COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 05/06/2020
Jon Allsop
ON WEDNESDAY, nine days after police killed George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, anti-racist protests continued in cities and towns around the word, and Glamour magazine heard from eight women journalists of color—including CNN’s Abby Phillip; Errin Haines, of The 19th; and Marissa Evans, of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The journalists spoke about “reporting while Black.” They described the physical threats and emotional trauma involved in covering moments like this, the need for self-care, and the long-term media-industry biases that hinder their work, including racist notions of “objectivity” and colleagues ignoring Black reporters’ concerns and expertise. “There’s only so much harm to Black people that I can see in the field, through a lens, or on a screen before I begin to feel that I’m unraveling,” Antonia Hylton, of NBC News, said. “I wake up anxious—not just about what might happen in the news, but also about the private worries that I might have to find a way to compartmentalize or suppress in order to do my job.”