Unlearning in 2020

I am republishing this to remind us of growth since then, and the journey that remains. This was originally published in 2021 in a local Chicago zine. Intentionally large print for accessibility.

Police are attacking journalists of color covering the protests in large numbers. We still don’t have much representation Of disabled journalists in newsrooms. How did we get here?

White supremacy feeds capitalism. Capitalism feeds the bleeds it leads, mantra of corporate journalism. Capitalism encourages neurotypicality within me.

And the denial of the need for treatment for my disability. It encourages cut-throat shame.

Let me gently and briefly acknowledge my own hand in undermining my career before I continue. Having said that, Not all of this is on me. It is also on the system of inequity that exists in journalism.

Sometimes the journalists with integrity win against business executives funding their paychecks. Sometimes they don’t win. Some journalists buy into the innocent oppressed person narrative. Some editors believe it’s not worth covering certain communities because they don’t align with the “If it bleeds, it leads” narrative.

Some journalists are extractive. Some journalists don’t honor the youth or elders. Some editors don’t assign certain beats Because they push for a universal truth narrative. But there are multiple universal truths on a spectrum. These reporters deny people of color’s existence and trick the public into believing That if these voices are not covered, that must mean they don’t matter in society.

Unlearning extractive journalism is hard, When this mindset of extraction permeates every aspect of society. I thought I was doing it right. I just now began to scratch the surface of what it means to be an ethical reporter.

As an Asian-Latine-American college student, I chose sociology of globalization in Asia As a field of study. I chose Asian-American Mental health as a beat in my feature writing classes, supplemented by my sociology of pop culture and mental health studies. I genuinely believed with this knowledge, Chicago newsrooms would be clamoring to cover hard-hitting issues I was interested in. I thought my people mattered enough to be covered on a wide spectrum. I thought my lived experience was supposed to make me an expert of my people.

I thought journalists were supposed to be open-minded about disability justice, since they get paid to listen to pain. I learned quickly that was not always the case. Often, my emails were met with silence.

Journalists of color are leaving the industry in large numbers because their ideas, knowledge, or lived experiences are not heard or misrepresented. I have only met two journalists with disabilities.

Now what we have left are those who uphold the white supremacist model of journalism that extracts and leaves. Now we have journalists covering people of color’s pain from a white man’s perspective, rather than from a person of color’s.

What happens when white journalists ignore Journalists of color in 2016? They get the story wrong. They miss the real narrative: that Americans are still racist. What happens when white journalists treat Trump like comedy? They end up indirectly convincing Americans that Trump is not such a bad guy, an honest guy.

What’s happening to those journalists with integrity and courage who are still out there covering The pandemic and political unrest? What happens then to those strong enough who are still there fighting racism in their newsrooms? Time will tell. The question is, what are you going to do to disrupt the status quo?