Where is the diversity among sports editors?

A friend of mine was at a paper (a decent sized one) where they hired someone on newsside with a Hispanic last name.

When they introduced him to the newsroom the Executive Editor (who had never met the writer in question) said, "It gives me great pleasure to bring in a Spanish-speaking writer who can communicate with the Hispanics in this area."

The writer pulled his editor aside and told him, "I don't speak a word of Spanish. I even took French in high school."

They ended up having to send the guy to a Berlitz class to learn it.

 

Knew of a SE who had the most Anglo-sounding name around (like Tom Johnson). Lived and worked going by that name. But when it came time to sending out resumes, his name went back to the very Hispanic first name that came from his mother's side of the family.

And that crap worked wonders with the white-bread newsroom managers who did the hirings. They all felt grand about themselves afterward.

 

Not sure what that means. Names are shortened in many cultures.
What's on my birth certificate (and discernible heritage) is very different than the name I go by every day. This isn't new. My great Aunt Ed will attest to the fact.

 

I liked both of these posts. On the one hand, why do we seem to remember the minority ones; on the other hand, what does it say that we can recall the minority ones? Either way I think the message is that it's a fairly small number of people at any given time.

I've worked under several minority SEs or higher-ranking folks and don't personally consider my bosses or my peers to have been bereft of diversity, but I understand the statistics.

 

DCdream thank you for the list. So many times athletes have questioned me about the lack of minorities covering their teams. This industry has always done a good job of pointing at other industries for their lack of minority recruitment, hiring and retention. Yet it gets a failing grade itself.

 

Impressive list. Having never met either, I'm assuming Emilio Garcia-Ruiz and Ramos, the former SE at the AJC should have been on it as well.

 

In fairness, newspapers have actually led the way in using recycled product

 

Religion is definitely a diversity factor. Just not one that the honchos anywhere care about.

African-American, Hispanic and women is about it.

You could hire a vegan quadriplegic Buddhist from India and not get to check off any boxes.

 

Bingo.

It says a lot about newspapers that they have long sought diversity, only to fail miserably to achieve it, while at the same time devaluing other important elements like talent, knowledge and work ethic. As a result, newsrooms are filled, top to bottom, with people content to show up, bitch about how tough they have it and collect a paycheck every two weeks.

 

Well, when the APSE and ASNE demographics documents are sent to newspapers to fill out, they don't leave boxes for that potential category. I wonder if that is done for any other industry.