My Sixth Sense

“She detailed her long days, her exhausting schedule and the psychic pull to be more available to her two teenage sons, one of whom was rebelliously toying with juvenile delinquency.”

— Washington Post reporter Ellen McCarthy about Anne-Marie Slaughter (Aug. 29, 2016)

Tucked in that sentence about the prominent feminist and work-life balance sage Anne-Marie Slaughter is a media bias. Do you see it? I do. Like the boy in the movie The Sixth Sense, I see dead people, except the people are subliminal biases that manifest like ghosts in story after story.

As a black mother of a teenaged son, I noticed instantly the privileged description afforded Slaughter’s male child. He was “toying with juvenile delinquency.” Hmm. Toying with means playing with or acting idly, according to dictionary.com. Such euphemistic commentary rarely shows up in stories about troubled black boys. Mug shots and menacing narratives more often than not tell their story instead of thoughtful expositions that explore the trauma behind their actions.

Media disparities exist. Exhibit A: Ryan Lochte. Numerous news reports characterized Lochte, 32, as a “frat boy” or a “party boy” simply wiling out in Rio de Janeiro. Never mind the fact that Lochte, an adult, vandalized a public bathroom and then covered up his feral behavior with the racist lie that armed Brazilian men robbed him at gunpoint.

According to the Society of Professional Journalists, reporters have a responsibility to:

• Boldly tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience;
 • Seek sources whose voices we seldom hear; 
 • Avoid stereotyping; and
 • Examine the ways their values and experiences may shape their reporting.

I urge newsrooms to embrace that creed fully by recognizing their blind spots and then working to expand the diversity of perspectives informing the reporting of news.

As human beings, we all have biases that we should interrogate and correct in order to improve our empathy for the human condition.

One day soon, I would like to read a news story about an African-American mom and son that has a tidy ending like the Slaughter story: “Her older son, who outgrew his teenage rebellion, is now a theater major in college.”

Peace always,

Donna