# data[].attributes.body
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was callously murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In response to this event and centuries of compounding, senseless reflections of American racism, protesters spoke out against systemic racism and its intrinsic effect on police brutality, amongst all other aspects of American life. I examined the “top news” headlines relating to the “reignited” national reckoning with racism from The New York Times, a preeminent and world-renowned news outlet, between May 25, 2020, and June 25, 2020. I created the image below as a result of these headlines. The words that appear in the largest size appeared most frequently in the headlines, while the smaller words appear rarely, if only once.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Most Frequent Words: Trump, Police, Protests.

# data[].attributes.subject
The Most Frequent Words: Trump, Police, Protests.

# data[].attributes.body
(click image for larger view)

# data[].attributes.headline
Did you notice how “Racism” did not even appear once?

# data[].attributes.subject
Did you notice how “Racism” did not even appear once?

# data[].attributes.body
Headlines, especially from the New York Times are important: more important than one might think. They inform the world of the American state of affairs and serve as a representation of “truth” for the American public. So why did they constantly leave out the major underpinning of all of these events: racism? Why are they refusing to hold our leaders accountable and condemn racist remarks as racist? Calling out and pointing out racism should not be controversial and divisive.

Rather, remaining neutral on racism is divisive.

# data[].attributes.body
Yes, a lot of the protests from May 2020-July 2020 were sparked by racist police brutality against Black Americans. But what is the problem central to this police brutality? The driving factor? The common factor? Racism. By focusing on the institution, we do not hold them accountable. We do not solve anything by ignoring the center of the web. While we each have an individual responsibility to analyze situations and dismantle intrinsic systems of racism, newspapers and the media are not exempt from this responsibility. In fact, one could argue they have a specifically important responsibility since the New York Times has over 7 million paid subscribers and over 130 million readers every year. With an audience that large, your influence matters. How you frame global issues matters.

# data[].attributes.body
CHANGE
REFORM
RACISM
INSPIRE
COURAGE
JUNETEENTH

Yet, the words that were chosen are overall extremely negative, misleading, and not all-encompassing. Antifa? Threaten? Broke? Complaints? Looters? Crisis? Anguished? Restrict? Focusing on Donald Trump's expected racism does not highlight the right part of the stories. Donald Trump's entire presidency was just an effective clickbait. From my personal experience, I had a completely different perspective and understanding of this time period. I heard and read stories of strength, change, courage, compassion, and growth.

Where are the stories promoting what the Black Lives Matter movement is asking for? Where are the stories about America's dependency on racist systems and white supremacy? On ways to support movements against racism?

# data[].attributes.body
Below is only a selection of the headlines I analyzed (full list available after the conclusion). Almost every single one calls for even preliminary edits to call out the truth: the undercurrent of racism. On the left, you will see the original headlines from the NYT, and on the right are some corrections that I made.

# data[].attributes.headline
“Two Crises Convulse a Nation: A Pandemic and Police Violence.”

# data[].attributes.subject
“Two Crises Convulse a Nation: A Pandemic and Police Violence.”

# data[].attributes.body
This headline is not technically incorrect. The pandemic and police violence are critical issues that require addressing. This headline, though, does not tell the full story. While the story may touch on the effects of systemic racism in police brutality, news outlets need to realize that how one frames the story is perhaps more important than how they tell it. What is the real “crisis” that convulses the nation? RACISM. Police violence is not separate from racism. It is a result of racism. Media representation is important in the fight against injustice because the better we understand how deeply rooted racism is in our society, the better we can learn to fight against it.

# data[].attributes.body
This problem extends far beyond the headlines. Racism and implicit bias intertwine the sentences, content matter, and reporting of articles from the most premier news organizations.

"A journalist who fails to recognize [they have] blind spots can unintentionally distort the meaning of [their] reporting. Not understanding the country’s racial history can unwittingly convince even the best journalists to write about minority groups in ways that can lead to harmful racial stereotypes—or exclude them from coverage all together. That’s why implicit bias researchers are more concerned with providing journalists with tools to help them recognize their biases than expecting training to automatically lead to changed behavior." -Issac J. Bailey

This should not bring feelings of despair but rather inspire opportunities for growth and learning. There is implicit bias training happening all over the country for a new generation of journalists. While this is not nearly enough to rectify hundreds of years of racism, it is a start. Readers also should remain vigilant and willing to recognize our own mistakes and tendencies.

# data[].attributes.body
"Newsworthiness is not a product of how representative or novel a crime is, but rather how well it can be “scripted using stereotypes grounded in White racism and White fear of Black crime.”

While I performed a case study on one media outlet's reporting in a specific period of time on a specific set of events, these are not unique observations. Racism in media is often highlighted when discussing crime reports, which is a serious issue that deserves mention. Here are some disturbing statistics from the Sentencing Project:

A study in Los Angeles found that 37% of the suspects portrayed on television news stories about crime were black, although blacks made up only 21% of those arrested in the city.

Another study found that whites represented 43% of homicide victims in the local news, but only 13% of homicide victims in crime reports.

While only 10% of victims in crime reports were whites who had been victimized by blacks, these crimes made up 42% of televised cases.

A study of television news found that black crime suspects were presented in more threatening contexts than whites: black suspects were disproportionately shown in mug shots and in cases where the victim was a stranger.

Black and Latino suspects were also more often presented in a non-individualized way than whites (unnamed) and were more likely to be shown as threatening, by being depicted in physical custody of the police.

Blacks and Hispanics were also more likely to be treated aggressively by police officers on reality-based TV shows, including America’s Most Wanted and Cops.

Mass media informs the public's racist understandings of crime. While they are not the sole perpetrator, they are a large contributor.

# data[].attributes.body
Alexandra Bell from The New Yorker on Rewriting Racist Headlines

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
2018 Infinity Award: Applied — Alexandra Bell

# data[].attributes.headline
In Conclusion: how can authors elucidate essential facts and stories about racism without perpetuating it themselves? 

# data[].attributes.subject
In Conclusion: how can authors elucidate essential facts and stories about racism without perpetuating it themselves? 

# data[].attributes.body
Below, is an edited section of a previous response paper. While I was originally speaking about more traditional literature and prose, news reporting falls perfectly into this category. Knowledge and discourse is crucial to changing this world. It is not easy. But it is not impossible.

As we confront racism in contemporary times, which is just a continuation of the centuries of racism that were emphasized during the Civil Rights Movement, we are challenged by the same hindrances which challenged James Baldwin. The debate does not necessarily concern whether these articles are entirely bad – they are not – rather it is to reinforce Baldwin’s idea to work away from work that is “so far from being disturbing, is an accepted and comforting aspect of the American scene, ramifying that framework we believe to be so necessary" (Baldwin). We often turn to written word as a means of revolution, yet we are stuck in quite the vicious cycle of attempting to break free yet remaining confined in our racist understandings of the world. After all, how could the written word, condensed into a digestable story, effectively mirror the experiences and effects of racism for an entire population? Although Baldwin does criticize this type of writing, he does not deem it entirely useless. As readers, we must remain vigilant when studying and reading any writing 'committed' to social justice. No matter its intention, we must begin to analyze what is missing, whose stories are not told, question our interpretations of possibly racist stereotypes, and be mindful of how we write and speak about said works. As a reader, try not to fall into this trap – engage with these works constantly inquisitive and with intention. In 2020, it is far too easy to feel far divorced from the times of slavery and feel that it is an easy moral question in hindsight: but the racism that led to slavery (and *everything else*) is not gone. It is rampant and ingrained and systemic. It needs to be deeply and thoughtfully analyzed and changed, and that starts with how we engage with the subject, in the news or real life.

It can be disheartening to see racism in so many things, especially literature created with perhaps good intention, but it is worthy to imagine how those who bear racism feel enduring it.  This is an important yet not impossible fight. -Mary A. Kardos

# data[].attributes.headline
Full List of Headlines Analyzed from May 25, 2020 - June 25, 2020

# data[].attributes.subject
Full List of Headlines Analyzed from May 25, 2020 - June 25, 2020

# data[].attributes.body
1. Protests Continue to Rage After Death of George Floyd

2. Ex-Officer Charged in Death of George Floyd in Minneapolis

3. Trump’s Looting and ‘Shooting’ Remarks Escalate Crisis in Minneapolis

4. Appeals for Calm as Sprawling Protests Threaten to Spiral Out of Control

5. Thousands of Complaints Do Little to Change Police Ways

6. In Days of Discord, a President Fans the Flames

7. Facing Protests Over Use of Force Police Respond With More Force

8. Two Crises Convulse a Nation: A Pandemic and Police Violence

9. As Trump Calls Protesters ‘Terrorists,’ Tear Gas Clears a Path for His Walk to a Church

10. After George Floyd’s Death, Toll Rises in Protests Across the Country

11. How Trump’s Idea for a Photo Op Led to Havoc in a Park

12. March Peacefully or ‘Take the Streets’? Protesters Debate What Comes Next

13. New Charges for Former Minneapolis Police Officers as Protests Persist

14. Esper Breaks With Trump on Using Troops Against Protesters

15. The Virus Closed His Bronx Jewelry Store. Then Looters Broke In.

16. At George Floyd Memorial, an Anguished Call for Change

17. Trump and the Military: A Mutual Embrace Might Dissolve on America’s Streets

18. How Police Unions Became Such Powerful Opponents to Reform Efforts

19. Protests Swell Across America as George Floyd Is Mourned Near His Birthplace

20. Trump Orders Troops to Leave D.C. as Former Military Leaders Sound Warning

21. Minneapolis Will Dismantle Its Police Force, Council Members Pledge

22. Other Protests Flare and Fade. Why This Movement Already Seems Different.

23. After Protests, Politicians Reconsider Police Budgets and Discipline

24. Biden Walks a Cautious Line as He Opposes Defunding the Police

25. Houston Bids Goodbye to George Floyd, Whose Killing Galvanized a Movement

26. G.O.P. Scrambles to Respond to Public Demands for Police Overhaul

27. Trump Falsely Targets Buffalo Protester, 75, as ‘Antifa Provocateur’

28. Milley Apologizes for Role in Trump Photo Op: ‘I Should Not Have Been There’

29. ‘A Slap in the Face’: Black Veterans on Bases Named for Confederates

30. Federal Arrests Show No Sign That Antifa Plotted Protests

31. N.Y. Bans Chokeholds and Approves Other Measures to Restrict Police

32. Atlanta Police Chief Resigns After Officer Shoots and Kills a Black Man

33. From Cosmetics to NASCAR, Calls for Racial Justice Are Spreading

34. Police Chiefs Are Finding Job Security Is Hard to Come By

35. Reconsidering the Past, One Statue at a Time

36. Former Atlanta Officer Is Charged With Murder in Shooting of Rayshard Brooks

37. Police Decisions Are Scrutinized After Rayshard Brooks’s Fatal Encounter

38. Black Tulsans, With a Defiant Juneteenth Celebration, Send a Message to Trump

39. Biden Takes Dominant Lead as Voters Reject Trump on Virus and Race