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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/14/wokeness-black-writers-evening-standard-woke-christmas
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| In future, leave writing about wokeness to black writers | In future, leave writing about wokeness to black writers |
| (21 days later) | |
| On Wednesday, my colleague at gal-dem, a magazine collective of women and non-binary people of colour (PoC) aimed at challenging the monolithic media landscape, received an email that threw the realities of our existence in a white-dominated environment into focus. | On Wednesday, my colleague at gal-dem, a magazine collective of women and non-binary people of colour (PoC) aimed at challenging the monolithic media landscape, received an email that threw the realities of our existence in a white-dominated environment into focus. |
| A features writer at the London Evening Standard had got in touch with our editor in chief, Liv Little. He started off by kindly complimenting the reporting of the Grenfell tragedy in our recently launched print edition, explained that he was writing a “Woke guide to Christmas”, and ended it with a kicker: “If you don’t think this is the worst idea in the world I wondered if you could think of anyone to get some good witty takes from to quote.” | A features writer at the London Evening Standard had got in touch with our editor in chief, Liv Little. He started off by kindly complimenting the reporting of the Grenfell tragedy in our recently launched print edition, explained that he was writing a “Woke guide to Christmas”, and ended it with a kicker: “If you don’t think this is the worst idea in the world I wondered if you could think of anyone to get some good witty takes from to quote.” |
| He completely missed the irony of his action, blinded by the nobility of his plight and his having bothered to contact an outlet like ours for advice. He probably wasn’t expecting Liv’s response: “What about they commission a woman/person of colour to write a woke guide to Christmas? I’m sick and tired of requests like this where our input is asked for things which we should be writing.” | He completely missed the irony of his action, blinded by the nobility of his plight and his having bothered to contact an outlet like ours for advice. He probably wasn’t expecting Liv’s response: “What about they commission a woman/person of colour to write a woke guide to Christmas? I’m sick and tired of requests like this where our input is asked for things which we should be writing.” |
| As a fellow journalist I appreciate that it is sometimes hard, if not impossible, to say no to commissions given to us by our editors – and that there is an outdated mentality whereby editors think that white men can write about anything and everything, whereas black women comment and features writers, for instance, are only ever commissioned on the topic of race. Challenging that, even within an institution, can be hard. | As a fellow journalist I appreciate that it is sometimes hard, if not impossible, to say no to commissions given to us by our editors – and that there is an outdated mentality whereby editors think that white men can write about anything and everything, whereas black women comment and features writers, for instance, are only ever commissioned on the topic of race. Challenging that, even within an institution, can be hard. |
| But to ask the head of another media outlet for their contacts rather than doing research in this context seems shabby: an abuse of power in a time when it’s becoming clearer and clearer just how important it is for the voices of women of colour to be centred and our emotional labour respected. | But to ask the head of another media outlet for their contacts rather than doing research in this context seems shabby: an abuse of power in a time when it’s becoming clearer and clearer just how important it is for the voices of women of colour to be centred and our emotional labour respected. |
| To ask the head of another media outlet for their contacts rather than doing research in this context seems shabby | To ask the head of another media outlet for their contacts rather than doing research in this context seems shabby |
| As the Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow said in the aftermath of Grenfell: “We the media report the lack of diversity in other walks of life – but our own record is nothing like good enough … We have to widen both our contact with, and awareness of, those who live outside and beyond our elite.” | As the Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow said in the aftermath of Grenfell: “We the media report the lack of diversity in other walks of life – but our own record is nothing like good enough … We have to widen both our contact with, and awareness of, those who live outside and beyond our elite.” |
| Lily Allen was forced into declining a Diversity in Media award for her campaigning around the fire – instead she dedicated it to those fighting on the fringes: “rarely recognised” heroes such as Mariem Elgwahry and Nadia Choucair, two of the women who campaigned for improved fire safety before dying in the tragedy. | Lily Allen was forced into declining a Diversity in Media award for her campaigning around the fire – instead she dedicated it to those fighting on the fringes: “rarely recognised” heroes such as Mariem Elgwahry and Nadia Choucair, two of the women who campaigned for improved fire safety before dying in the tragedy. |
| This is not the first time George Osborne’s Standard has messed up when reporting on “wokeness”. Back in June they published a “wokeometer” which featured no PoC (because who’s “woker” than JK Rowling ... ?). Instead of simply asking Liv for a quote herself – standard journalistic practice – this journalist asked her to do the legwork he felt incapable of doing. It was an “unwoke”, lazy shortcut that proved that he was the wrong person to be writing an article on the basis of a word that has roots in black American activist culture, and which – before it was butchered and co-opted by publications such as his – was most commonly used in PoC circles in the UK. | This is not the first time George Osborne’s Standard has messed up when reporting on “wokeness”. Back in June they published a “wokeometer” which featured no PoC (because who’s “woker” than JK Rowling ... ?). Instead of simply asking Liv for a quote herself – standard journalistic practice – this journalist asked her to do the legwork he felt incapable of doing. It was an “unwoke”, lazy shortcut that proved that he was the wrong person to be writing an article on the basis of a word that has roots in black American activist culture, and which – before it was butchered and co-opted by publications such as his – was most commonly used in PoC circles in the UK. |
| But this is not an isolated incident that one media organisation should be culpable for. At gal-dem we are inundated with irrelevant requests for comment, advice and guidance from white people; and it’s tiring, these tokenistic faux attempts at diversity. Even as I was writing this piece I received yet another email from a journalist looking for a comment on a topic I do not care about. I have been asked only because I am a “black” voice, not because I have any expertise on the subject. | But this is not an isolated incident that one media organisation should be culpable for. At gal-dem we are inundated with irrelevant requests for comment, advice and guidance from white people; and it’s tiring, these tokenistic faux attempts at diversity. Even as I was writing this piece I received yet another email from a journalist looking for a comment on a topic I do not care about. I have been asked only because I am a “black” voice, not because I have any expertise on the subject. |
| Beyond this, there is a pattern of behaviour where PoC voices are ignored and our work eradicated from the public eye in favour of white-led narratives. We saw it with Tarana Burke, the black founder of the #MeToo movement, who has received considerably less credit than she is due in certain circles, and was looked over as a cover star for Time in place of Taylor Swift. Reni Eddo-Lodge’s 2017 bestseller, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, was written on the premise that there is “a gulf of emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates their experience”. | Beyond this, there is a pattern of behaviour where PoC voices are ignored and our work eradicated from the public eye in favour of white-led narratives. We saw it with Tarana Burke, the black founder of the #MeToo movement, who has received considerably less credit than she is due in certain circles, and was looked over as a cover star for Time in place of Taylor Swift. Reni Eddo-Lodge’s 2017 bestseller, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, was written on the premise that there is “a gulf of emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates their experience”. |
| Thankfully, I have seen some white journalists make the right call. I have been passed on commissions when journalists have realised they don’t have the capabilities to work on certain projects, and in turn I have passed on paid work to gal-dem writers when I can. As a media outlet ourselves with plenty of talented writers who just need to be given a little help to enter one of the most nepotistic industries in the world, I’d argue that we deserve the funds of billionaires like Evgeny Lebedev – the owner of the Standard – much more than many other feature writers. | Thankfully, I have seen some white journalists make the right call. I have been passed on commissions when journalists have realised they don’t have the capabilities to work on certain projects, and in turn I have passed on paid work to gal-dem writers when I can. As a media outlet ourselves with plenty of talented writers who just need to be given a little help to enter one of the most nepotistic industries in the world, I’d argue that we deserve the funds of billionaires like Evgeny Lebedev – the owner of the Standard – much more than many other feature writers. |
| Internally, as gal-dem reshapes throughout the course of 2018, we are making provisions to set up an internal agency and/or system to protect and help creatives of colour to get paid. We are inspired by the work of publications such as Black Ballad, who have set up a subscription service that means black women are getting content written by and for them, and getting paid in the process. | Internally, as gal-dem reshapes throughout the course of 2018, we are making provisions to set up an internal agency and/or system to protect and help creatives of colour to get paid. We are inspired by the work of publications such as Black Ballad, who have set up a subscription service that means black women are getting content written by and for them, and getting paid in the process. |
| In the meantime, read gal-dem’s very own guide to a woke Christmas. It’s a lot funnier that the Evening Standard’s one was ever going to be. Stay woke, everyone. | In the meantime, read gal-dem’s very own guide to a woke Christmas. It’s a lot funnier that the Evening Standard’s one was ever going to be. Stay woke, everyone. |
| • Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff is a freelance journalist and opinions editor at gal-dem.com, a magazine written by women of colour | • Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff is a freelance journalist and opinions editor at gal-dem.com, a magazine written by women of colour |