A Glaring Omission

Bravo. Very well said.

I’m very happy you wrote this, but by only mentioning that ‘black listservs are blowing up,’ aren’t you just doing it again? What about Asians, Latinos and Hispanics? It’s not black and white. It’s all of us.

Shallow excuse that means nothing at end of the day..Just another phony liberal seeking to be noble for the negroes and colored folks and to appease the chatter class… I doubt if Rachel or Danny have any Black folks or other people of color in thier inner circle which is why we are always a blind spot for when these issues surface…

What is also revealing is how Rachel then deflect and indicts the industry for lack of diversity . My question is how many people of color and Black folks work for Mediate??? That would really be a making a difference hiring US…

Rachel don’t get down on yourself. Move forward.

Rachel please ignore zennie 62′s advice..Instead of moving forward deal with this issue…Zennie’s advice is classic Black aplogists nonsense..

Thrasher, we have a number of black columnists and my “inner circle” is very diverse as well. I’m not going to namedrop here but this wasn’t just talk. I wasn’t deflecting, I was acknowledging – how could I be so loud on the subject of women on these lists and not acknolwedge my own failing in applying that standard to other groups? I can’t. Deflection means trying to distract from my responsibility here, and I am not doing that.

Good for you for a heartfelt apology. Well-handled.

Uh huh. A “number of black columnists” does not constitute an appropriately diverse/inclusive LEADERSHIP, Rachel.

Let us play a game:

When Abrams sat down and drew up a list of folks he wanted to recruit for this misbegotten site, who were the names on that list?

Second, what is the make up of the current staff of PAID/FT eds and writers and web content managers?

It is not just about the color of the skin, either, obviously. It is about one’s background and orientation. You say that the author of the Dead Media Folks this Decade put together his list using a “media eye,” and that you, as his editor, similarly “missed” the small detail that there were NO BLACKS or even LATINOS on the entire list. This indicates a fundamental problem with the entire editorial team at this web publication — it is apparently managed FULLTIME by individuals who lack an appropriate broad “eye” from the very moment they get up in the morning! Why should it be that you have to actually wrack your brain when conceptualizing these posts, to make sure you don’t Leave Anyone Out? Guess what, Rachel: Blacks and Latinos and Asians in the US have NO CHOICE but know all about White culture and about the cultural signifiers of the Establishment classes.

It is neither an “extra step” or a “special effort” for us to be able to work this duality.

You and Abrams are not alone, and yes, you are to be lauded for taking responsibility for the Fuck Up. But please do not get it twisted: Until Abrams opens up his goddanmed network and actually HIRES one or two of the thousands of QUALIFIED black or Latino or Asian media people who are scratching around for work; hires them in LEADERSHIP or at least “last look” positions (since you admitted having hit SEND on this tragic piece without seeing how WHITE it was)…until you get some FT Color up in there, all of you guys are just stroking hard on Empty Liberal Righteousness.

Rel E Vant,

Thanks!!! ..My thoughts exactly..Rachel ‘s post was very defensive and shallow and just revealed for me how her blind spot with regard to diversity is tragically so present in this industry..Given her willingness to “green light” a segregated body of work I have serious reservations about “inner circle” of Black and diverse people..It is quite apparent her circle of diversity means nothing to her and has zero impact in her orbit given her “green light” of an offensive segregated article..

@Rachel,

I think you need to stop right here right now with your alleged reasons for your backward and underdeveloped posture with regard to this issue…The more ypu post the more your garden variety white liberal racism and contempt for people of color emerges… We could do without the “Empty White Liberal Righteousness’!!!!

I didn’t know whether to applaud your mea culpa about your ALL-WHITE MEDIA LEADERS WHO HAVE GONE ON TO HEAVEN – BUT KNOW THEY WERE SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHER DEATHS list….or just scream. You see, as a journalist from the 1970s through this decade. I have been the first or no more than the second “black journalist,” “black editor,” “black man,” or “special hire” at some of the nation’s finest newspapers. Back then, I fought for inclusion, and was given excuses that sound eerily similar to Rachel’s “I should have known better” moment.

It does no good to continue to belabor the obvious, so let me offer these suggestions:
1. Immediately add Richard Prince’s “journal-isms” column to your home page, right with most of the other columnists. Do you have any non-white columns/blogs on your home page?
2. When you decide that you must walk the walk instead of just talking today’s talk, then enlist the nation’s minority journalist organizations, and ask Prince to put in his column that you are specifically looking for your next new hire to be a journalist of color.

Back in the day, designating job slots to be filled exclusively by a minority is what some major newspaper chains did to be begin to become more diverse and inclusive (Gannett and Knight Ridder come to mind).
And guess what? They found these newcomers to be good journalists. Solid reporters and photographers, good copy and assignment editors, wire editors, design editors and layout artists. Some of them won Pulitzers and Peabodies. Most of them found meaningful careers and society’s the better for it.

Thirdly, and this is more in the line of a suggestive warning, to fail to be proactive is to invite your loss of advertisers and page views. That was why these chains and newspapers sought diversity with some passion in the first place. It was about dollar signs, not about doing the right thing.They recognized that their communities were changing and they had to as well. Unlike broadcasters, there was no government mandate to hire. But hire blacks and other people of color they did.

So take this history lesson with you. Richard Pryor once called “history”…..HIS STORY. That is another reason why, for credibility’s sake, you must include rather than exclude — for the sake of an accurate story.

Trust the ridiculously racist Rachel Sklar to write a post relating her sorrow that more prominent black media leaders haven’t died this decade. Afterall, that is the most likely reason that there aren’t any black people on there( I am not familiar with the writer, but I doubt he assembled the list, realized he had black people on there and promptly replaced them with that chalky white goodness)

Some other omissions I discovered in the piece that you might want to apologize for, Rachel:

No one handed people
No mohawked people
No Olympic medalists
No nobel prize winners in chemistry
ect.

Since it is actually impossible to represent every minority group anyway, may I proffer the suggestion that any piece on 28 influential media players to die this decade should concern itself only with ‘representing’ the 28 people the writer thinks warrant mention. If they all turn out to be white, or male, or lesbians, or communists, whatever, who cares. Whilst I doubt there are any black people turning in their graves over their not being on this list I would think they’d want to be on it on because their contributions merited it, and not because the writer was conscious to put a tick in a diversity checkbox.