On Color

Throughout all the presentations and panels that Chips Quinn orientation has thrown at us, one question still remains unanswered for me: What does it mean to be a minority journalist? It's a question that's unavoidable -- after all, the only reason we are here in Washington D.C., this sadistically cold January weekend is because we are both journalists and people of color.

Alums (from left) Tanika White, Rhina Guidos and Anthony Dimaano.

Does it mean, as The News Journal's Midstate Living editor Rhina Guidos said this morning, that we must sometimes repress anger and frustration to remain journalistically objective -- that journalistic objectivity is integral to democracy, the system through which playing fields will be leveled and injustices redressed? Does it mean, as Baltimore Sun reporter Tanika White said in the same panel, that we need to assert the unique perspective we have to make sure that editorial content and decisions more fairly portray minority issues? Or does it mean, as Anthony Dimaano, photographer for The Bulletin in Bend, Ore., said also in the same panel, that we have to turn the other cheek to the small instances of racism -- that when someone sarcastically thanks you for the egg rolls at a pan-Asian restaurant just because you are an Asian American, you laugh it off.

There is no answer. Being a minority journalist means different things for different people. Of course, it's not a question that is unique only to minority journalists. It's a question of identity and how that identity will play a role in your personal and professional life -- something universal to all human beings.

I'm a journalist. I like finding answers to questions. So one of the things I'm most looking forward to as I start my internship (I'm finally getting around to answering the prompt for this blog post here; I promise, just in case any prospective employers are reading this, that I will be more concise at work.) at The Austin American-Statesman this summer, and as I continue through what I hope will be a long career in journalism, is figuring out what the answers to those questions are.