The pandemic, economic struggles and demands for social justice have forced newsrooms to account for their own failures at diversity, inclusion and representative coverage.
Here are some takeaways.
On confronting challenging moments
Irby-Jones
: It's been challenging in some ways and rewarding. For instance, we had an elected official basically say that Black people in this country have nothing to complain about because when they were slaves, their owners took care of them, fed them, clothed them and gave them a place to live. So he didn't understand what the complaints were about. And that was a moment when I had to be calm and really guide the reporter — direct that person to reach out to the elected official who said this and really see if he really meant that. And unfortunately, he did mean it. And so you know, having to remain calm and professional when someone makes a remark like that really does challenge you. I'm glad to know that I was able to step back and push the reporter to really try and reach out to him and engage him in a conversation to understand exactly what he meant.
Hardy
: When I first started, before the protest started actually, we had a fatal police shooting in Indy, where a young man had Facebook Live shooting. And right after that, days of protests started. One of the first days of the protest after his death, there were a couple of people at protests that told some of our Indy Star staff that they weren't welcome there. And instantly I thought, ‘oh wow this speaks volumes.’ And it was one case, but it spoke volumes to how we were viewed and maybe what we weren't doing. So it was a wonderful opportunity to kind of reset and have those conversations. We have not figured it out yet. I wish we had, but we're having really good conversations about what we do, how we approach it.
On the importance of self-reflection
Irby-Jones
: The Black Lives Matter movement created an opportunity for me to examine, and for our newsroom to examine, how we're actually focused on covering Mississippi. I came back to Jackson, Mississippi, last year after being away for a while, and one of the things that became very clear to me quickly is that we have a huge disconnect from our community. ... We're not connected to the daily lives and what people are doing, and Black Lives Matter has given me the perfect opportunity to talk to this staff and also to ask myself the question of how do we reflect our community? Are we really covering the people in the community and giving people an insight into the quality of lives in our community?
Hardy
: Indy has a really active Diversity Committee. And they run a lot of things by each other, the stories that they’re working on. We've got a story in the works about things being named across the state after soldiers and people who basically owned slaves, and that's the same story across the country. But they pitched each other those stories and said, “Hey, how can I make this be more nuanced than just the list? Who should I talk to? Or what are the landmines that I need to face?” ...
We had an intern last week raise a question about a story she was covering, a protest, and she didn't get a chance to talk to the person, and she goes, “Well, I don't know if that's a he or she because I didn't ask, and shouldn't we be asking those questions?” And so I think by putting yourself out there, being authentic, saying what you struggle with allows others to open up and do so. And I don't think we would have had that conversation, probably if the intern hadn't raised it. It was a very good question to explore and this new age, you know, of things that we cover as journalists.
