Is it true black people have an extra muscle in their calves?
Is it true you can tell the nationality of an Asian by the slant of their eyes?
What’s the typical night like in an African American home?
The questions sound conjured from a less-enlightened era, an era of ignorance and prejudice when Jim Crow was the law of the land and Separate but Equal was the country’s official creed. Sadly these are the curiosities of today’s enlightened society, having been posted on a race-related Web site. They are questions and sentiments that Leonard Pitts deals with on a daily basis.
Pitts, a Miami Herald Columnist who won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for social commentary, delivered the University of Oregon’s annual Ruhl Lecture, speaking eloquently and effectively about America’s “great conundrum” – race. Racism and ignorance thrive even today, Pitts said. “You cannot know unless you’ve experienced it (racism) how frustrating it is,” he said.
Pitts, who regularly writes about race in his syndicated column, related today’s situation with the slavery-era drums of centuries past. “The drum was the thing that connected us to one another … the way we told the stories that reminded us of who we were …” he said. “In the United States, in 2007, the sound of those drums is brought to us by the media. That’s where our stories are told.”
As evidenced by the above questions, it appears the media is drumming quite softly. Pitts challenged the crowd, which included a large contingent of journalism school faculty and students, to take up the mantle of leadership on the issue.
“As journalists, we are privileged to be the gatekeepers,” Pitts said. “We determine who’s drums will be heard.”
As an institution, journalism must listen for and describe the drumbeat of the races if we hope to erase the intolerance and ignorance that pervades our society.
Is it true you can tell the nationality of an Asian by the slant of their eyes?
What’s the typical night like in an African American home?
The questions sound conjured from a less-enlightened era, an era of ignorance and prejudice when Jim Crow was the law of the land and Separate but Equal was the country’s official creed. Sadly these are the curiosities of today’s enlightened society, having been posted on a race-related Web site. They are questions and sentiments that Leonard Pitts deals with on a daily basis.
Pitts, a Miami Herald Columnist who won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for social commentary, delivered the University of Oregon’s annual Ruhl Lecture, speaking eloquently and effectively about America’s “great conundrum” – race. Racism and ignorance thrive even today, Pitts said. “You cannot know unless you’ve experienced it (racism) how frustrating it is,” he said.
Pitts, who regularly writes about race in his syndicated column, related today’s situation with the slavery-era drums of centuries past. “The drum was the thing that connected us to one another … the way we told the stories that reminded us of who we were …” he said. “In the United States, in 2007, the sound of those drums is brought to us by the media. That’s where our stories are told.”
As evidenced by the above questions, it appears the media is drumming quite softly. Pitts challenged the crowd, which included a large contingent of journalism school faculty and students, to take up the mantle of leadership on the issue.
“As journalists, we are privileged to be the gatekeepers,” Pitts said. “We determine who’s drums will be heard.”
As an institution, journalism must listen for and describe the drumbeat of the races if we hope to erase the intolerance and ignorance that pervades our society.
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