Why Diversify?
Jim Pumarlo, Red Wing Republican Eagle

Goodhue County has about 1.5 percent minority population. The Republican Eagle news staff is all white. Contrast that with Hennepin County, which has about 12 percent minority population and where nearly 11 percent of the Star Tribune newsroom staff are people of color. But are issues of diversity best reported by people of color?

That question is appropriate in Minnesota, where the rural landscape is changing. People of color are moving out of the Twin Cities and it has become especially challenging for small newspapers that lack the resources of metro newsrooms. Coverage of minorities is a frequent topic at Republican Eagle news meetings. We've considered assigning one reporter to a "diversity" beat, but that is unrealistic. A small staff requires everyone to be a general assignment reporter.

Lack of diversity on our staff, however, has not prevented us from developing relationships with our primary minority population: Native Americans of the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota community. Relationships don't develop overnight, and we still have differences over treatment of issues and editorial positions, but in meetings between the newspaper and tribal representatives each side has gained a better appreciation of the challenges in reporting tribal issues.

We've made it clear that the tribe has access to our pages. We've made a sincere effort to seek the tribe's opinions and create balance in stories involving them. Explaining the local impact of a national or statewide story from their perspective is one of the most effective ways to establish communication and get their ideas across to readers. In addition, the Tribal Council writes a monthly column for our editorial page.

Individuals at our newspaper participate in community efforts to break the barriers of prejudice. I've taken a class in Dakota culture through Community Ed.

Newspapers and communities as a whole will fail to make significant progress in understanding issues of diversity until everyone makes it a point to challenge racial stereotypes. That does not require reporters of diverse racial backgrounds, but it does require reporters with a conscience.

Recruiting minorities in all-white rural areas possible, but it takes effort
Jim Tate, Marshall Independent

Marshall, though a "big town in the middle of nowhere," is seeing an increase in population of racial minorities. Many work at the local turkey plant, many more are students at Southwest State.

We have one full-time minority reporter on staff: that puts us at 8 percent diversity at our newspaper. Our reporter is of Okinawan descent and comes to us from Hawaii. I found her through the National Diversity Job Bank on the Internet. We were having an especially hard time filling this position - it's hard to convince someone to move to cold, windy southwestern Minnesota. I'm finding that newspapers have to do more digging and go to greater lengths to find employees.

Our reporter had some writing experience and had set her sights on a journalism job. However, there are only so many jobs on the Big Island.

She has worked out beautifully. She doesn't take things for granted and sees our world with a freshness and an eye for details many of us miss. Her first experience with snow produced a wonderful column. She had never seen a pow-wow. Although many of us had, we had never done a story on one. She did, and what resulted was a full-page photo feature we run on Saturdays called "Portfolio."

Since the time I started covering race in November of 1995, I have come to realize that diversity means different things to different people. The way I look at it, diversity is bringing different people, ideas, perceptions, concerns, issues all to the table. It's making room at the table for everybody. It's not inviting people to the table who look different or sound different from you and then expecting them all to be the same ... saying, we want diversity but when you ... have a different opinion or a different way of approaching things, then it's "Well, that's nice, but we really want you to do it the way we do it."

(Some people in the newsroom think) I'm supposed to be "the voice" of the black community at the newspaper, and I really try to convince them that we are not a monolithic community, as no community or people is. I may be liberal, somebody else may be conservative, there are different religions within the black population, different ideas, concerns, everything. So, I speak only for myself.

I found, as long as newspapers have the minority affairs reporter or the diversity reporter, then that is the person that most often goes out and visits these communities and talks to people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. I really was glad that when I came here, I came as an education reporter, because when you walk in the door as a person of color, you wonder if they're saying, "Take this off our hands."

This is everybody's responsibility, not just people of color. So it takes that burden off you because sometimes I do feel burdened, like I have to be the voice for these communities or nobody will hear them. That's a lot to carry around. It needs to be all of us working together on that.

--by Pat Burson, St. Paul Pioneer Press

Diversity initiatives problematic
Peter Bell, vice president, TCF Bank

Rarely does a week go by when I do not hear the concern for more racial or gender diversity. Few can dispute the fact that women and minorities historically have not been in key decision-making positions in our society. However, the argument for diversity based on representation or balance is problematic. It presupposes that persons of the same race and gender think alike because of the shared experiences of racism and sexism. This argument ignores and minimizes the influence of other factors in shaping our ideas and beliefs. Think about it. What would have a greater impact on our respective world views? Our ethnic background, our religious upbringing, or even our physical size and shape?

Diversity is often defined only by observable traits which are believed to serve as a proxy for ideas. It was not that long ago in this country that many people thought blacks and Asians all looked alike. This idea has given way to the notion that they must all think alike.

Increased diversity in this nation's newsrooms has not helped the press make important distinctions between racial ignorance, insensitivity and racism. While there are far too many examples of clear, unquestionable racism in this country, must every incident of someone scribbling "KKK" with chalk on the sidewalk lead to the six o'clock news? It is doubtful that many in the black community view these actions as anything more than crude, insensitive pranks, rather than as a reflection of deep-seated racism.

Increased diversity in the press has not prevented many journalists from accepting the misguided notion that when a behavior is labeled as "cultural" it should receive a measure of immunity from criticism. We have seen this process at work with issues ranging from rap music to ebonics, to out-of-wedlock births, to divorce. This really has done more to undermine the future development of communities of "color" than the KKK could ever hope to do.

Diversity in the newsroom is often a response to the charge that the press depicts minority communities negatively, reinforcing stereotypes and prejudice. Hypersensitivity to negative stereotyping of African Americans once caused a reporter to ask me if I knew of any "white" crack addicts. The press often responds to this criticism by producing feel-good puff pieces on cultural activities in "communities of color," such as Kwanzaa (a holiday I suspect is unknown and not celebrated by a majority of African Americans). It becomes the slipperiest of slopes if the press starts to manage the news on the basis of what stereotypes will or will not be fostered.