Happy Monday! The "How To Be Antiracist" Edition - Catch Our IG Lives

Happy Monday!
Every week, there is a new majorly racist development that happens, which makes its way into the media, how people shop, what they are talking about in social media, and what the news media is looking to cover.

Tin Shingle is here to understand it with you, as these national and wordly developments do make a difference on your business because this is a human issue, and your business serves humans!

During this year of 2021, while we try to focus on what we used to focus on, these developments, like the Meghan and Harry Interview, or the Sharon Osborn fallout/departure, and even the Scott Rudin Total Takedown (!!), occupy the minds of the media, academia, public school curriculum, job applications and hiring, and so much more.

Therefore, from time to time, Tin Shingle's owner Katie will appear on IG Live with widely respected/loved/quoted empathy-based relationship therapist and antiracism counselor Moraya Seeger DeGear, LA, LMFT (see her latest feature in Refinery29 on Ghosting feeling worse during the pandemic).

Catch some of our past IG Lives here at Tin Shingle's Instagram, where we discussed the Rachel Hollis HOT MESS of a Wow (yet did not surprise many who knew her), as well as the Meghan and Harry Interview, and what Moraya was hearing from interracial families regarding uncomfortable conversations, as well as the importance of talking about anxiety, and believing people who express feeling it.

To Be "Not Racist" Needs To Be Antiracist

Time and again, when Big Things happen in the local or national media, people respond. When business or local government does not respond, it is sending a big signal. Tin Shingle wants to be sure you are aware of this, so that silence might not be interpreted supporting a message you actually don't support.

Listen to this TuneUp with Moraya and Katie: "How Can/Should Your Business Handle Race Publicly?" to better understand your role in these everyday developments. Tin Shingle is leaving it open for all to access any time. It's an easy listen - we are really friendly! There may be points covered you hadn't considered.

Being antiracist can take many shapes, or come in the form of different hats. You don't need to wear all of the hats! Some forms antiracist behavior takes:

• Sponsoring or supporting a business who is actively and very visually antiracist, or promoting education about it.

• Putting a sign in your window or yard (goes a long way! listen to Moraya, who is Japanese, Black and White, say how it makes her feel)

• Liking someone's post. Super simple, I know. But some people won't even do that!

• Saying "Hi!" to people you normally shy away from.

• Putting up something in your social media (but you need to back it with a few other behaviors as well, like carrying a Black-owned designer, or hiring a Black friend, or amplifying messages your Black friends or clients are trying to get across).

• Including an antiracism and coaching session in your Mothers Day Gift Giveaway - Wow, Togetherish Mom!

This Movement Even Results In Scott Rudin

Scott Rudin is a major producer behind so many movies and plays you love. He is currently being wiped from the boards. The canceling of Scott Rudin is major because everyone knew about his bully behavior. Many experienced it. As a power player, he shaped lives.

He is being taken down now - in Tin Shingle's opinion - because ears are open. Beyond racism - this isn't a racially based takedown. As people speak out about injustices, other people are Caring Out Loud. Before, people might of cared inside, but now power players are acting to stop these behaviors from being ones that most people need to live with.

For those in the back of the room who are thinking: "I wish media would stop fanning the flames of racism and treat everyone equally," know this: this is how equality gets here. Scott Rudin is mentioned in today's message because of what the 2020 Injustice Movement did. The Black Lives Matter movement. Instead of rejecting racism, know that it is a world-wide problem and exists every single day.

The only way to keep it at bay - every single day - is to be antiracist. Not angry. All love! Acknowledging and believing. Being antiracist doesn't mean someone is angry all the time - it just means that they point something out that is uncomfortable to sit with. But sitting with it is required, and then taking action on that reality is the next step. Which is something your business can be part of in different ways.

Learn more about this on Ibram X. Kendi’s new podcast, “Be Antiracist,” which you can read more about here.

Peace, and have great Mondays!

How Tin Shingle's TuneUp Office Hours Is Helping Author Winifred Tataw

During a Wednesday Tin Shingle TuneUp Office Hour, which is open to members from 1-2 pm, I, Katie, got to meet Winnie @winsbooks! Professionally as an author, she is Winifred Tataw, and both her names are part of what we discussed SEO-wise. Winnie is a writer in the Young Adult Fantasy genre, and her book is available on her website.

Part of why Winnie joined Tin Shingle was to improve SEO on her website. “I’ve downloaded 30 SEO apps, and it’s not happening,” she told me on a call before she joined. The simple truth is that those apps won’t help! I haven’t seen everyone, but what has always helped since the dawn of SEO 20 years ago (which is when I started), is creative writing with keywords in mind, and linking out to other related web pages is the perfect combo.

First off, we discussed where Winnie had to put her name on different pages (because her website won’t rank well for her own name if it’s not mentioned anywhere...a common problem of speaking in 1st person...and having her author name on blog articles isn’t weighted enough for Google). We discussed her Author Spotlights, a service she created to spotlight other writers of color who are Black, Brown, Indigenous, and otherwise unrecognized. Being the month of Ramadan, she has been surprised to not see the author highlights of Muslim authors right now.

Winnie interviews the author and does a full feature on the book. While this is in a section called “Services,” she doesn’t charge for this, unlike others in her field. We discussed how she is creating pure publicity for these authors, and while that is a gift/service for them, in the publishing world, it is called something else: publicity ☺️💜

She is going to rename that section to Author Spotlights and feature recent interviews on its home page. Tin Shingle is adding Winnie to our Media Contacts Idea Center, and tagging her as #BlackMedia for others looking to find opportunities. Winnie is Tin Shingle’s youngest member: she is in her 3rd year at The College of Charleston! Which is where I went also! It is an honor having a student trust Tin Shingle enough with her investment. Her eye is on the prize(s).

The Reckoning of 2020, Plus An Editorial Calendars UPDATE!

Hello hello! I am back! I hope you are all happy and healthy and staying safe.

2021 is here and while it’s off to a sluggish start (insurrection notwithstanding, but that’s a whole OTHER blog post), I am a little relieved and I hope you are, too. Not that the changing of a number really does anything, but knowing that 2020 is OVER is encouraging. Winter is on its way out, Biden is in the White House, and we’ve all adjusted, adapted, pivoted and made it to the other side.

Also, editorial calendars are coming back in full force, as fast as my little fingers can type them! Got any requests? LET ME HAVE THEM!

This week I want to talk about beauty and fashion publications and what I’ve noticed after this year of reckoning.

 Yes, reckoning.

The Black Lives Matter movement rose up like a fisted phoenix from a firepit demanding justice, equity, and accountability from every industry across the board, bringing with it other social justice movements in its wake. From the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (among so many more) to the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans, the hashtags #icantbreathe, #racismisavirus, #justiceforbreonnataylor, #weseeyouwat (and countless others) flooded social media.

In response to all of this, industries are making efforts to diversify their staff, marketing materials and products to embrace a broader audience and promote peace, inclusion and anti-racism.

 In the beauty and fashion industry, Allure reports that “beauty companies are revealing their own lack of diversity, thanks to the #pulluporshutup challenge.”

My research has pulled up some encouraging trends. I have found that many beauty publications are focusing entire issues on demographics who have been largely underrepresented in mainstream media.

For example:

ELLE - OCT 2021 The LatinX Issue

HARPER’S BAZAAR - OCT 2021 - LatinX Issue

 (It might help you to know that Hispanic Heritage Month is Sept 15 thru Oct 15.)

ALLURE - APRIL 2021 - The Melanin Project - Of our survey of Black Allure readers, skin was a topic they'd like to read more about. In response, we'll create a robust content franchise focusing on Black skincare. Includes a photo series, "My Black Skin Is..." highlighting Black women with skin conditions; and a social-first movement, #SunscreenSis to get more Black people to wear sunscreen (only 11% of non-Hispanic Black adults regularly do).

ALLURE - May 2021 - The Best of Global Beauty - A celebration of the global beauty scene exploring trends, products, rituals and routines including the reign of Nollywood in Nigeria - one of the world's biggest and fastest growing markets. (81% of readers reported that they want to see more content highlighting global beauty).

ALLURE - June/July 2021 - The New Body Positivity - We'll start conversations on topics that impact our bodies impossible beauty standards, the beauty world's problem with fat representation, and the intersection of Anti-Anti-Aging with the body-positivity movement.

COSMO - July/Aug 2020 - Black Girls’ Guide to SPF

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU? WHAT CAN YOU DO?

This is a chance for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) makers and business owners to pitch to traditionally white and mainstream publications and get your voices and products out there!

For white-owned businesses, you can expand your audience by way of thoughtful and intentional inclusion, however it applies to your business. It could mean expanding your skincare line to include more diverse skintones, using models of all shapes, ethnic backgrounds, abilities and sizes in your marketing materials, or including diverse voices in your blog. 

It will take a lot of work, and missteps will be made. Remain honest with yourselves, be willing to learn and most importantly listen to each other. Hold yourselves accountable, receive criticism willingly and openly, and you will not be cancelled.

Need More Editorial Calendar Themes?

 Tin Shingle’s Editorial Calendar Collection is evolving every day!  The aforementioned themes are a small sample of what is on the docket for 2021. The most important thing for you, however, is to pitch into the theme now - time keeps marching on and you want to stay relevant in your ideas for why a magazine writer or editor may feature your business.

Members of Tin Shingle with the Media Kit Membership have instant access to all of our editorial calendar deadlines. All searchable by Title and Area of Interest. Browse through and let your inspiration guide you. Tin Shingle’s membership program is designed for business owners, artist, makers and communication directors who are getting the word out about their business.

All editorial themes are provided by the publication and are subject to change.

As always, send in media contact or editorial calendar requests to member@tinshingle.com

[PR] TuneUp: The Insurrection: How Should Your Business Handle It Publicly? Discussion With Moraya Seeger DeGeare, MA LMFT

We interrupted our usual scheduled Office Hours for a live TuneUp with Moraya Seeger DeGeare, a licensed marriage counselor in NY and MN, certified in Emotionally Focused Therapy. Moraya and Katie (owner of Tin Shingle) live in Beacon, NY, and Moraya is one of the thought leader/guides that Katie has been following since the protests started in May.

Moraya is the granddaughter of Pete and Toshi Seeger who were leaders in the effort to bring about environmental change in the Hudson Valley region of New York. She grew up in a protest environment.

Moraya had put out a question to her Twitter following: "So I'm curious, do we unfollow all the influencers/food/mombloggers who are not pausing scheduled posts to acknowledge the domestic terrorism that happened this week? Or are we just forever side eyeing them with BIG trust issue energy?"

We reposted her question to Tin Shingle's Instagram, which prompted another question: does a business who is Black or Muslim or other races need to put up a statement right now? Would that further insight discomfort in their places of business? Do white-owned businesses have a special responsibility to put up a statement right now? Or open up to include further in their branding?

Which prompted more questions, like how should a business handle the insurrection, even if you did like some of the policies of the 45th president? Or if you are afraid of isolating or losing customers?

Moraya agreed to be our guest for for this TuneUp to answer this question, and more. As a person of mixed race, she has a Black perspective that she is contributing to this national conversation. Being that she is a relationship therapist, she knows how to dialogue from a vulnerable place. She tells Tin Shingle: "I thrive on deep vulnerability. Ask me any question in any way, it's OK to just roll with it and muddle through."

HOW TO WATCH

Anyone can watch a Tin Shingle TuneUp from their computer, mobile phone or tablet. The process is different for premium members and the public.

MEMBERS OF TIN SHINGLE (FREE)

Stream any TuneUp Webinar anytime with your Tin Shingle membership. No need to purchase it, this TuneUp is ready to play from this page! When you are logged in, you will see a big screen.

NON-MEMBERS ($65)

Once you buy a TuneUp, you own it forever. The video or audio recording will appear on the TuneUp page that you just purchased from, and all you need to do is press play.

Media Monitoring And Planning Ahead: Men's Journal

Catching up with Men’s Journal. Every article was pandemic or protest related, with a series on men in Minneapolis rebuilding their businesses, building community, training Black youth to gain certifications in outdoor activities like mountain biking paddling, etc. (paid for by Ramsey County) so that Black people might be more comfortable learning from someone who looks like them, and providing food for those in need. Cooking and gathering for social distance, and the usual gear recommendations that Men’s Journal is known for. The Holiday Gift Guides were in this issue, with the usual themes.

For ideas on how to pitch the media, join Tin Shingle to get access to our Media Contact Idea Center, and start a conversation with fellow members in Tin Shingle’s Google Group.

*Remember: print magazines work 3-6 months in advance. In pandemic times, changes to editorial may be squeezed in to reflect a big, huge change. But generally, think a few months out.

Presidential Election 2020 eNewsletter Covers When The Media Declared The Presidential Winner

Headline skimming has been at an all time high, it seems, and with the 2020 presidential election, refreshing your email or headline source was a must, as was refreshing the absentee ballot count in various states. TikTok-ers were making funny videos about sloths and waiting, and everyone else was just getting entertained during The Big Wait.

On that Saturday afternoon at 11:30am when the unofficial word came from the media that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were declared the winners, people did dance in the streets, clanged pans, hoked horns, and the media started blitzing their enewsletter headlines.

Below is a collection of what we caught:

Simple Ideas For How To Be An Antiracist - A Starter List

At first, I wanted to title this article: “Pro-Tips For How To Be An Antiracist.” But I am not a professional at being antiracist. It’s a new term for me. But one that I have accepted into my life and I have open ears to.

Next, I did include the words “How To Be An”…which I’m keeping simply for the SEO (search engine optimization) value, but really, “being an antiracist” still to me sounds like 2 different behaviors - it’s like: “How do I step into this role?” without living the role. Antiracism is a way of life. It’s a super aware consciousness of your brain as you encounter any people. Most notably Black people, since they have been systemically and systematically oppressed in this country and the world - stolen for free labor and pleasure. Like how hunters go on safari, or collectors collect things. Years of doing that, and then the years that follow making that illegal, still leave baggage that cannot be erased with a Civil War or new laws. It’s all in the behaviors.

To break this racist mindset - which is all around us in so many books, movies, comedic skits on TV, beliefs, etc. - one must be mindful and challenge what their loved ones around them think too.

Therefore, here is my starter-list of being antiracist:

Smile at Anyone:
While attending open-mic sessions held by Beacon4Black Lives in Beacon, NY, I heard more than one Black speaker acknowledging that white people were saying hi to them more, and how that felt good. White people may have gotten locked into a mentality of “I don’t want to offend someone, so I will ignore them.” This is a feeling you are going to need to buck.

Smile at Someone Who Stereotypically Scares You:
This is my favorite one. You see someone walking down the street, who might look like someone in a music video that Tipper Gore would have had banned and censored back when I was in 8th grade. Go ahead and give them a smile and a “Hello” from your vocal chords. You will love the sound of the “Hello” you receive in return.

Didn’t Get A Smile Or Answer? Try Again:
If someone walks right past you, and doesn’t smile back, that’s OK. Just keep trying with the next person. You’ll need to start building up some practice, and trust. In New York State, Governor Cuomo mandated that all municipalities reform their police departments. That requires communities to get together to do this work. One woman in Port Jarvis said that she reached out to a local Black church, but that they didn’t respond.

That’s OK. Trust doesn’t happen overnight, or after one phone call or email. You’ll need to keep reaching out. Gently. Letting all of your defensive instincts melt away.

“Not for nothing but…” - Yes, for Anything! Don’t Accept Underhanded Remarks
A neighbor or friend might say they are not racist, and that they support Black people, or Arab people, or Native people, and they might say: “Not for nothing but, I was on the airplane, and this group of (XYZ race of people) were so loud and drunk. So, ya know…”

Yeah, I do know. My family is loud and happy also when they are on an airplane together, and they drink a lot of wine. So what’s the difference? This is what you need to say to this person, instead of smiling and nodding.

The days of smiling and nodding are over.

Owning It If You Were Racist
You did racist behavior in the past, and you still will in the future. If it’s your business or your person you both of you - own it. Accept it in your mind that you thought a certain way, or shouted a certain thing, or called the police over a certain behavior. If you’re a business, and you tried to do something anti-racist, and a former customer or employee came forward to say: “Hey! You have been racist!” or “Hey! You are doing performance antiracism!” - learn from it. Hear them, and work with it. Don’t stop. Just don’t deny.

Rent Your Rental Property To Black People - Or Sell Your Home To A Black Family
This seems like an obvious one, but if you own rental property, yet tend to not rent it to Black people, you may want to take a step back at yourself and reconsider. If you own an apartment building, and you are not required to make a percentage of apartments “affordable units,” consider doing it anyway.

Not that all Black people are low-income. That’s a stereotype too! In fact, you could rent 2 of your units out: one to a Black family who needs the affordable lower price, and one to a Black family who is living in the medium or high.

As for selling your home - you’re the one who ultimately accepts the offer. I don’t know about real estate laws, but I do know about selling a home, getting offers, and then making a decision. If you price your house right - meaning - you price it so that other people in your community can buy it, rather than attracting city-people who are fleeing the city for the country - then you’ll attract regular people just like you who need or want what you have. If one of your offers is from a Black family, consider taking it! Rather than accepting the offer from a local builder who is going to do a great rehab, and then mark the home up again, for the even higher income.

Not that there’s anything wrong with house flipping. It’s fun. It’s creative. It’s entrepreneurial. But these are choices you need to be aware of. Maybe a Black family is approaching you, who has their own plans of flipping the home for themselves for a few years, or to resell. Go for it!

Believing People
You’ve heard a lot of stories. You’re going to continue hearing stories. Before 2020, you may not have believed them. You may have thought someone was having a victimized mindset. Start believing them now. Do your homework, of course, to double check something. But once you start digging, you may find silence on the other end, or a run-around answer. This tells you that you need to believe someone, and keep digging.

I’ve spoken with a mayor who prides himself in not being racist. That he has so many Black friends. And yet, right after that, he will tell a story that kills the believability of a story a Black person told him. He will tell the the same story, but from an experience of a white person, in order to negate the Black person’s experience, and declare there is no racism. Start listening. If you share a story of someone’s experience that seems racist, and the person you are telling the story to fills you with excuses of why that happened that had nothing to do with racism, give that person’s response a second thought, and know that you may be dealing with racism, which is hard to define legally and on paper.

But apply this to other races, like Arab or Native. Try not to sell to yourself as if you’re looking in the mirror. That’s how silent segregation happens.

Words Matter

Hello Tin Shinglers!

The media is on fire with breaking news, and you need to know how to pitch it. This note is a mention on the pulse of the people since the election. We won't mention COVID, because that news is everywhere, and hopefully you are enjoying a safe holiday with your immediate sphere and not mixing households. Right!?

At the time of this writing (this article has been in Drafts for a bit), most people were referring to the early election results cautiously, as: "the news." Friends didn't know where friends stood, so the election became "the news" after the media was the first to declare it once presidential absentee ballots were counted. Still on the local level, assumed outcomes are being upended by absentee ballots.

This week, "the news" has been made official. Finally. First by Twitter and Facebook on Monday (here's how it will work), when they declared that they would transfer the POTUS and FLOTUS accounts to Joe and Jill Biden. Now that the new president and vice president are officially coming, that doesn't mean that this transitional year - this year of a renewed racial revolution - is over. It has only just begun. There are a few things you need to keep in mind:

What I've Learned - As A Local Reporter

The past few months, I have been deep into producing local news for my blog, A Little Beacon Blog (21,500 views/month, over 7,000 Instagram followers). As one of the first local news outlets to report on COVID - back before there were testing sites and everyone was newly freaking out and New Yorkers were literally dying by the hundreds every day - local news was slow to respond. Everyone was in shock. A Little Beacon Blog was one of the first to respond because our neighbors needed to know what was going on.

And then the racial revolution opened up. George Floyd was killed in the street in broad daylight by a police officer, and the world erupted in protests. Because of my local reporting, I have different leads and relationships with people in the Black community (not to mention my fabulous long-time hair stylist), so this was also an area I was comfortable diving into (as you might remember).

Readers have been hungry for this information, when I share racially rooted content with you. Every single time I publish it, it's hard, and I know that some kind of reaction will happen. Largely it is very supportive. Like with anyone, when there is a single negative or angry person, it makes an impact on me, and I take it to heart. Not sadness heart, but "what can I learn from this?" heart.

Based on this, here is what I have learned: denial is deep. Words matter, and saying the right words helps fight denial of actual events. Here's what I mean:

"It didn't happen....I was there...I didn't see that...Did you see it from his mouth moving?"

On the Wednesday before the election, I published a story about a truck train coming to my small town of Beacon. There are about 15,000 people living here, just 60 miles north of New York City. Often a darling of a tourism section of the New York Times, people like to  believe Beacon as bucolic, so was pretty shocking with a Trump train rolled through.

For a Trump supporter, it was a beautiful sight. For Black people, it was traumatic. A man on a motorcycle in the line driving past our Post Office, shouted "white power!" and a person got it on video. You could hear the shock of the person recording it, as she followed him with the camera, let him out of view, then did a double-take and refocused on him when she processed what he said.

Trump supporters in A Little Beacon Blog's Instagram denied it. A woman who loved the truck train said she was at the rally, and never heard it. Another woman who was in one of the cars highlighted in the article said that from her car, she never heard anything shouted. There were other examples and testimonies from readers about what they encountered. People wrote into me with their experiences. For the people I knew, I believed them and published their stories. I also published the video of "white power."

The denial from the Trump supporters knocked the wind out of my chest. I really didn't know what to say. One reader said she liked the blog, but found it bias right now. I responded by saying that I didn't like typing that someone yelled "white power," and wasn't sure what the other side of that was.

Her comment got 4 likes. Mine got 88 likes. We don't run a lot of high numbers around here, so that spread was significant. But I was still speechless as that Wednesday wore on. As a person who teaches media, and now a person who creates media content, I had never encountered someone labeling the story #FakeNews, and someone in Facebook accusing the article to be a Russian bot.

The thing is, by denying something in your mind - because it's too upsetting - is contributing to racism. That is why all people must commit to becoming anti-racist, and doing that every day. The whole event at my local blog made me expand and tighten my comment policy, that even included No Grammar Shaming. Because all people - on both sides - were suffering and lashing out.

Words Matter

This is where the theme of this newsletter comes in. Words matter. What you say to your customers matters. What you don't say to your customers matters. I've seen a lot of newsletters that refer to the word in vague terms, and my guidance on that is to use the real words of what is happening: racism exposed. It is here. It is always here. It will always be here by any person at any time, and recognizing it to resist it lies in your hands.
The words you use in your newsletters to describe this year of 2020 matter. Here are simple terms being used in newsletters that I recommend you change:

• "With the world being upside down"

• "This has been a crazy year"

• "Everything is chaotic!"

Each of these terms can and should be changed to what they are: "With this racial revolution amidst a pandemic." Take a minute to reflect on how things are. Are things upside-down? Or are they right side up? Or are you just seeing them for the first time? And we have been living upside-down? And we are trying to turn things right side up? "We" meaning white people who have been part of the creations of many rules and laws that limit and oppress Black people.

Black people and People of Color are generously sharing their trauma with us, so that white people can recognize when something doesn't fit or stings.

Here are the next set of words you can delete from your vocabulary and replace:

• "racial slur" 

• "racial epithet"

Both of these terms are disguises for "racial insult." A slur is when someone is drunk. And yes, "slur" also means an implication to hurt someone, but who really uses this word in that context, unless it's with "racial slur." And do you even know what an epithet is? Or how to pronounce it? And is it "epithet" or "epitaph?" Let's stop being polight.

You get what I mean. It's an insult. A sting. A dart. Forget these numbing words and use the words with feeling behind them. It hurts!

Where To Find Your Words

Digging down rabbit holes is crucial right now. Let yourself explore and discover new voices, and new comfort zones. Here are some people I have been following:
@amandaseals @yellowswagger @alitawfiqmuhammad @millennial_matriarch @__izdihar__ @bfftherapy @iamdaniellepitts @innkcoffeeyoga @becauseofthem @theblackmancan @blavity @iamtabithabrown @the.coloredgirl

And so many more...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and keep saying your words.

xoxo

A News Site Led By Women Of Color: Prism

In an article written by Hanaa' Tameez, Prism, a news site led by women of color, is discussed in regards to marginalized people.

Senior reporter, Tina Vasquez, shared a story last month about a doctor in Georgia, Mahendra Amin, “who allegedly forcibly sterilized immigrant women in the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Georgia.” Vasquez, a seasoned immigration and reproductive rights reporter, used her resources from the south when she first heard about whistleblower Dawn Wooten’s complaint against the doctor.

“Whenever there’s something breaking, it always starts with a Slack message from Tina where she just says, ‘ASHTON,'” said, Prism editor-in-chief, Ashton Lattimore. “Once that story broke, Tina sprang into action. She’s well-connected within the circles of migrant folks, particularly in the South, so she started reaching out to people within the community where this was happening, and to the advocates who were behind the complaint to see what she could learn.”

“This wasn’t “a clear-cut narrative about a whistleblower being a hero,” Vasquez said. “It also came from my understanding, covering immigration for a very long time, that so many of the injustices we hear about in detention centers — especially as they relate to in-custody deaths and people becoming ill — start with the medical department.” A cut-and-dry whistleblower story “didn’t gel with what I knew as a reporter and didn’t gel with what I was hearing from affected women and sources that I trust.”

From Hanaa' Tameez -

Vasquez interviewed residents of Douglas, Georgia, who knew Amin and said he was a “pillar in the community” and started a Facebook page to support him. She also spoke to immigrant women who had encountered both Amin and Wooten, a nurse who used to work at ICDC, and alleged that Wooten was “complicit” in their mistreatment and “made jokes at their expense.” It was important to include these threads in her stories, Vasquez said, even if they complicate what originally might have seemed like a saga with a clear hero and a clear villain.

Lattimore agreed that it was more important to bring these women’s stories to the forefront. “We’re not going to silence their voices just because what they’re saying might be complicated or confusing,” Lattimore said. “This is about them…This is a systemic problem, and these are the women who are bearing the brunt of this systemic, long-term issue.”

The approach of centering the voices of marginalized people in its stories is core to Prism’s mission. “No matter the subject, Prism’s editorial content is rigorous, fact-based, and starts from the ground up by centering the perspectives of impacted people, community leaders, and grassroots organizers,” the site’s Mission page explains. 

Nonprofit entrepreneur Iara Peng founded Prism in 2018. Lattimore, a former attorney and graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, is Prism’s editor-in-chief, a role she stepped into this past summer after serving as managing editor there since November 2019. The team also includes a senior editor, three reporters including Vasquez, an operations manager, an administrative assistant, a digital communications manager, and an intern. Most of the staffers (including all the reporters) are women of color, and they all live in different cities, which allows Prism to keep tabs on stories happening across the U.S.

Prism’s journalism is about a number of different themes: gender, elections, criminal justice, immigration, race, and worker’s rights. But those issues often intersect. “As we built our reporting team and our relationships with freelance folks, we started to see the degree to which all of these issues are interconnected,” Lattimore said. “A lot of our workers’ rights stories are also gender justice stories, and a lot of our immigration stories are also racial justice stories. On the website, it’s helpful for readers who have a particular interest area to know what to click on. But our reporters and editors have a deep understanding that a lot of these things are more than one thing at once.”

As a nonprofit, Prism is funded through donations and the support of foundations like Open Philanthropy and Women’s Foundation of California. Another key funder is the liberal news site Daily Kos, which also republishes all of Prism’s stories. The site’s Code of Ethics lays out how it thinks about the concept of impartiality:

As a non-profit, non-partisan media organization, Prism does not contribute, directly or indirectly, to political campaigns or to political parties or groups seeking to raise money for political campaigns or parties. 

However, we recognize that journalists are as much members of our society and polity as anyone else, and as such can be significantly impacted by policies enacted at the local, state, and federal levels. Our aim is not to set our newsroom staff apart from the political process or their roles and obligations as citizens and community members. Nevertheless, to maintain our readers’ trust and our editorial independence and integrity, we ask that editorial staff refrain from taking an activist role in partisan political activity, including volunteering for campaigns, signing petitions, participating in marches or rallies, displaying lawn signs or making political contributions. This policy applies only to political activity specific to a candidate or party. Issue-oriented political activity is permitted and encouraged, along with participation in civic, charitable, religious, public, social or residential organizations.

Prism also has a republishing partnership with Migrant Roots Media, which translates Prism’s stories into Spanish. The targeted partnerships with national and local organizations allow Prism to build trust with different communities of readers. “If you’re going to shift narratives in this country, you need people to actually read what you’re doing,” Lattimore said. Going forward, the focus will be on building more publishing partnerships with local organizations across the country.

As part of that goal, Prism on Tuesday announced its senior fellowship program, in which writers will work with Prism’s editorial team to shape coverage of key issues and solutions in their communities. The fellows will write for Prism, and at least one story by each fellow will be part of a larger investigative series produced by staff reporters and freelancers. The first class of senior fellows includes Patrisse Cullors, the cofounder of Black Lives Matter; Mary Hooks, the co-director of LGBTQ group Southerners on New Ground; Mónica Ramírez, the founder of Justice for Migrant Women; Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party; LaTosha Brown, the cofounder of the Black Voters Matter Fund; Kevin Killer, a former South Dakota legislator and cofounder of Native Youth Leadership Alliance and Advance Native Political Leadership; and Aimee Allison, founder of She the People and president of Democracy in Color.

Much of Prism’s editorial strategy has centered around leaning into the reporters’ expertises and filling the gaps in reporting left by mainstream news outlets. And while all of the beats focus on heavy issues, Prism’s culture section (“that tab is my happy place,” Lattimore said) works to uplift and amplify the work of creators of color. Prism doesn’t employ a full-time culture reporter, but Lattimore said all of the reporters are empowered to do culture reporting through the lenses that they’re interested in, whether it’s criminal justice or gender justice or something else.

“Our approach to culture reporting is, like everything we do, fundamentally rooted in the justice and resiliency of communities of color,” Lattimore said. “I think it’s important to cover culture in a way that’s not explanatory. It’s just letting people share their work, trying to understand more deeply the significance of it, and what it means in our own lives.”

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Associated Press (AP) Changes Guidelines To Capitalize "B" In Black; "I" In Indiginous

As coverage of racial issues has spiked since the death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020, journalists and even regular people in their social media posts or emails are paying attention to when to capitalize words that identify people such as “Black", “Indigenous” and “white.”

On June 19, 2020, the Associated Press announced via blog post from John Daniszewski, the AP’s Vice President of Standards, that its style would be to capitalize the “B” in Black, as well the “I” in Indigenous. Conversations about these terms, and all language, are always being considered, and Daniszewski confirmed: “We continue to discuss other terms, including minorities and people of color, as well as the term ‘Black, Indigenous and people of color.’”

To make the distinction clear, Daniszewski emphasized: “AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa. The lowercase black is a color, not a person.”

Journalism Professionals And National Association of Black Journalists Have Long Asked For This Change

Former president of National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), Sarah Glover, said in a second open letter to the AP published June 11, 2020 (her first was published in August, 2019) that she is aware of others before her who have asked for this change: “I’m not the first to propose this change. I’ve read multiple published opinions on the topic over the past decade in particular. I first asked AP editors to consider the change last August.”

In an interview with PublicIntegrity.org, Glover expanded upon why the change contributes to racism: “George Floyd’s tragic and untimely death by a Minneapolis police officer brought to the surface of the American psyche the horrors of institutionalized racism. The case made to capitalize the “B” in Black is about dismantling assigned identity in language by those in power in the media (often white people) and affirming a particular community and how it defines itself. Use of the capital “B” in news reporting style in some ways mirrors the systemic inequality so many everyday citizens are working to eradicate.

”Ironically, journalists will find themselves covering these protests. Yet the media industry must do more than simply cover the protest, it must reckon with and change itself, too. The media industry must dismantle its own biases. The complex history of race in society shows up in how journalism publications assign meaning with words and coverage. Unpacking this is as relevant as the coverage of the pandemic.”

In the AP’s elaborated announcement on its blog, they explored the capitalization of the “N” in Negro: “Nearly a century ago, sociologist W.E.B. DuBois (wow, please read this) waged a letter-writing campaign to get newspapers to capitalize Negro, saying a lowercase “n” was a sign of disrespect and racism. The New York Times took his advice in 1930, calling it an act of recognition and respect for those who’d spent generations in ‘the lower case.’ Negro fell out of fashion with the Black Power movement of the 1960s, coming to symbolize subservience. African American was often used, but is not always accurate — some Black people don’t trace their lineage to Africa.”

News Outlets Who Already Made The Change

Glover pointed out that prior to the AP’s official change, some news outlets had already made the decision to capitalize the “B” in Black when referring to a person, including NBC Owned Television Stations (Glover is currently an executive with NBC), The Seattle Times in 2019, and The Daily Orange, a student-run newspaper at Syracuse University. Glover pointed out that some Black run media had already been capitalizing the “B” in Black, and the Washington Post identified a few as Essence, Ebony and the Chicago Defender.

Since the AP’s announcement, more news media groups adopted the policy, including the USA Today and its affiliated network of more than 260 local papers, The Los Angeles Times, NBC News, MSNBC, BuzzFeed and the McClatchy newspaper chain. The Washington Post itself was still considering as of the time of that article.

The “w” In White

Meanwhile, the AP has declared that for now, the “w” in white will remain lowercase, even when referring to a type of person, not a color of paint. Says the AP: “AP style will continue to lowercase the term white in racial, ethnic and cultural senses.”

The AP went on to explain their thought process, which they concluded, is ever evolving: “After a review and period of consultation, we found, at this time, less support for capitalizing white. White people generally do not share the same history and culture, or the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color. In addition, AP is a global news organization and there is considerable disagreement, ambiguity and confusion about whom the term includes in much of the world.

”We agree that white people’s skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices, and we want our journalism to robustly explore those problems. But capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.”

Glover feels that this decision to capitalize the “B” in Black is separate from the treatment of “w” in white. She told Publicintegrity.org: “The case for capitalizing the “B” in Black is a separate discussion from capitalizing the “w” in white. The mistake some news organizations or arbiters of this issue made was connecting the two and suggesting that the decisions for the “B” and “w” were binary, meaning they were directly related to each other. There are two separate discussions to be had.

”The case for the capital “B” is focused on affirming a group of citizens of the world. African descendants living in America often have no defined ethnic lineage to a specific country or countries. Like the many African Americans who may have no known genetic link to a particular country due to the history of slavery, the capital “B” serves as an inclusive identity that notes a shared experience, race and ethnicity. Conversely, a known heritage is a more common reality for many white people, Asians, Hispanics and Latinos. As they may be more likely to know their country of origin, if relevant to a story, the media would likely publish that cultural or ethnic background. It is for those reasons, albeit not limited to, that the case for capitalizing the “B” in Black was made.”

What To Do With This Information

Aside from writing it correctly - and knowing why - in your social media posts, pitches to the media, emails to friends and colleagues, you might also be wondering how to handle yourself or your business in this racial revolution.

If you are unsure about how to talk about racial issues or the treatment of Black people right now, Tin Shingle can be a soundboard for your needs. Tin Shingle is an idea center for business owners, artists, makers and community organizers who are trying to get the word out. Consider membership so that we can begin discussing your needs in our Community Forum.