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You -- and you know who you are -- need not apply

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Joe Williams, Apr 21, 2008.

  1. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    I think the most important question to ask in this situation is whether actively pursuing minority journalists makes the newspaper better. I think it does, in almost all situations. However, I don't think that simply going out and finding the first available person who fits whatever category you're looking for, then sitting back and patting yourself on the back about how diverse you are is a particularly good solution. I don't think serving any particular community is as simple as, pardon the expression, black and white. No one would argue that the populations of, say, Atlanta and San Francisco are exactly the same, as a whole. So why would anyone argue that their black populations are? And I'm not saying anyone here has or hasn't done that. But I think that's the danger of this sort of paint-by-numbers, meet a quota sort of hiring.

    If you want someone who understands the Atlanta black community, it's likely that the best candidate is a black individual who's lived in Atlanta. But is the second-best candidate a black individual from San Francisco? Or is it a white individual from Atlanta?
     
  2. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Sorry, Cadet, but you're doing a mash-up, turning a two-step process into one allegedly revealing move.

    Fact is, I prompted jgmacg's post simply because I didn't type out "his or her heritage." If you think that is a defining moment, well, you probably are in the group that puffs up with pride whenever you see "spokesperson" in print rather than "spokesman." Big deal. I only reflected on my own history of doctors afterward.

    Regarding that anecdotal history, I can say that all I care about in a treatment room or a surgical arena is competency. Best. Player. Available.
     
  3. Objection.
    Non responsive.
     
  4. Italian_Stallion

    Italian_Stallion Active Member

    Yes, it sucks to be a white man in this society. The man has been holding us down for too long. I wish I could morph into a 55-year-old black woman. They have it so easy.
     
  5. Chi City 81

    Chi City 81 Guest

    Sustained. Move on, Mr. McCoy.
     
  6. terrier

    terrier Well-Known Member

    Or look at NESN. They're bound and determined to hire a woman as the Red Sox on-field reporter. Supposedly, they're hiring this Heidi Watney damsel who just got canned in Fresno (for the cheesecake pix she used to have on her MySpace, I'm assuming).
    I hope this is only because Katherine Tappen said no.
     
  7. And what constitutes best person available? Writing skills? Personal skills? Experience?

    If you're looking for someone to cover your urban beat, perhaps the shy white kid with from Connecticut with great writing skills isn't your best choice.
     
  8. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    And yet, the thing is, he very well might be, for reasons besides his outward nature or the color of his skin.

    Perhaps he is more perceptive, more driven, a better listener, a great reporter, more professional, more adaptable, better on deadline, more articulate, more diplomatic or otherwise effective, etc. Or, maybe he is surprisingly tough, willing to ask difficult questions, is a better thinker and asks more intelligent, insightful questions, or is more talented as a writer.

    This is the rub, what makes this issue so difficult, and really, subjective. The process just doesn't lend itself to picking by numbers, or colors. They're judgment calls.
     
  9. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    You should use the blue font.
     
  10. And let's say it's split down the middle.

    Big deal.

    I think there's more productive things to do than worry about which jobs you're not going to get and why, and worry more about which jobs you can get and how you can get them.

    It's not like the white male has a glass ceiling over his head. There will be more jobs of equal or great value out there. The key is personal responsibility. Keep working and you'll get one. Worrying about one that's unattainable to you solves nothing.
     
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Glass ceiling? Hell these days I'd settle for a glass floor.
     
  12. Mystery_Meat

    Mystery_Meat Guest

    I've told this story a bunch times, so kindly indluge me.

    In my days as a part-timer, I'd put in for jobs at a competing paper every so often, and never get interviewed, even though they knew me and I knew their area pretty well.

    One of the last times I put in for a position, their HR person told me I needed a degree to have a chance, which was a fair enough statement -- I had dropped out of college a few years back to focus on the job, stupidly thinking I was good enough that my body of work was enough to convince hiring people I was hot shit. But that experience helped me finally get back to college, which may not have happened otherwise, so if nothing else I have to thank them for that.

    She also added that if I did have a degree, I'd probably be full-time where I was.

    Fast forward to two months before my graduation, and lo and behold, they have a job in sports open. Well if this just isn't providence opening up for me, right? I put in and talk to the HR person, telling her I was on the verge of graduating and I was interested in the position. She gushed on about how proud she was of me for finally finishing up school, and after a couple of minutes of that, she comes in with

    We're really looking for a woman

    I wanted to say "ditto" but I didn't. She said techincally they'd consider my resume, but by that point I knew it was a lost cause. They found their woman (seven years later, and I'm no closer).

    I could be tempted to say that I've been the victim of sexual or racial discrimination being a white guy in today's hiring climate, but I could probably say I was a beneficiary of that kind of discrimination as a kid or in places I wouldn't know. Ultimately, if I was half as good as I thought I was, somewhere I would have made it. As such, being a white guy wasn't the reason the good papers didn't hire me -- I just wasn't any good, and it took a long time to come to grips with that.

    But I'd have to take issue with this idea that hiring minorities is essential for providing different perspectives -- unless you think black people have x type of experiences, white people have y type, and so forth. Plus, isn't it a little insulting to assume that minorities will only read or listen to their own kind? God knows they've been discriminated against before, but as more graduate college, it's a discrepancy that'll take care of itself by sheer force of number.
     
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