watched. For the most part, media attention to the question of race was reduced to uninspired debates about alternative meaning. Despite the dueling constructions of the Obama phenomenon, the dominant discourse of the Obamas continues to fuel racism and Islamaphobia. Islamaphobia as a form

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of racism5 has been part of the fabric of North America and explores the notion of foreignness, belonging, and what it means when individuals and groups like the Tea Party say, “I love my country.” A critical analysis of how this statement is produced, enacted, circulated, and further expressed lays the foundation for understanding Islamaphobia as a form of racism. The ways in which “raced”6 Black individuals have been presented as “foreign” bodies hostile to “the nation,” particularly in the representation exemplified in traditional and “new” media before, during, and after the 2008 Election, offers insight into the Islamafication trope used by the GOP to mark Barack and Michelle Obama as unknowable, “foreign,” “unlike Us” (White, Heterosexual, Christian Men), and therefore dangerous.

Black journalists engage with issues of reconfigured racism, collective catharsis, and legitimized controversy that seek to normalize the images we consume on a daily basis. Black journalists are on the front lines of struggle over representations of “Blackness” starting with the opportunity to cover big stories including the Presidential Elections. The differences that Black and other marginalized journalists bring to major stories often offer fresh and innovative approaches to the mainstream perspective. While there is no fixed definition of “Blackness,” it is important to interrogate how “Blackness” is written upon7 the bodies of journalists, President Barack Obama, and First Lady Michelle Obama.

FEAR MONGERING AND CONSTRUCTING THE OBAMA-NATION

While most Republicans and the members of the Tea Party were drumming up fear of Obama before, during, and after the 2008 and 2012 Presidential Elections, Obama was distant about the lived realities of Black America. Obama did this by de-racializing the language used by his political opponents and de-emphasizing race with regard to the extremely turbulent socio-economic conditions that Black individuals were experiencing in the U.S. While this approach frustrated many who stayed quiet due to the possibility of Obama getting re-elected in 2012, Cornel West and Tavis Smiley were two Black leaders willing to be vocal about their frustrations and deep disappointment. West said that “Poverty is 21st-century-style slavery; its eradication should serve as the battle cry of a new civil rights movement”8 Obama invited seven reporters from the Black press onto Air Force One to travel to the NAACP convention in New York in 2009 to

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discuss press coverage and racial discrimination in the nation. Obama told the Black press: “One of the ways that I think that the civil rights movement … weakened itself was by enforcing a single way of being black—being authentically black.”9 West’s attempt to provoke Obama into further discussion about race was met with a level of silence as West continued to push for a united front against poverty. Celebrities like Harry Belafonte were reported saying:

Those who have the power in the free-enterprise system start to crush societies and create wars that are unholy. What we did during the Bush period, what we still continue to do, even with Barack Obama, is the continuing of not changing the paradigm, of not changing the view. We still have laws that encourage torture, we did not change Guantanamo, we have laws that allow the police to arrest you at any time, not having to tell you why, and take you wherever they want. This kind of capitalism is taking us to the doorstep of [a] Fourth Reich.10

Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who married the Obamas and baptized their children, spoke out about racial injustice in the U.S. and echoed the growing concerns over the shrinking Black middle class, but his comments implicating the U.S. government in acts of terror, spreading AIDS, and posing a threat to the “Black Church” was the catalyst for Obama’s decision to sever ties with Wright. Many Black leaders felt that the legitimate concerns of some of the more vocal criticisms by West and others about Obama’s silence regarding poverty was giving Republicans and the Tea Party ammunition needed to win the Presidential Election after already winning seats in the House in 2010.

Republicans and the Tea Party were accused of fear mongering and constructing an image of Obama as dangerous, volatile, and even the anti- Christ in order to win House seats. The U.S. economy was spiraling out of control with a stalled recovery package and high unemployment rate. Many North Americans feared that Republican and Tea Party predictions about banks failing and the decline of North America were correct in their assessments. However, the Tea Party win of 2010 was shortlived as Obama began to gain momentum after the Republican-led government shutdown in April 2011 was averted with a short-term spending measure. This also frustrated North American voters who saw the government shutdown as being fueled by Republican stubbornness.

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THREAT, PROGRESS, AND THE THEMATIZED BODY

Tea Party gains emboldened the far right and reinvigorated racism in popular culture. Racist imagery and discourse of the Obamas included the following: a New York Post cartoon depicting Barack Obama as a Monkey; former California Mayor Dean Grose’s circulation of an image depicting a watermelon patch on the White House lawn for Easter; and the New Yorker magazine cover depicting the Obamas as terrorists. Discursive practices of memory and counter-memory show how racist narratives are alternatively masked and exposed in television news. Black journalists struggled to have a modicum of representation in reporting the political landscape of this historic time that was anything but the Post-Racial America that was claimed after the 2008 Presidential Election. Black journalists also faced the challenges of navigating a notion of objectivity that requires more intense surveillance than that experienced by their White colleagues.

Black journalists have been called into question about their ability to report on the U.S. Presidential Election objectively.11 Some also questioned whether or not Black journalists are objective in their on-air coverage of the Presidential Elections when they speak openly off-air in favor of one presidential candidate over another. Some upper management says that there are people who can be too close to a story and management would not know it. However, a journalist who has singular perspectives in stories may be quickly identified:

… I don’t think it’s fair to pull someone from a story because we are suspecting they can’t be objective. I think that … we need to have some reason to believe that they can’t be objective. And then I guess we need to see what the story looks like because if someone is coming in with, if it’s going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy of where they’re going to end up, that also speaks to some concern about their integrity as a journalist.12

Sharp adds that he would look at the individual stories, look at the individual journalists, and look at the kind of work that they’ve produced in the past to determine whether they can be trusted to be objective according to the station’s standards. Learning from other media outlets’ mistakes and reviewing their standards and best practices—or lack thereof—may be helpful in determining what crosses the ethical line in various forms of reporting.

A New Yorker magazine cover depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as

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terrorists fist bumping with menacing faces, a machine gun strapped across Michelle Obama’s back, and North American flag burning in the fireplace next to them was defended as political satire designed to poke fun at right- wing critics of the Obamas. The cover evoked the angry Black woman stereotype by severely arching Michelle Obama’s eyebrows upward. She is noticeably wearing boots ready for combat while Barack Obama is wearing sandals—suggesting the role of a follower rather than the leader of the “free world.” The symbol of the Afro hairstyle that Michelle Obama is depicted wearing is used to reinscribe racist notions of Black African hair texture and styles signifying the militancy of the 1970s and visually linking militancy with the reported terrorism and extremism we see played out predominantly by White reporters handpicked by television media management. A newsroom lacking diversity is a dangerous newsroom.

The cover also served as a warning to White North America of a “foreign”13 invasion from within the nation. The cover suggests that Obama is Muslim while triggering Islamaphobia with the surrounding visuals linked to terrorism. The nation is linked to Whiteness by juxtaposing the visual trope of a threatening and menacing Black presence—a visual that is reminiscent of ideas expressed in the film, Birth of a Nation.14 The suggestion is that our nation is in danger if patriots15 do not act on their fears, exactly the opposite of the effect intended by Barry Blitt who drew the piece entitled, “The Politics of Fear.” Most Black journalists interviewed did not want to go on record condemning or supporting the magazine cover. The editor of the New Yorker magazine, David Remnick, defended the cover,16 and a Black columnist with the Chicago Tribune agreed saying,

Remember a few years ago, when the New Yorker had a cover at a time of great black/Jewish tension in New York? You had a cartoon of an obvious Orthodox Jewish male kissing a black woman, and this created a lot of buzz. … That’s what it is, buzz. It’s discussion. It’s talk. And that’s what covers are supposed to do. So I think, you know, it’s quite within the normal realms of journalism.

James Carville, a contributor to CNN News, reiterated what many were saying about the cover. Carville also defended the cover saying that it is satire in its “ultimate form” and that he did not see “what the big deal is.”17

There are a multitude of ways to illustrate the ignorance of White supremacist ideology produced, circulated, and enacted through organizations like the Tea Party, Virginia Republicans who find Ku Klux

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Klan themes useful at their town hall healthcare debates,18 and the San Bernardino County Republican women’s group whose president Diane Fedele thought it was a good idea to pass around racist images of Obama claiming that if the then Democratic Presidential Candidate were elected president, his image would appear on food stamps instead of dollar bills.19

When asked what he thought about the New Yorker magazine cover during a press conference, Obama shrugged his shoulders, but his and McCain’s spokespeople said that most readers would judge the image “tasteless and offensive.”

Equally offensive is the thematization of womanhood that gets reiterated and circulated in popular culture and the television news media. The images circulating of Michelle Obama remind viewers of her “place” in the role of “First Lady”—reinforcing the dominant cultural notion of womanhood while setting boundaries on possibilities for women. Despite her capabilities and many accomplishments in positions reserved for men, Michelle Obama is constructed within the confines of “womanhood”—as nurturer and child bearer.

The television news media narrowly portrays Michelle Obama with a repetition of images with her teenage daughters or gardening while surrounded by children. She may also be seen on holidays walking with her teenage daughters but is rarely seen showing her leadership prowess in roles usually reserved for men. She stays focused on much-needed and non- controversial issues like the “Let’s Move” initiative “to Raise a Healthier Generation of Kids,” which launched in February 2010, just in time to help the President prepare for the 2012 Presidential Election campaign. In the face of Republicans’ attempts at fighting20 against the Let’s Move initiative to combat childhood obesity, Michelle Obama pushed back on their move to introduce a Republican bill allowing schools to opt out of the healthy food standards. After avoiding policy fights and lobbying Congress to pass a child nutrition law in 2010, Republicans found Michelle Obama a formidable opponent. However, those in the know say her skills and talent are not being used to maximum potential. Cornel West, one of President Obama’s toughest critics, believes that the First Lady is as brilliant and charismatic as the President, but that is not what is being shown:

… they won’t allow her brilliance, her Harvard Law degree, her Princeton education, and her shaping in Chicago to be part of her whole package. They have to minimize it in order to make her fit the particular package that the spinsters around Barack think are useful for his re- election and status you see. … Now Hillary broke out and I was glad to

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see Hillary break out like that, that narrowness. …21

Michelle Obama exercises agency in how she and her family are represented in the media. However visual cues of a woman’s place in the scheme of “the nation” are being spun in the North American psyche. What these images simultaneously say and do not say of possibilities for women and women’s freedom, independence, and autonomy is a worthwhile discussion.

Furthermore, traditional and “new” media forms including magazines, newspapers, television, webcasts, and blogs traffic regressive racial stereotyping reconfigured by new technologies and consumer culture in the 21st century. Cultural representations of Barack and Michelle Obama generate discourses of threat and progress, while stripping them of historical context and political significance. Such representations are palpable despite debates about living in a Post-Racial22 society. The ways in which the hegemonic frame of 9/11 was used to represent Barack and Michelle Obama as a sign of progress and threat were an attempt to deflect the pervasive racism rampant in the United States. Framing 9/11 in terms of “us—the patriotic Americans” versus “them—the foreign terrorists” generated mistrust in newsrooms across North America through heavy scrutiny and surveillance of journalists. In other words, Black and marginalized journalists became the targets of reshaping the understanding of a “free press.” Difference may no longer be entertained by management. Claude, a reporter in the mid-West says:

… those voices that were so sought after in the early ’70s are now pretty much essentially silent. You’re not encouraged—they want you to come to the table for the enterprise stories, they want you to come to the table with story ideas, but by and large you have to fit into the mold that has now become the standard of news. The individuality of reporters is pretty much a done deal. They want everyone—unless you’re a pundit, unless you’re a commentator—they want everyone to, in some respects, look the same, sound the same, act the same, write the same, communicate the same. There are now consultants that go around traveling to stations, having worked as former news managers, having worked as former producers, and they believe they know what works, and they’ve created an industry where they go and consult with stations, pretty much telling them what they believe will work with that market and that’s how news has become cookie cutter. The problem with that is “what works in New York City, may not necessarily work in Little

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Rock, Arkansas.”23

Anyone resisting these practices of uniformity witnessed in the workplace was marked as foreign and therefore held to suspicion. More intensified themes of foreignness reverberated in newsroom culture and story assignment practice, while Black journalists’ understanding of objectivity was being called into question and challenged.

“COVERING” THE OBAMAS: BLACK JOURNALISTS TALK SHOP

Gwen Ifill, a NABJ Hall of Fame Honoree, says that the Presidential Election “gives us a chance to take stock of Americans. … I’m more curious about how Americans are responding” than what candidates are saying. Ifill is known for challenging politicians with confidence, moderating debates with ease, and standing up to bullies who have insulted her intelligence because of her skin color.24 Ifill says, “I think there’s a way to be journalists and analysts without being pundits.” Before Ifill’s book, The Breakthrough: Politics in the Age of Obama, hit store shelves, she faced criticism about her ability to cover the Presidential Elections objectively. There were critics who assumed Ifill’s “work would be an automatic endorsement for the then-Illinois senator” Obama, to which Ifill said, “I proved them wrong.”

Another NABJ Hall of Fame Honoree, Johnathan Rodgers, who retired as TV One president in 2011, says it was important to him as an individual and as an African American male to rise to a position where he could help protect, if not control, the images of the African American community. He also said that under his management “anchor teams were clearly the role model for multicultural talent.”25 Black journalists continue to face challenges that few will discuss unless they are facing retirement or changing careers. Speaking out about the lack of diversity and a diminishing imperative of the public’s right to know, coupled with racial inequities within the television news profession has come to the forefront of discussions among journalists.26 Anchor/reporter Jacquelyn said:

Covering the Pentagon and White House is plum, and you find that you have your B-tier journalists and many of those are African American, but your A-tier continually seem to be Caucasian American, and we’re

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still fighting that good fight to rise up to the top.27

Black journalists who have not been repeatedly passed over to cover the major stories like Obama’s election and reelection say the television news business is more open to White colleagues who are not always qualified for the job.

Kate, a mid-career television news producer who was laid off and out of work for over a year, said she got the opportunity to cover big stories. She qualifies the statement saying:

But when mistakes happen, White colleagues always get the benefit of the doubt. Or if their performance is not good or they don’t know what they’re doing, they get the benefit of the doubt. They keep their jobs whereas Black folks get shown the door. That’s why I’m so glad Brian Williams is being held accountable. Black Journalists today need to be trained well right out of the gate. And they must be ready to move or leave a shop that’s not treating them well.28

The NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was suspended for six months without pay for lying about being under enemy fire while covering the Iraq invasion in 2003. Williams claimed that he was in the same Chinook helicopter as Navy SEAL Team Six, which was responsible for carrying out the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Back in 2004, Williams was newly promoted to anchor NBC Nightly News. In an interview that year with United Airlines’ in-flight magazine Hemispheres about concerns over the lack of diversity in the news media, Williams said, “We have bigger problems. There are no Black members of the U.S. Senate. We should keep some perspective on this. Nevertheless, I am constantly interested to hear of examples in our coverage where viewers think we got it wrong in one way or another because of a skewed viewpoint.”29 The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) president at the time, Herbert Lowe, accompanied by other NABJ colleagues, organized a meeting with Brian Williams who attempted to back away from his statement. Brian Williams stands accused more than ten years later of lying in his news reports. Brian Williams enjoyed story assignments that for most journalists are a career-making dream. Members of NABJ say that the White House Press coverage continues to be the coveted place for White reporters.

NABJ member and former CNN contributor Roland Martin, who was once invited aboard Air Force One with other Black press back in 2009,

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interviewed members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) foundation and wire service Editor-in-Chief George Curry to discuss their concern over the disrespect President Obama has shown to the Black press in recent years. Curry said on NewsOneNow with Roland Martin that Obama is more interested in interviewing with comedians and other celebrities than the Black press. Curry said:

… we have requested—every year—an interview with the President. He can ignore 200 Black newspapers and 19 million viewers, but he can give one to every stupid White comedian there is on TV, the Black ones and the White ones, and has time for all type of buffoonery, but they will not respect the Black press enough to give us an interview.”30

Black journalists have not hesitated to put Obama’s shortcomings on the table for discussion and debate, which allay concerns of newsroom management regarding Black journalists’ ability to report objectively and speak truth to power—even if that power is the first Black identified President of the United States. Claude, who is a business/economic reporter and member of NABJ, said that “News reporters like anybody else have their own political beliefs and ideologies, and no one cares what it is, but the goal is to keep it out of the copy and to try to present as fair and as accurate coverage of that.”31 He believes that not getting chosen to cover the Presidential Election was “strictly a financial decision and not a political decision” by the news director because “no one was sent to Washington to cover the Inauguration.”32 Some news directors were obviously ambivalent about covering the historic event of Obama’s election. Claude mentioned that the television news station market is located in a “Red State” (Republican). The Inauguration was of national importance, and yet the fact that the television station was located in a Red State undoubtedly influenced the decision of the news director to avoid investing in reporters to cover such a historic event. If the news director’s decision considered the fact that the television station was in a Red State as indicated by Claude, then the news director’s decision goes against the grain of the journalism profession’s claim of objectivity. How Republicans in a given viewer market may feel about the election of a president who is a Democrat and happens to be Black, should not outweigh the fact that history is being made; there should be reporters on hand to cover the story. In addition to being a Democrat, Obama’s “Blackness” is disturbing the sensibilities of individuals heavily invested in the notion of Whiteness.

In an interview with Gwen Ifill shortly after the Inauguration, Calvin

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Trillin discussed the perceptions of “Blackness,” the fact that there are people in North America who think of people like Colin Powell as “not exactly Black,” and the increasing discourse of race transcendence and President Obama. At the time, Gwen Ifill noted that what was sad for her about this was that “Blackness” becomes synonymous with negativity.33 Ifill and Calvin Trillin were grappling with the “thematization”34 of “Blackness” that for some has no redemption. Whether the debates are about Barack Obama’s citizenship or individuals accusing Obama of being a communist or socialist,35 the “one-drop rule”36 of North American race ideology renders Barack Obama indelibly marked by the negativity linked to “Blackness.” Most of the debates are not about the fear of a communist or socialist invasion from within or citizenship37—it is about race and foreignness. These debates and discussions inextricably bind Americanness to Whiteness, setting the terms and conditions for who is validated and who is not. Given the U.S. Census projections, membership to that peculiar brand of Americanness will decrease over time.

SUMMARY

Selected news media, Internet images, and consumer products depict President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as both a sign of progress and a threat to the dominant culture order. Traditional and “new” media forms traffic in regressive racial stereotyping reconfigured by new technologies and consumer culture in the 21st century. The ways in which cultural representations of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama generate discourses of threat and progress, while stripping them of historical context and political significance, is palpable despite debates about living in a post-racial society.

The ways in which the hegemonic frame of 9/11 was used to represent Barack and Michelle Obama as signs of progress and threat were examined in this chapter. My analysis includes selected news broadcasts that were used to track the ways in which explicitly racist narratives of Barack and Michelle Obama were produced, circulated, and subsequently reported. While the “objective” perspective operating in the television news media claims to bring a neutral position and approach to unequivocally racist imagery, most journalists interviewed see objectivity as unattainable—a myth and/or a goal only a select few see as an absolute. All in all, the notion of objectivity, like post-racialism, operates under the terms and conditions

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of Whiteness, which work against the very diverse perspectives these theories claim to support.

NOTES

1. Jacquelyn, Interview Transcript, lines 663–700, 2004. 2. Pamela Newkirk, Within the Veil (New York: NYU Press, 2002).

Manning Marable, “Racializing Obama: The Enigma of Post-Black Politics and Leadership.” Souls (New York: Taylor and Francis Journals, 2009), 11.1: 1–15. Marable discusses the new race-neutral, “post-black” leadership of African Americans such as President Barack Obama, Newark Mayor Corey Booker, and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Marable addresses how Obama minimized the issue of race, presenting a race-neutral politics that worked toward bipartisan politics. Verney Kevern, “‘The Final Frontier’: Barack Obama and the Vision of a Post-Racial America.” Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America. Edited by Mark Ledwidge, Kevern Verney, and Inderjeet Parmar (New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2014), p. 116. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Racism without Racists, Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2014). Thomas J. Sugrue, Not Even Past Barack Obama and the Burden of Race (Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2010). Talks about Obama’s evolving understanding of race in America and how Obama grapples with persistent racial inequality.

3. Frantz Fanon, Black Skin White Masks (New York: Grove Press, 1967). “If we want to answer correctly, we have to fall back on the idea of collective catharsis. In every society, in every collectivity, exists—must exist—a channel, an outlet through which the forces accumulated in the form of aggression can be released. …”, p. 146.

4. Philip Bump, “Obama’s Surprise Speech on Race: ‘Trayvon Could Have Been Me,’” The Atlantic Wire. July 19, 2013. http://news.yahoo.com/obamas-surprise-speech-race-trayvon-could- 35-years-180500516.html.

5. The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, Image Entertainment, 2007, excerpt at: http://new.music.yahoo.com/dean-obeidallah/tracks/white-people- arab-is-the-new-black--41907874. As one comedian put it: “Arab is the new Black.” There are other iterations of this in statements by another comedian saying, “Brown is the new Black”:

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http://news.yahoo.com/obamas-surprise-speech-race-trayvon-could-35-years-180500516.html

http://new.music.yahoo.com/dean-obeidallah/tracks/white-people-arab-is-the-new-black--41907874

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrXt7egXdhg with 1,304,477 hits and Erik Bleich, an Associate Professor of Political Science, who argues that “Muslim is the New Black …” in “Constructing the Ethno- Racial outsider in Western Europe”: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=9UrU8eZFQb8 with 23 hits.

6. Darnell M. Hunt, Screening the Los Angeles “Riots”: Race, Seeing, and Resistance (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

7. Hélène Cixous, Coming to Writing and Other Essays (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 1991).

8. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley, The Rich and the Rest of US: A Poverty Manifesto (New York: SmileyBooks, 2012), p. 103.

9. Richard Prince, “Obama Irritated by Race Coverage.” Maynard Institute, Journal-isms. July 19, 2009. http://mije.org/richardprince/obama-irritated-race-coverage.

10. Alexandra Zawia, “Harry Belafonte on Capitalism, Media Moguls and His Disappointment With Jay-Z and Beyonce (Q&A).” The Hollywood Reporter, August 7, 2012. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/harry-belafonte-locarno- mitt-romney-359192.

11. Andrew Romano and April Yee, “Can Minority Journalists Cover Obama Objectively?” Newsweek, July 28, 2008. http://www.newsweek.com/can-minority-journalists-cover-obama- objectively-219820. Matea Gold, “BET’s Jeff Johnson Tries To Balance Objective Coverage with the Event’s Emotional Appeal.” Los Angeles Times, January 21, 2009. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/21/entertainment/et-bet21.

12. Sharp, Interview Transcript, lines 224–233 and 244–245, 2004. 13. Carl W. Ernst, Editor, Islamophobia in America: the Anatomy of

Intolerance (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 14. Manthia Diawara, Black American Cinema (New York: Routledge,

1993). 15. Godfrey Hodgson, The Myth of American Exceptionalism (New

Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010). 16. Natalie Gewargis, “New Yorker Editor David Remnick Talks to ABC

News About Cover Controversy.” ABC News. July 14, 2008. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2008/07/new-yorker-edit/.

17. Alex Mooney, “New Yorker Editor Defends Controversial Obama Cover.” CNN.com Election Center 2008. July 14, 2008. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/15/obama.cover/ Mooney

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrXt7egXdhg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UrU8eZFQb8

http://mije.org/richardprince/obama-irritated-race-coverage

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/harry-belafonte-locarno-mitt-romney-359192

http://www.newsweek.com/can-minority-journalists-cover-obama-objectively-219820

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/21/entertainment/et-bet21

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2008/07/new-yorker-edit/

http://CNN.com

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/15/obama.cover/

reports that “A Newsweek poll released … showed that 12 percent of those polled believed Obama was sworn in as a U.S. senator on a Quran, and 26 percent believed that he was raised as a Muslim.”

18. The Lamp. “Virginia Republicans Continue With KKK Theme,” August 12, 2009. https://ladylibertyslamp.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/virginia- republicans-continue-with-kkk-theme/.

19. Kelly David, “Newsletter’s Obama Illustration Denounced, Leader of GOP Club Denies Racist Intent in Use of Stereotypes.” The Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2008. https://http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/17/local/me-foodstamps17.

20. Associated Press Staff. “Michelle Obama Fights GOP Critics over Healthy Lunch Guidelines.” Daily News, May 27, 2014. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/michelle-obama-fights- gop-critics-healthy-lunch-guidelines-article-1.1806586.

21. Cornel West, Interview Transcript, lines 502–520 and 538–541. 22. Bill O’Reilly, Keep It Pithy: Useful Observations in a Tough World

(New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2013). 23. Claude, Interview Transcript, lines 136–154, 2004. 24. Nicole Ferguson Carr, “2012 NABJ Hall of Fame Induction.” National

Association of Black Journalists Journal, 28.1 (January 26, 2012). 25. Nisa Muhammad, “2012 NABJ Hall of Fame Induction.” National

Association of Black Journalists Journal, 28.1 (January 26, 2012). 26. During his NABJ Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech,

Bernard Shaw, CNN Principal Anchor Emeritus said, “In all the seriousness of my journalistic life … then and now, there is code-red reality. Journalists, here me tonight: there are some owners in our business–bosses, parent companies whose profit fixation and staffing directives and decisions sabotage the public good they profess to serve. They are turning the people’s ‘right to know’ into the people’s ‘fight to know.’ White males, wake up! Globally, you are an island speck in an ocean of color! The reins of power will weaken and so will your grip. If you do not faithfully support our nation’s greatest strength – diversity. If you do not share, you will lose. Diversity is not racial, ethnic, or gender encroachment. Diversity is our great nation’s survival. To you caught in the middle, stay vigilant. You must stay strong. You must carry on. If not you–who? To you starting careers (in journalism): Embrace risk, mold change by making it work for you. Better to walk the plank of change than regret steps not taken. Work

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https://ladylibertyslamp.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/virginia-republicans-continue-with-kkk-theme/

https://http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/17/local/me-foodstamps17

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/michelle-obama-fights-gop-critics-healthy-lunch-guidelines-article-1.1806586

hard at working hard. Finally, to you (members of NABJ) I say this: never fear truth, just be afraid of missing it. Your goals, your talent, your ethics, have lifelong value and are superior to an Emmy, Peabody, or Pulitzer won along the way.”

27. Jacquelyn, lines 820–828, 2004. 28. Kate, MR, E-Copy, 2014. 29. Richard Prince, “NBC Execs, NABJ Leaders to Meet,” Maynard

Institute Journal-isms. December 7, 2004. http://mije.org/richardprince/nbc-execs-nabj-leaders-meet.

30. Roland Martin, “Black Press Chief: Black Press Disrespected During Obama Years.” NewsOneNow. March 20, 2014. http://www.blackpressusa.com/black-press-chief-black-press- disrespected-during-obama-years/#sthash.AVnuPnxU.dpbs.

31. Claude, Interview Transcript, lines 80–87, 2004. 32. Claude, lines 100–119, 2004. 33. Gwen Ifill, “Interview with Gwen Ifill and Calvin Trillin,” in The

Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (New York: Doubleday, 2009). http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/cityarts/ucb/ram/CA01380.ram, January 29, 2009.

34. Fanon, 1967. 35. Willliam Kristol, “New York Times: Obama Is a Socialist.” The Weekly

Standard,” May 8, 2012. http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/new- york-times-obama-socialist_644226.html. Louis Jacobson, “Chain Email Says Michelle Obama Waved Communist Flags in China.” April 4, 2014. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o- meter/statements/2014/apr/04/chain-email/chain-email-says-michelle- obama-waved-communist-fl/.

36. P. Reilly, The Virginia Racial Integrity Act Revisited: the Plecker- Laughlin correspondence: 1928–1930. Am J Med Genet. 1983 Dec; 16(4): 483–92. The Racial Integrity Act. SB219, 1924 of Virginia was a law that had required the racial makeup of persons to be recorded at birth and prevented marriage between “white persons” and non- white persons. The law was the most famous ban on miscegenation in the United States, and was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 1967, in Loving v. Virginia.

37. Kate Zernike, “Trump Plans Meeting on Arizona Birth Bill.” The New York Times, April 7, 2011. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/trump-plans-meeting-

224

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http://www.blackpressusa.com/black-press-chief-black-press-disrespected-during-obama-years/#sthash.AVnuPnxU.dpbs

http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/cityarts/ucb/ram/CA01380.ram

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/new-york-times-obama-socialist_644226.html

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/apr/04/chain-email/chain-email-says-michelle-obama-waved-communist-fl/

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/trump-plans-meeting-on-arizona-birth-bill/

on-arizona-birth-bill/.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

As one comedian put it: “Arab Is the new Black.” The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, Image Entertainment, 2007, excerpt at: http://new.music.yahoo.com/dean-obeidallah/tracks/white-people-arab- is-the-new-black--41907874.

Associated Press Staff. “Michelle Obama Fights GOP Critics over Healthy Lunch Guidelines.” Daily News. May 27, 2014. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/michelle-obama-fights-gop- critics-healthy-lunch-guidelines-article-1.1806586.

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. Racism without Racists, Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2014.

Bump, Philip. “Obama’s Surprise Speech on Race: ‘Trayvon Could Have Been Me,’” The Atlantic Wire. July 19, 2013. http://news.yahoo.com/obamas-surprise-speech-race-trayvon-could-35- years-180500516.html.

Cixous, Hélène. Coming to Writing and Other Essays. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 1991.

David, Kelly. “Newsletter’s Obama Illustration Denounced, Leader of GOP Club Denies Racist Intent in Use of Stereotypes.” The Los Angeles Times. October 17, 2008. https://http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/17/local/me-foodstamps17.

Diawara, Manthia. Black American Cinema, New York: Routledge, 1993. Ernst, Carl W., Ed. Islamophobia in America: The Anatomy of Intolerance.

New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin White Masks. New York: Grove Press, 1967. Ferguson Carr, Nicole. “2012 NABJ Hall of Fame Induction.” National

Association of Black Journalists Journal, 28.1 (January 26, 2012). Gewargis, Natalie. “New Yorker Editor David Remnick Talks to ABC

News About Cover Controversy.” ABC News. July 14, 2008. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2008/07/new-yorker-edit/.

Gold, Matea. “BET’s Jeff Johnson Tries To Balance Objective Coverage with the Event’s Emotional Appeal.” Los Angeles Times, January 21, 2009. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/21/entertainment/et-bet21.

Hodgson, Godfrey. The Myth of American Exceptionalism. New Haven,

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https://http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/17/local/me-foodstamps17

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2008/07/new-yorker-edit/

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/21/entertainment/et-bet21

CT: Yale University Press, 2010. Hunt, Darnell M. Screening the Los Angeles “Riots”: Race, Seeing, and

Resistance. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Ifill, Gwen. “Interview with Gwen Ifill and Calvin Trillin,” in The

Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. New York: Doubleday, 2009. http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/cityarts/ucb/ram/CA01380.ram, January 29, 2009.

Jacobson, Louis. “Chain Email Says Michelle Obama Waved Communist Flags in China.” April 4, 2014. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o- meter/statements/2014/apr/04/chain-email/chain-email-says-michelle- obama-waved-communist-fl/.

Kevern, Verney. “‘The Final Frontier’: Barack Obama and the Vision of a Post-Racial America.” Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America. Edited by Mark Ledwidge, Kevern Verney, and Inderjeet Parmar. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2014.

Kristol, William. “New York Times: Obama Is a Socialist.” The Weekly Standard,” May 8, 2012. http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/new- york-times-obama-socialist_644226.html.

Marable, Manning. “Racializing Obama: The Enigma of Post-Black Politics and Leadership.” Souls, New York: Taylor and Francis Journals, 11.1 (2009): 1–15.

Martin, Roland. “Black Press Chief: Black Press Disrespected During Obama Years.” NewsOneNow. March 20, 2014. http://www.blackpressusa.com/black-press-chief-black-press- disrespected-during-obama-years/#sthash.AVnuPnxU.dpbs.

Mooney, Alex. “New Yorker Editor Defends Controversial Obama Cover.” CNN.com Election Center 2008. July 14, 2008. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/15/obama.cover/.

Muhammad, Nisa. “2012 NABJ Hall of Fame Induction.” National Association of Black Journalists Journal, 28.1 (January 26, 2012).

Newkirk, Pamela. Within the Veil. New York: NYU Press, 2002. O’Reilly, Bill. Keep It Pithy: Useful Observations in a Tough World. New

York: Crown Publishing Group, 2013. Prince, Richard. “NBC Execs, NABJ Leaders to Meet,” Maynard Institute,

Journal-isms. December 7, 2004. http://mije.org/richardprince/nbc- execs-nabj-leaders-meet.

Prince, Richard. “Obama Irritated by Race Coverage.” Maynard Institute, Journal-isms. July 19, 2009. http://mije.org/richardprince/obama-

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http://www.blackpressusa.com/black-press-chief-black-press-disrespected-during-obama-years/#sthash.AVnuPnxU.dpbs

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/15/obama.cover/

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http://mije.org/richardprince/obama-irritated-race-coverage

irritated-race-coverage. Reilly P. The Virginia Racial Integrity Act Revisited: The Plecker-Laughlin

Correspondence: 1928–1930. Am J Med Genet. 1983 Dec;16(4):483–92. The Racial Integrity Act. SB219, 1924 of Virginia was a law that had required the racial makeup of persons be recorded at birth and prevented marriage between “white persons” and non-white persons. The law was the most famous ban on miscegenation in the United States, and was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 1967, in Loving v. Virginia.

Romano, Andrew, and April Yee. “Can Minority Journalists Cover Obama Objectively?” Newsweek. July 28, 2008. http://www.newsweek.com/can-minority-journalists-cover-obama- objectively-219820.

Sugrue, Thomas J. Not Even Past Barack Obama and the Burden of Race. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2010.

The Lamp. “Virginia Republicans Continue With KKK Theme,” August 12, 2009. https://ladylibertyslamp.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/virginia- republicans-continue-with-kkk-theme/.

West, Cornel, and Tavis Smiley. The Rich and the Rest of US: A Poverty Manifesto. New York: SmileyBooks, 2012, p. 103.

Zawia, Alexandra. “Harry Belafonte on Capitalism, Media Moguls and His Disappointment With Jay-Z and Beyonce (Q&A).” The Hollywood Reporter, August 7, 2012. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/harry-belafonte-locarno-mitt- romney-359192.

Zernike, Kate. “Trump Plans Meeting on Arizona Birth Bill.” The New York Times, April 7, 2011. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/trump-plans-meeting-on- arizona-birth-bill/.

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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/trump-plans-meeting-on-arizona-birth-bill/

Concluding Remarks

This study has uncovered the ways in which mainstream television news media attempts to invoke the master narrative of North American life and contain forms of resistance by Black and marginalized journalists who understand the imperative of including diverse perspectives. CNN Principal Anchor Emeritus, Bernard Shaw, spoke of the alarming lack of diversity in the predominantly White male television news business. His perspective resonates with Black and marginalized journalists across the country and symbolizes the struggle over representation of “Blackness” and the human under the terms and conditions of Whiteness.1 It also speaks to the challenges of embracing change and the responsibility of news organizations to illuminate the truths that reflect our growth as a nation. In his NABJ Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech, Shaw spoke of “the people’s fight to know”2 with the understanding that journalists are on the front lines of this fight. His call for White men to “wake up”3 is echoed by marginalized journalists since Ida B. Wells’ Red Record report sought to tell the truth about White North American terrorism. The problems of the past are ever present.

The socio-political and economic oppression of Blacks across the nation in the 1960s got the attention of the U.S. government, which called for a better understanding and remedy to the conditions fueling racial unrest in North America by initiating the Kerner Commission Report.4 As news organizations began responding to the demand for integrated newsrooms, they also began putting into practice the racialization of work. Each of the chapters points to the myriad ways racialization of work was put into practice in television news and fails the tenets of journalism necessary for a nation’s survival. This study is a testament to the “eternal vigilance”5 of Black and marginalized journalists who confront threats to the goal of Freedom of the Press on a daily basis. Innovation in communications technology is also helping challenge the status quo that White male dominated newsrooms have enjoyed for years.

Ever increasing alternative news on multimedia platforms is now filling the void left by the limited vision of corporate television news media and

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the prospective markets it represents. Television news viewers are increasingly tuning out of the traditional corporate media outlets and tuning in to the global news market. “Digital natives”6 born after 1980 and many individuals born before are moving away from television and newspapers as a source for news and information. Advertising dollars are being redirected toward more potentially lucrative endeavors within the Internet market. The election of North America’s first Black identified President has been largely attributed to the power of digitally astute and politically engaged people. Television networks are depending too heavily on journalists who are new to the business to bridge the digital divide in network news via Facebook, Twitter, and building up the long-underutilized graphics departments. These new requirements are too little, too late with expectations of harvesting the popularity of individual journalists to increase and draw a larger young audience. Moreover, network television management’s reluctance to make the dramatic changes necessary to redirect viewer attention away from the digital news landscape makes matters worse for the future of television news.

Shaw’s 2007 premonition was the reality journalists witness unfolding: Major news networks will continue to bleed out, the “reins of power will weaken,” and so will the network’s grip on ratings and revenue given the diversity of perspectives that the U.S. Census projections suggest. Global multimedia platforms have rendered White North American news media “an island speck in an ocean of color”7 that will drown if diversity is not embraced by top management in the form of supporting and training young journalists who are looking to contribute to this great experiment we call “America” and its imperative of freedom of the media, communication, and expression through multimedia platforms. In addition, the notion of objectivity, branding and marketing practices, temporalities and spatialities of race, gender, and sexuality within the structure of the newsroom and news business must necessarily undergo a dramatic transformation for viability in the 21st century. Solutions for threats to our growth as a nation, including a pattern and practice in television news media of promoting the brand of the human that does not rely on fixed notions of “Blackness” and other racialized, gendered, and sexualized groups, requires a news media that looks very different from what we see today.

PALATABLE “BLACKNESS”

What will it take to improve the journalism profession? The psychic and

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symbolic violence of professionalizing practice in television news invested in promoting a brand of the human that relies on fixed notions of “Blackness,” should be a thing of the past. This approach is unsustainable and not relatable to a transnational North America. Putting an end to the intense policing of journalists, their body language, and image is a viable start. Status quo image consultants who have largely worked as former news managers and producers are using an outdated formula that is alienating viewers and not getting the attention of potential viewers.

Network news organizations that divest from the notion of Whiteness8 as the standard will produce a ripple effect. Many journalists have long known that divestment from Whiteness is the best approach for the future of the journalism profession. It is also important to note that some journalists, who have operated in support of the status quo, have done so more for job security than from the belief that the current circumstances are feasible for the future. This means that abandoning assumptions about a journalist’s ability based on race, gender, and sexuality will breathe fresh perspectives that will resonate with viewer markets.

VALIDATION CHECKPOINTS

Energy placed upon policing journalists distracts management from the resources that journalists have to offer. Marginalized journalists who come to the newsroom working harder than everyone else should be recognized and promoted for their innovation and the resources they bring to the table. Marginalized journalists should not be disqualified if they choose to wear African hair textures, have dark skin color, are over the age of 40, or have any other identity marker that has previously worked to the detriment of employment and job security. Straightening one’s hair or wearing wigs and weaves to fit a one-dimensional standard of beauty should no longer be a requirement for job security. Cosmetic surgery, which is celebrated in some of the top five markets, should be a personal choice for journalists rather than something they do out of fear of losing their hard-earned jobs. Talent agents should be given the green light to abandon status quo requirements and operate differently. Focus groups will look very different from what has traditionally been on offer if major transformation is not in the plan. Research and focus groups are often used to justify management’s and owners’ definition of attractive, professional, and trustworthy. If white straight men in management cannot see LGBTQ journalists as assets to the news organization, they need to be replaced. The reins of power are

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weakening, and as Shaw so astutely observes, so too must control over the ways in which “Blackness” gets represented in terms of palatability in the White imagination. These changes are going to require that managers get comfortable with being uncomfortable because the familiarity of the status quo default continues to threaten the journalism profession. Black culture vultures9 and the hijacking of “Blackness” have no place in the news business and put journalism ethics into question.

THE PROBLEMATICS OF POPULATION PARITY

Population parity assumes a monolithic viewer market and acts as justification for placing Black journalists in particular positions and markets. The theory that racial segregation has legitimacy particularly between market viewers and journalists is an idea that sets television stations up for failure. Viewer market relatability based on race is a flawed economic plan. This is also true of practices of placement into more desirable shifts and newscasts. Some newsroom workers and journalists are protected by union rules, which may shield them from some of the harsher realities of working while Black in the television news business. Relegating the hardest working and talented journalists to the margin of the newsroom by placing them in the least desirable shifts and shows (graveyard and “the ghetto shows”10) shows a lack of vision on the part of management. This practice will eventually place the entire operation from the top down in the graveyard of businesses that could not change with the times—similar to what happened to Blockbuster when Netflix slowly took over. The success of Black journalists working in predominantly White markets is evidence that North Americans have been underestimated by corporate newsroom culture.

STRATEGY AND TACTIC AS COPING STYLE

Instead of putting so much energy into engaging strategies and tactics against all of the obstacles that Black and marginalized journalists navigate, that energy can be better spent if they are supported for the different perspectives they bring to the newsroom. There should be a serious discussion of objectivity and what it means and does not mean in practice. The U.S. government did away with the unwritten rules of “don’t ask don’t tell”11 that silenced LGBTQ individuals serving their country. The corporate

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news media should do the same. Limiting LGBTQ journalists to reporting on parades and feature stories while blocking them from reporting on major issues like marriage equality is doing a disservice to the journalism profession and the viewing market.

The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) consists of mostly white gay men with a low membership of women—those numbers have increased during the writing of this book, but there are still challenges that need attention. Many LGBT journalists are not “out” to their journalism peers and coworkers or they are “out” in the newsroom but not “out” in the communities they serve. Journalism organizations should be more vocal about what the lack of inclusiveness and diversity in top management positions. The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has made major moves in terms of vocalizing for journalists who are not in a position to argue on their own behalf when they are vulnerable to punishment in a variety of ways. Both NABJ and NLGJA can do more to make Black and marginalized journalists feel supported within their organizations. Greater recognition of transgender journalists means greater opportunities for elevating the news business toward more inclusiveness of perspectives. It may take journalism organizations to push for representation of transgender individuals in newsrooms across the U.S. Journalism organizations are going to have to start from within and invite discussion. There are currently no transgender or transsexual television news anchors or reporters working on air at any of the major news networks and network affiliates.

Most Black journalists say that they are frustrated, disappointed, and not surprised by the racist images that have circulated in mainstream media, social media, and other online news venues of Barack and Michelle Obama. The racist images are troubling, but being passed over in covering major stories like the President and First Lady of the United States is equally troubling when marginalized journalists are not valued for the different perspectives they bring. Journalists also express disappointment at not being selected among the Press Pool covering the President—something they thought would change with the Election of the first Black identified President of the U.S. In an effort to mend fences, President Obama invited members of the Black Press to begin a conversation on Air Force One about news coverage of race in the U.S. President Obama also addressed the inequities of coverage in terms of choosing what is highlighted in his speech about race and what is left on the editing room floor.

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, who won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for commentary on the Obama campaign, described the President’s speech marking the 100th anniversary of the NAACP’s founding as a

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message of “tough love” directed at Black America and widely reported in mainstream media. Obama pointed out that his discussion of government responsibility “somehow doesn’t make news.” Richard Prince notes a reader’s observation that individuals like Al Sharpton who report on these issues tend to have the opposite issue of Obama regarding what gets covered and what does not. When Sharpton speaks about racism in the media and Black America taking personal responsibility, the issue of racism gets more replay in media coverage. Dr. Cornel West, widely known for his public criticism of President Obama, says he has observed a “reluctance to criticize the President” (Interview Transcript, 222) on the part of Black journalists. West also said that what Obama is doing right is allowing “gays in the military”12 and resisting the “racist language”13 of Republicans. West qualifies his statement saying, “There’s a number of things that he’s done that are decent and good, it’s just that it pales in the face of what needs to be done.”14 Most journalists interviewed said that they disagree with West’s statement and that they are reluctant to criticize President Obama. They are struggling to get a seat at the table of the “plum” story assignments.

NOTES

1. Cheryl I. Harris, “Whiteness as Property.” Harvard Law Review, Volume 106, Number 8, 1993.

2. Bernard Shaw, CNN Principal Anchor Emeritus, speech given for the “Lifetime Achievement Award 2007.” At the NABJ Salute to Excellence Gala (Las Vegas, Nevada: Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, August 11, 2007).

3. Ibid. 4. National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Office of Policy

Planning and Research, Kerner Commission Report on the Causes, Events, and Aftermaths of the Civil Disorders of 1967. Edited by David Ginsburg et al. (Washington, DC, 1967–68).

5. Ida B. Wells, Crusade for Justice, the Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Duster, Alfreda M., ed. (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1970).

6. J. Clark, Mapping Public Media: Inside and Out (Washington, DC: Center for Social Media, 2008).

7. Ibid. 8. Cheryl I. Harris, “Whiteness as Property.” Harvard Law Review,

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Volume 106, Number 8, 1993. 9. Violet, Interview Transcript, lines 380–381, 2003.

10. Ida, Interview Transcript, lines 487–489, 2002. 11. United States Department of Defense. Armed Forces. DADT Repeal

Act Amendment. Pub.L. 103–160 (10 U.S.C. § 654). The law stated that “The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.” The Human Rights Campaign played a major role in ending the discriminatory ban on gay and lesbian service members from military service commonly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT). Service members previously discharged under DADT were able to re-enlist under the Repeal Act.

12. West, Interview Transcript, line 981, 2012. 13. West, 2012. 14. West, line 982, 2012.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Shaw, Bernard. CNN Principal Anchor Emeritus, speech given for the “Lifetime Achievement Award 2007.” At the NABJ Salute to Excellence Gala. Las Vegas, Nevada: Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, August 11, 2007.

National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Office of Policy Planning and Research, Kerner Commission Report on the Causes, Events, and Aftermaths of the Civil Disorders of 1967. Edited by David Ginsburg et al. Washington, DC, 1967–68.

Wells, Ida B. Crusade for Justice, the Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Duster, Alfreda M., ed. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1970.

Clark, J. Mapping Public Media: Inside and Out. Washington, DC: Center for Social Media, 2008.

Harris, Cheryl I., “Whiteness as Property.” Harvard Law Review, 106.8 (1993).

United States Department of Defense. Armed Forces. DADT Repeal Act Amendment. Pub.L. 103–160 (10 U.S.C. § 654).

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235

Index

affirmative action 72, 86 agency 4, 17, 45, 67–8, 96, 99, 166 alienated 147, 150 alienating 176 Alienation 130–1; see alienating; see also alienated American Exceptionalism 160–1 Americanness 20, 29–30, 58, 169 amputation 75 assigned identity 47 assimilate 52, 56

Barthes, Roland 73 beauty 15, 24, 51, 55–6, 75, 177; see beauty standard beauty standard 15, 55 Belafonte, Harry 162 belonging 161 Birth of a Nation 164 Black culture vultures 68, 85–6, 177 Blair, Jason 39 Blanchot, Maurice; speak without saying or being silent 40, 96; see

speaking without saying or being silent; speaking without saying or being silent 46

Blitt, Barry 164 brand 1, 12–14, 42–3, 45, 47, 49, 58–9, 67–70, 72, 85, 111, 131, 139, 142,

169; see branded; see also branding branded 6–7, 22, 42, 54, 58, 75, 79 branding 8, 10, 13, 41–2, 45, 47, 50, 58, 67–70, 73, 76, 83, 85, 111, 176;

see brands brands 79

Carbado, Devon W. 1, 2

236

Carville, James 165 caste system 67–8, 77–9; see also color caste system Cixous, Hélène 67, 73 code of ethics 136 collective catharsis 161–2 colorblind 1, 3, 7; see colorblindness colorblindness 4, 20 color caste system 86 color line 10 communicate 75, 166; see communication; see also communicating communicating 116, 122 communication 46, 48, 50, 54, 70, 96, 100, 176 Confederate flag 137 confrontation 67 connotation 74, 131 containment 70 control 5, 9, 17, 24, 41, 46, 55, 67, 69, 70, 80, 85, 95, 97–8, 100, 103, 109,

118, 121, 140, 163, 167, 177; see controlling; see also forms of control controlling 43, 108, 112 corporate culture 68 counter-hegemonic 46; see also hegemonic counter-memory 3, 7, 163 Curry, George 168

Davis, Belva 10 dehumanize 24, 69 dehumanizing 39, 43, 54; see also dehumanize demographic 10, 26, 40, 68, 76, 108–12, 114–15, 118–19, 122, 135; see

demographics demographics 76, 111, 114–15, 118; see demography demographics argument 111–12, 114–15 demography 85 denotation 131 depict 169; see depicted depicted 84, 164 depicting 163; see depicted detachment 131

237

Digital Natives 175 disruptive 132 distance 130–1, 136; see also detachment distracting 2, 51, 132 discrimination 13, 68–9, 75, 77, 86, 119, 135, 140, 142, 146–8, 151, 161–2 discriminatory 117; see discrimination diverse 113, 115, 135, 175; see also diversity diversity 5, 9, 13, 16, 18, 20–1, 27–8, 30, 41, 69–70, 95–6, 100, 109,

112–14, 121, 131–4, 144–50, 160–1, 164, 167–8, 175–6, 178; see inclusiveness; see also diverse

domestic terrorism 16 dominant culture order 4, 6, 12, 20, 24–8, 43, 51, 56, 73, 130, 150, 169 domination 17; see also oppression Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) 130–31, 134–5, 138, 150, 178 double bind 2 double consciousness 6, 47

Elections 3, 7 Ellison, Ralph 67; inner eye 70; see inner eyes; inner eyes 39, 41–2;

invisibility 71–2, 82, 97, 120; invisible 39, 55, 85; see invisibility epistemology 1 “eternal vigilance” 175 extremism 164

fair, accurate, balanced (FAB) 137 false incorporation 132 Fanon, Frantz; psychic violence 7, 12, 20, 42, 54, 56, 73, 116, 176; see also

violence; symbolic violence 7, 12, 20, 42, 54, 56, 73, 116, 176 Fedele, Diane 165 foreign 2, 29–30, 166 “foreign” invasion 164 foreignness 161, 166, 169; see foreign; see also “foreign” invasion form of resistance 46; see forms of resistance forms of control 5, 41, 69 forms of opposition 70; see also forms of resistance forms of resistance 19, 40, 46, 67, 135, 175 forms of silence 96 Foucault, Michel 7

238

Gans, Herbert 15 gay marriage 130–1, 136; see marriage equality Gay Pride 136 gaze 67, 74, 115; see also oppositional gaze Geographies 109 grid of intelligibility 119 González, Juan 9, 10 Gramsci, Antonio 11 see also hegemony Gray, Herman 19; see also production, circulation, and enactment of

Blackness grid of intelligibility 48 Gulati, Mitu 1, 2

Hall, Stuart 17; meaning and absence 17; represent 7, 11, 24; see also representation

hegemonic 166, 170; see hegemony hegemony 11, 17, 46; see also counter-hegemonic heteronormative 23, 42, 57–8, 130–1, 133–4, 138–9, 142–3, 148, 150; see

heteronormativity; see also heteronormative newsroom culture heteronormative newsroom culture 130–1, 133–4, 138–9, 142, 148, 150;

see newsroom culture heteronormativity 139–40; see also homonormativity hierarchies 13–14, 45, 47, 74, 95, 99, 110–11, 115, 160; see hierarchy; see

also racial hierarchies hierarchize 13; see hierarchized; see also hierarchizing hierarchized 45 hierarchizing 14 hierarchy 12–14, 26, 46–47, 58, 79, 81, 83, 86, 100, 106, 116; see also

newsroom hierarchy hijack 67, 86; see hijacking hijacking 84 hijacking of “Blackness” 177 Holmes, T.J. 19 homonormativity 131, 139, 146, 148, 150 homophobia 7 hooks, bell 67 human 3, 10, 22–7, 41, 47, 50, 54, 56, 81, 85, 104, 109–10, 132, 140, 142,

175–6; see also humanity

239

humanity 23, 42, 48, 55, 72, 75, 85, 108, 110, 142 human otherness 85 human recognition 25, 56, 109 Hunt, Darnell M. 19; see also raced; see also raced ways of seeing Hurston, Zora Neale 3, 20; formalized curiosity 5; transmitted memory 20,

43, 55

identity 29, 47–8, 134, 161, 177; see also assigned identity Ifill, Gwen 167, 169 image 1, 2 Inauguration 169 inclusion 131 inclusiveness 132, 134, 144, 178; see inclusion interventions 10 Islamafication trope 161 Islamaphobia 161, 164

Johnson, Lyndon Baines 8 journalism practice 68 journalism praxis 8, 14, 22, 26 journalism profession 1

Kerner Commission 8, 9; see also Kerner Commission Report Kerner Commission Report 175

Lang, Jerri 10 language 43, 45, 47–8, 50, 75, 97, 100, 109–11, 143, 162, 176, 179 Lee, Rhonda 18 legitimized controversy 162 LGBT 131, 134, 136–8, 143–5, 147–50, 178 LGBTQ 131, 148, 177; see also LGBT Lorde, Audre 8, 23; life sharing and consciousness raising 1 Lowe, Herb 168

mapping 109 market 70, 85; see marketed marketability 108 marketable 47, 58, 74, 111, 122; see also marketability

240

market demographic 68, 112, 118 market demography 68; see demographic; see also market, market

demographic marketed 75, 85, 120 marketing 67, 76, 85, 111, 176; see also marketable market recognition 69 marooned 111 marriage equality 137–8, 178 Martin, Roland 19, 168 masculinity 83–4 master narrative 9, 50, 132, 161, 175; see also racist narratives memory 3, 7, 163; see also counter-memory meritocracy 119 monolith 118 monolithic media 16–17 monolithic 1–3, 6, 9–10, 14, 16–17, 56, 85; see also monolithicizing; see

also monolithic media monolithicizing 4 monolithic media 13, 17 Moynihan Report 8 mule 77, 79, 81, 86; see also workhorse

NAACP 162 NABJ 45, 51, 112, 121, 137, 143–5, 147–50, 167–8, 178 NAHJ 144 NLGJA 143–50, 178 negotiating 2, 4 Nelson, Jill 10 new civil rights movement 162 newsroom culture 1, 3, 10–12, 19, 42–3, 45, 47–8, 50, 55–9, 69–71, 75, 77,

79, 81, 85, 96, 100, 105, 108–9, 111, 115–16, 118, 131–2, 139, 166, 178; see also newsroom hierarchy, corporate culture

newsroom hierarchy 26, 28, 95 Noble, Gil 10 normalize 162 normalized 69 North American flag burning 164

241

Obama, Barack Hussein 3, 10, 13, 16, 162, 164, 169–70, 179 Obama, Michelle 3, 10, 13, 16, 162, 164–6, 169–70, 179 Obamas 2, 15–16, 160–4, 167; see Barack Hussein Obama, Michelle

Obama objective 130–32, 136, 160, 170; see also objectively objective news 16 objectively 131, 163, 167–8 objectivity 1, 2, 4, 7, 13–16, 19, 67, 77, 96, 110, 118, 130–33, 136–8, 150,

160, 163, 166, 170, 176, 178; see rule of objectivity; see also objective news, objective

O’Brien, Soledad 19 oppositional gaze 67 oppression 17

palatability 43, 47, 67, 73, 111, 115, 177; see palatable; see also palatable “Blackness”

palatable 111 palatable Blackness 2, 42, 49, 59, 71, 74–5, 110 phantom 47, 75 place 116, 123, 165 placed 58, 101, 106, 108–10, 115–16 placement 45, 96, 108, 115, 178; see places; see also placing places 79, 100, 108; see also placed placing 14, 43, 77, 105, 108, 110, 118, 177; see place, places, placement;

see also placed police 8, 27, 108, 118, 131; see policed; see also policing policed 9–10, 20, 70, 75, 108–9, 119, 131–32 policing 1, 10, 24–5, 29, 43, 47–9, 110–12, 130, 133, 138–9, 176–7 population parity 108, 116–17, 121–22, 177 Post-racial 4, 8–9, 13, 29, 45, 96; see also Post-Racialism Post-Racial America 163; see Post-Racial society Post-Racialism 2, 12–13, 21, 28–29, 77, 121, 160–1, 170; see also Post-

Racial America Post-Racial society 166, 169 poverty 162–3 power 1–5, 7, 9, 11–20, 24, 26, 28, 42, 45–6, 49, 67, 81, 84–5, 95–6, 100,

105–6, 110–11, 115–16, 131–33, 140, 162, 168, 176–7; see powerful; see also relations of power

242

powerful 1–2, 7, 10, 12–13, 15–17, 23, 29, 132, 140 Presidential Election 161–3, 167 Prince, Richard 179 privilege 96 privileged 74 production, circulation, and enactment of Blackness 4, 56 professional 13, 23, 47, 49–51, 53–4, 56, 72, 177; see professionalism; see

also professionalizing, professionalizing practice, professionalized professionalism 12, 24, 42, 51, 54, 56, 70, 75, 79–81, 104, 110, 116 professionalization 47; see professionalizing professionalized 42 professionalizing 8, 10, 13, 15, 24, 42 professionalizing practice 176 progress 166, 169–70 promo 70 promoted 74, 76, 82, 86, 133; see promotion promotion 109, 111 promotional 70; see promo; see also promoted

queer 14

raced 3, 13, 19, 28 raced ways of seeing 19, 73 racial construction 73 racial discrimination 161–2 racial hierarchies 14–15, 47, 67, 69, 111, 135–6; see racial hierarchy racial hierarchy 76, 78 racial injustice 162 racialization 7, 9, 41, 108 racialization of work 175 racial performance 2 racial profiling 16 racial segregation 68, 178 racial stereotyping 166 racial transcendence 160–1 racist narratives 163 reconfigured racism 162

243

RTNDA 136 regime of truth 7, 23, 26 relations of power 56, 81, 95, 99, 116, 140 represent 170; see re-present re-present 84 represented 121, 166; see also representing representing 43, 47, 110 representation 6–7, 10, 14–15, 21, 26, 47, 50, 67, 74, 69, 102, 110–11, 115,

140, 161, 163, 166, 175, 178; see representations; see also represented representations 4, 7, 9, 12, 15, 24, 29, 52, 73, 86, 162; see re-present,

represented, representing; see also depicted resist 23, 26, 54, 108, 136, 150 resistance 1, 4, 12, 14, 43, 46, 48, 55, 70, 96, 135, 175; see resist, resisting;

see also forms of resistance resisting 105 Robinson, Eugene 179 Rodgers, Johnathan 167 rule of objectivity 131–2 rules of engagement 2, 42

Scott, James 55 scrutiny 16, 25, 39, 40, 45, 48, 77, 83, 85, 166; see also strict scrutiny seeing 1 self-identity 24–5, 109 Sharpton, Al 179 Shaw, Bernard 175 silence 13, 23, 46, 57, 85, 96–7, 104, 130, 143, 146, 150, 162–3; see silent,

silenced; see also forms of silence silenced 131, 178 silencing 112 silent 73, 82, 97, 104, 166 Smedley, Audrey 42 Smiley, Tavis 162 social media 179 speaking without saying or being silent 135 speech pattern 2 stereotype 2, 24, 55, 164; see stereotypes; see also stereotypical

244

stereotypes 4, 14–15, 18, 42, 45, 48–9, 82–5, 136, 142; see also stereotypically

stereotypical 5, 7, 8, 18, 48 stereotypically 135 strategies 1, 2, 6–7, 9, 10–14, 17, 19, 22, 41, 43, 45, 55, 70, 75, 96, 110,

115, 121, 178; see strategy strategic 12, 24, 46, 55, 71; see also strategically strategically 20–1, 29, 68, 82, 86; see also strategizing strategizing 81 strategies of containment 6, 9, 11, 43, 49, 77, 108, 110, 121, 132, 150; see

strategy of containment; see also containment strategy 12, 19, 24, 48, 55, 57, 96, 119, 122, 132 strategy of containing 130 strategy of containment 121 strict scrutiny 49, 100 superior 77–8, 84 symbolic capital 100

tactic 24, 48, 99; see tactics tactics 1–2, 6–7, 10, 12–14, 23, 41, 48, 75, 115, 121, 178; see also tactical,

tactically tactical 11–12, 26 tactically 71 Tea Party 161–3, 165 territorializing 22–3, 27, 109–10 territories 109 territory 109; see also territorializing terror 163; see terrorism; see also terrorists terrorism 164, 175; see extremism terrorists 163–4 thematization 165, 169 the media 2, 3, 4, 7 threat 163, 166, 169–70 thick transcription 5, 6 Torres, Joseph 9–10 transgender 146–8, 151, 178 transsexual 179

245

trick effects 73 Trillin, Calvin 169 triple bind 131, 139

uninhabitability 48 UNITY Journalists 143, 149 UNITY Journalists of Color 143–7, 149 universal 130, 136; see universality universality 131–2, 137

violence 45, 84, 142, 161; see also violent violent 46, 82–4 visual representation 73–4

Wells, Ida B. 175 West, Cornel 162, 165, 179 Whiteness 2, 4, 7, 13, 15–17, 20, 43, 47, 52, 69–70, 75, 108–10, 118,

131–2, 164, 169–70, 175, 177 White supremacist 75 White supremacist ideology 122, 165 White Supremacy 8, 68, 117; see White supremacist, White supremacist

ideology Williams, Brian 167–8 Wise, Tim; White privilege 2, 3, 12; see also privilege womanhood 165 workhorse 79 working identity 1, 2; see also identity Wright, Jeremiah 162

246

Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 7 Table of Contents 8 List of Figures 9 Preface 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction 15 1 Professionalizing and Palatable “Blackness” 62 2 Branding and Marketing “Blackness” 96 3 From Stumbling Block to Stepping Stone 130 4 Owning the “Ghetto” Shows 145 5 Rules of Engagement: The Politics of Race, Gender, and Sexuality 172

6 Barack and Michelle Obama as Signs of Progress and Threat 209

Concluding Remarks 228 Index 236

247

Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Professionalizing and Palatable “Blackness”
2 Branding and Marketing “Blackness”
3 From Stumbling Block to Stepping Stone
4 Owning the “Ghetto” Shows
5 Rules of Engagement: The Politics of Race, Gender, and Sexuality
6 Barack and Michelle Obama as Signs of Progress and Threat
Concluding Remarks
Index