Spring Break
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: To reflect campus diversity properly, we need your help
by Rachel Marder
Senior Editor
Columnists | 5/22/07
Posted online at 2:49 AM EST on 5/22/07
Even though I began writing for the Justice a couple of years after the "Dusty Baker" incident, it was a tale I've heard since day one, and still discuss regularly. Nearly three years ago, students protested outside the Justice office because a reference to a racial slur was printed in a sports column. This instance of exceptionally poor judgment continues to hang over our organization.
But we're not the only ones recovering from the bad choices of our peers and predecessors. Most recently, Gravity Magazine printed a fake advertisement featuring "BlackJerry," a black man offering to drive a white traveler to the airport in his, probably stolen, Camry, "all for only 3/5 the cost of a BlackBerry."
I don't believe the Justice was racist for publishing that sports column, and I don't believe Gravity is a racist organization either. But without a wider range of staff opinions, it's not hard to see why this keeps happening in publications. The composition of our staffs doesn't represent the full range of what this vibrant community has to offer.
The absence of diversity on most publications is pretty astounding. Ben Douglas, the former editor in chief of Gravity, admitted that the fact that Gravity's staff is a fairly homogenous group with similar senses of humor contributed to their mistake in publishing the ad.
Brandeis is a politically and racially dynamic community, yet the Justice and other clubs don't reflect this reality. We can only report effectively on this community if we as journalists represent and are in touch with the broadest range of people.
The more varied the voices and ideas that are contributed to a publication, the more insightful and deep its content will be.
The more eyes that see a page prepublication, the more questions will be raised and the more assured we will be that our publications won't publish insensitive material. In this way, we can serve as greater checks on our products.
We all wish we knew how to banish these careless, ignorant errors from our pages forever, but we don't and we never will. The Justice instituted more vigilant editing and writer-training processes following the Dusty Baker incident, but students are always vulnerable to occasional slipups.
But we're not the only ones recovering from the bad choices of our peers and predecessors. Most recently, Gravity Magazine printed a fake advertisement featuring "BlackJerry," a black man offering to drive a white traveler to the airport in his, probably stolen, Camry, "all for only 3/5 the cost of a BlackBerry."
I don't believe the Justice was racist for publishing that sports column, and I don't believe Gravity is a racist organization either. But without a wider range of staff opinions, it's not hard to see why this keeps happening in publications. The composition of our staffs doesn't represent the full range of what this vibrant community has to offer.
The absence of diversity on most publications is pretty astounding. Ben Douglas, the former editor in chief of Gravity, admitted that the fact that Gravity's staff is a fairly homogenous group with similar senses of humor contributed to their mistake in publishing the ad.
Brandeis is a politically and racially dynamic community, yet the Justice and other clubs don't reflect this reality. We can only report effectively on this community if we as journalists represent and are in touch with the broadest range of people.
The more varied the voices and ideas that are contributed to a publication, the more insightful and deep its content will be.
The more eyes that see a page prepublication, the more questions will be raised and the more assured we will be that our publications won't publish insensitive material. In this way, we can serve as greater checks on our products.
We all wish we knew how to banish these careless, ignorant errors from our pages forever, but we don't and we never will. The Justice instituted more vigilant editing and writer-training processes following the Dusty Baker incident, but students are always vulnerable to occasional slipups.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Class of '07
posted 5/22/07 @ 10:00 AM EST
Writing a column encouraging diverse people to start writing for the Justice is a nice start, but clearly if Rachel and the editorial board were serious about welcoming all people they would look carefully at their own organization. (Continued…)
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