The Unbearable Whiteness of Liberal Media

The American Prospect ^ | May 12, 2014 | Gabriel Arana, Senior Editor

[2ndDivisionVet]

If left-leaning publications value diversity, why don't they have any?

On the staff of The American Prospect, I’m the only member of an ethnic minority. That's not because I bring all the variety the magazine needs, or because the editors don't think diversity is valuable. Everyone on the masthead of this liberal publication is committed to being inclusive—not just of racial and ethnic minorities but of women; gays, lesbians, and transgender people; and the poor.

Nearly 40 percent of the country is non-white and/or Hispanic, but the number of minorities at the outlets included in this article's tally—most of them self-identified as liberal or progressive—hovers around 10 percent. The Washington Monthly can boast 20 percent, but that's because it only has nine staffers in total, two of whom belong to minority groups. Dissent, like the Prospect, has one. Given the broad commitment to diversity in our corner of the publishing world, why is the track record so poor? It's not just the Prospect. Journalism upstarts like Vox Media and FiveThirtyEight have come under fire recently for lack of diversity in their hires, but that's largely because they are drawing from the milky-white pool of “existing talent.” In the corner of the publishing industry that caters to college-educated wonks—a slightly fuzzy designation, but I've included most of the publications my colleagues and I read on a daily basis—racial and ethnic diversity is abysmal....

[2ndDivisionVet]

Gabriel Arana is a senior editor at The American Prospect. His articles on gay rights, immigration, and media have appeared in publications including The New Republic, The Nation, Salon, The Advocate, and The Daily Beast.

[GeronL]

Self-loathing white people

[Zhang Fei]

Because the even more radical agendas favored by minority writers would turn off the mostly-white readership.

[Old Sarge]

A black, lesbian disabled Jew.

Covers all the bases...

[Iron Munro]

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.....

We have heard so much whining about minorities and diversity that it has become nothing more than background noise.

It is like the humming of tires on the nearby highway.
It’s there, we hear it, but it is meaningless.

[jeffc]

Everyone on the masthead of this liberal publication is committed to being inclusive—not just of racial and ethnic minorities but of women; gays, lesbians, and transgender people; and the poor.

But a real diversity of differing ideas?

Nah, libs will pass on that as they can't stomach being on the losing end of an argument.

[2ndDivisionVet]

[trisham]

"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision
of what is before them, glory and danger alike,
and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."

~Thucydides

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[Calusa]

A large part of the problem is simply that no one is keeping track. Unlike the National Association of News Editors, the American Society of Magazine Editors does not track the number of minorities among magazine staff.

Editorial commissars, quotas, diversity consultants??? Good for progressives. Own medicine.

[okie01]

On the staff of The American Prospect, I’m the only member of an ethnic minority. That's not because I bring all the variety the magazine needs, or because the editors don't think diversity is valuable. Everyone on the masthead of this liberal publication is committed to being inclusive—not just of racial and ethnic minorities but of women; gays, lesbians, and transgender people; and the poor.

In a work force, the only worthwhile value is merit.

"Diversity" brings as much to the party as "nepotism".

[SpaceBar]

I’m the only member of an ethnic minority.

What a sad and pathetic individual. A whole new generation of racists are being bred. From the moment the alarm goes off until the time they drift off into sleep it's all about RACE. I'm sensing a freudian moment where they over compensate for giving the world rice and beans.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Diversity is a RESULT of society that is equal. To make it a GOAL is to subvert equality.

[Secret Agent Man]

i am so f@cking tired of people being wrapped up in their own superficial and other peoples’ superficial looks.