Member-only story
“Objectivity” in Journalism Perpetuates Racism
A former reporter on why she left the industry
Before I quit journalism in 2016, I got to tell a lot of stories over my 17-year career. There’s one I’ve kept mostly to myself — until now.
After graduating from Hampton University with my journalism degree, I spent most of my career in Pittsburgh, where I got a job as a copy editor, news editor for a few of our weekly community newspapers, then as a columnist, which was my dream. But once I got this job, I had to beg for someone to considerably edit my work and provide any kind of personal feedback. I was replacing another lone Black columnist, and no one advised me until about two years into the position. When I began to write about race, someone called me one day and told me the reason I had my job was because I was Black. I hung up and told my co-workers what the caller said and one of them said, “It’s true, isn’t it?”
After I wrote about the case of Jordan Miles, his lawyer called me about one of his other clients. Her name was Lena Davenport, and she was the mother of a Black man who was currently in jail. Donald Burris Jr. had been driving with his mother one night when he ran a red light and when the police tried to pull him over, he kept going. The local police gave chase for about five miles, and finally, Burris crashed his car into a taxi — whose dashcam was running — on Pittsburgh’s South Side. That camera caught one officer shooting into the car, then standing on the hood, gun drawn. One of the police also shot at a car that had nothing to do with anything. Burris’ lawyer showed me a video taken from the dashcam of the man driving the taxi that Burris hit. He was pinned in, helpless, while this gunfire went on in front of him. He could be heard praying for his life. In the end, 10 shots were fired during the chase — all by police because Burris didn’t have a gun. Burris and Davenport were both hit — Davenport was shot in the eye.
I ran back to the newsroom and told the city desk about the video. The city editor tried to give the story to their White female cops reporter, but the lawyer said he would only show the video and give access to the taxi driver and the mother of the suspect to me.
It’s hard to put into words what it was like…
