First-off, housekeeping. Ashley had to change the URL on her blog, so that's why there's been no new posts there for a while. I changed the link on this site to her new URL, which is ashleymckeeinprague.blogspot.com Hope you all check it out, she's got a lot of interesting observations up there.
As I've been talking to people about the Roma, I've noticed people are more willing to say things here that at home would instantly be labeled as "racist." More and more discussions I've been having recently have led me to question not only what I'm doing here as a journalist, but what role journalists should play in a democratic society dealing with racial tensions.
In the States, we've come a long way from Manifest Destiny, from Jim Crow, and even from the L.A. riots following the Rodney King verdict. But still, America's immense wealth remains disproportionately in the hands of white Americans, while blacks are disproportionately left to the floodwaters in the Lower Ninth Ward.
Why? Why 40 years after the Civil Rights Movement does the United States still operate under a system of de facto segregation in many neighborhoods? Why do Native Americans have unemployment rates that would cause a revolt if they affected mainstream society? And, perhaps most importantly, why isn't mainstream society appalled?
Following those questions, what do you do about it? And, as an objective journalist covering issues with a wide range of views and opinions and prejudices and injustices, how should my writing contribute to the debate and the solution? Should I just tell people that there are a lot of problems? I think everyone knows that. Should I try to explain the basis of those problems, the events and institutions and attitudes that shaped race relations today? Certainly, because understanding how we got here is essential to figuring out where we're going.
But I think that's where a lot of journalism stops. We find problems, we find underlying factors behind those problems, but we rarely go one step further and try to find solutions. We may interview people who have their own solutions, but we don't come out and say "¨This is what needs to happen."
Of course, to do so would entirely compromise our objectivity, which is precisely why most journalists go to that extra step, instead leaving it to editorial writers and columnists who are sometimes more concerned with making a name for themselves than proposing real solutions. Or we leave it to academics who have written extensively on social issues, who have made a life out of studying the. But I think sometimes academics come off as people in an ivory tower who are out of touch with realities on the ground. So why not journalists proposing solutions, journalists who day in and day out talk to the people who are dïrectly affected by the tense relationships in modern society?
I doubt I know the answers to any of these questions. It's just a laundry list of things running through my head as we get more involved with this project. Hope it hasn't been boring to all of you.
Na zdraví (cheers).
S
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3 comments:
Well, Sean, you need to decide whether you want to be a philosopher, an activist politically, an activist in the business world, a historian, an objective daily news journalist, or an opinion writer. You can't do it all. You're right -- if you try to be a journalist but also interpret who is right or wrong, and what should be done about it, then you have given up objectivity. We can only do the best we can where we are -- and currently you are a journalist dedicated simply to gathering information and presenting it concisely and coherently. Do it well, and be proud of that. You're right to keep your eyes open because, as much as you love journalism now, you may choose to do something different later. There are a lot of exciting ways that you can contribute to society. Be happy to be contributing as a journalist now!
Hello Sean,
So sorry to read that you are miserable and want to come home to the good 'ol U.S.A. A.S.A.P..
I wish your trip had turned into an experience that was fun, enlightening, that it had been filled with adventure and new, lifelong, worth-remembering experiences. Oh well, (to quote K.Vonnegut "so it goes")
I guess you'll have to muddle through consolled perhaps my cool to lukewarm beverages. Geez!! How do people live in that country???
-Uncle Jim
Wow, you were just a ray of sunshine in this one. I’m reading your posts backward, because I haven’t been reading them….don’t fire me.
So, big hug from me, I hear you, I really do.
If there weren’t problems you wouldn’t be there. I’m gonna go ahead and sort of disagree with The Pat. Philosophy is all about asking the questions that no one thinks about or wants to talk about- then the journalist looks up the facts and does the research to try and squish it into 20 inches. As journalists we need to search out what we think is wrong with are very subjective WTF radars, then jump in our journalistic brainpan, take a few steps back and put the assumptions aside. We do our best to tell it like it is, if IT happens to be that the Roma are being persecuted by the majority then you write it and put it out there with the ideal that not everyone reflects the worst of what you’ve come across. If that isn’t enough then you report for us, I didn’t know about anything in that country until this project was created and I started reading everyone’s blogs, everything has to start somewhere.
As for our countries problems, I peg it all up to corporate injustice, bad policy decisions and ignorance. It can’t get better if no one knows about it, which is where we come in. Hell I would talk about my Mississippi trips and get replies of… “You mean they haven’t fixed it yet?...Didn’t they get a ton of money for relief?...It’s there fault for living down there in Hurricane Alley so screw ‘em.” But instead of slapping those sorry individuals silly I did my best to correct and inform. It might have fallen on deaf, dumb ass ears but I did what I could…which is what our job entails, doing what we can.
Now take the pebble from my hand gadfly…and no more eating at scary clown restaurants!!
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