Word count: 1004 | Reading time: 5 min read
Pretzel Logic
Why this white boy will attend the National Association of Black Journalists meeting.
Talk about timing.
Mumia and his masses.
Mark Fuhrman and his mouth.
If I were a black journalist, I would definitely want to be in Philadelphia this week, where the 20th annual National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention is being held. Given all the racial tumult in this country, there will be no shortage of things to talk about. Given that this is the home of the murder trial of Abu-Jamal, the NABJ president at the time when a jury said he blew away police officer Danny Faulkner, there is no other place to be.
I’m not black and there have been those who doubt my credentials as a journalist.
But I’ll be there too.
I’ll be there manning a booth on behalf of the Association of Alternative Newspapers (AAN), a group of some 100-odd papers like mine.
Like every other newspaper organization in this country, AAN is sending representatives to reach out to NABJ members under the auspices of diversity. In addition to seminars on “Republicans and Conservatives: Contract on Black America?” and the Black Cultural Festival held at the Grand Hall of the Convention Center, the NABJ meeting is, like many other association gatherings, a job networking opportunity for attendees. Newspapers, still largely the domain of white males, are bending over backwards to change their demographics.
I’ll be there to show that AAN has in interest in hiring blacks.
To be honest, I have mixed emotions about the whole thing.
On one hand, I look around my newsroom and see no blacks, no Asians, no Latinos.
Why?
A good question and one that I can only answer partially because I am the newest of the three editors here.
Why did Bruce Schimmel hire David Warner, a white male, as managing editor; Margit Detweiler, a white female, as music and style editor; and myself, a white male, as news editor over candidates of color?
Presumably because we are the best people for the jobs, race notwithstanding.
But that was then. Since that time, I have hired two people, both, as it happens, white males.
My first hire didn’t work out so well. But I still think he was the most qualified candidate.
Why was Scott Farmelant, a white male, my second hire for the position of my lone staff writer?
Because he was, by far, the best candidate. And someone who impressed me even before he became a job candidate, when another local weekly newspaper screwed him over by promising him a job then, after he signed a lease, telling him the job no longer existed.
Would it have been nice if Scott were black? Or Latino? Or Asian?
From a diversity standpoint, most definitely.
But, quite frankly, the only thing that really matters to me, on my small staff, is that I have a reporter who can kick some butt and shake up the town.
I have one, thank you very much. And I think his recent piece on racial tensions in Grays Ferry proves that a damn good reporter can cover racial issues sensitively, regardless of race.
He can’t help it if he’s white and neither can I.
That’s not to say I didn’t try to reach out to minority candidates. About a year ago, in this same space, I asked for blacks and Latinos and Asians to come forward with resumes. There are voices other than those belonging to white males that need to be heard.
No one, regardless of ethnicity, came close to Farmelant. And that’s why I hired him.
The other day, I was shooting pool with a guy whose news judgment and his ability to gather information is about as good as anyone I’ve met.
When I asked this guy, who happens to be Japanese-American, about doing stories for me, he laughed at what I was able to pay him, a rate that does not change because a person is this ethnicity or that.
The man’s laughter is a great illustration of the dilemma facing AAN papers over the issue of diversity.
The Inquirer, for example, has a policy that clearly favors black, Asian and Latino newsroom job candidates. It is a policy that publisher Robert Hall recently announced would not change.
In many ways, as those of you attending the NABJ convention know, this is a good thing. Because for too many years, minorities were out of the loop when it came to covering the news.
But, from my own, selfish viewpoint, the quota hiring systems employed by the Inquirer and most other major newspapers are detrimental.
I know that in my own career, I have been told on more than one occasion that job-hunting would be so much easier for me were I a minority other than Jewish.
Beyond that, there is a real question of how AAN papers can compete for the best candidates, regardless of race, when the prestige and economic benefits of the major dailies, or television, for that matter, draws so many good people away from us.
Ask yourself this question, NABJ attendees.
How many of you really want to work at an alternative newsweekly for a salary that might peak in the mid- to upper-20s when, just down the floor at the convention center, the New York Times has a booth beckoning you?
Were it my choice when I was looking, I wouldn’t have stood around too long, scratching my head and trying to decide between the two. I’d have made a bee line over to the Times booth.
But, if you are still interested in us, and there are many reasons you should be (greater freedom to write with style and flair, no sewer committee meetings, greater control over your stories, no sewer committee meetings, a much better opportunity to pick and choose what you want to write about and no sewer committee meetings…), look me up.
I’ll be at the AAN booth on Friday.
