RALEIGH – Got a little beef, and the Daily Journal is just the place to disclose it briefly. For a long time, I have been reading newspapers marketing specific to minority readers. I find them indispensable in understanding real diversity, real differences in how people perceive and talk about politics and public policy issues in North Carolina.
I’ll keep reading them – the “them,” being The Carolinian in Raleigh, The Triangle Tribune, The Charlotte Post, and The Peacemaker in Greensboro, among others – but particularly on the editorial pages I notice something that would never fly in newspapers with broader audiences. To put it simply, many columnists put a racial spin on the topics they discuss, a spin that sometimes merges into out-and-out racial exclusivity.
For example, I read a piece in the July 28 Triangle Tribune by columnist Val Atkinson about congressional and legislative races in North Carolina. It zeroed in on the U.S. Senate race and other elections where black candidates are likely to play a key role. Fair enough, given the intended audience.
But Atkinson failed to even mention the names of white candidates running against the black candidates he named, as if they were not relevant to the discussion – and as if black readers did not need to evaluate their individual merits relative to their black opponents. This actually took a lot of effort. Atkinson managed not to mention the names of Erskine Bowles, Elaine Marshall, and Elizabeth Dole in discussing Dan Blue’s chances in the U.S. Senate race, and listed three of four Democratic candidates for the 1st Congressional District, leaving out only the white Democrat, Sam Davis of Elizabeth City.
In other words, Atkinson, whom I have never met but whose writing I enjoy, made the assumption that his mostly black readers didn’t care about the white candidates in these races, only the black ones. Would it be racism if that were true? Is it evidence of racism that Atkinson chose not to mention the white candidates?
Just asking.