Dear Sara, Muzammil, Tikvah, Frank, Keith, Riki, Emily, Zoglul, Suresh, Hui Yee, John, Souad and Caroline,
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This is the first newsletter of Inclusive Journalism, thanks for subscribing!

I thought a lot about what I want to share in this newsletter with you every week. One way to find out if I’m going in the right direction is your feedback. I really hope this newsletter will grow into a community where we share and exchange ideas with each other. Please don’t ever hesitate to hit the reply button for this reason! I’d love to hear and learn from you.

This week: what have we learned from Black Lives Matter?

It's almost eight months since George Floyd got killed by police brutality in the US and global Black Lives Matter protests followed. It was another wake up call for the media and their role in maintaining global white supremacy as professor of Black Studies Kehinde Andrews describes the culture of whiteness in our Western societies.
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​The topic of media diversity has been at the core of my media career and the events of 2020 reminded me a few things:

• Media diversity has been discussed for decades but there is still a lack of awareness;
• We tend to always look outside of ourselves or outside of our newsroom for solutions, instead of focusing the gaze inward and self-reflect;
• Journalists are very good at using words, analyzing and rationalizing topics. That culture of discussing and debating creates pseudo-solutions.

It strikes me that most of the journalists advocating for media diversity, equity in the industry, are journalists of color. There aren’t a lot of white journalists still advocating now - months after the 2020 protests - for structural change (Are there? Hit reply!). It seems like we’re back to business as usual, although usual in these times isn’t completely the same as before.

Lesson #1: policy not people

One of the lessons from the Black Lives Matters protests is to focus on policy instead of people. The policy of structural racism is embedded in American history and in order to change that we need to get a better understanding of the past. Instead, the media now focuses so much on Donald Trump as the evil almost ex-president that it’s easy to forget how he got into office in the first place. It’s too much credit for Trump to say that he single handedly caused the division in nowadays American society. The documentary ‘Crack’ on Netflix is a must see in that regard. The ‘war on drugs’ in the eighties led to corrupt police officers, racist policies in reducing the problem, a government that covers up dubious practices and the maintenance of systemic inequality. When you watch this documentary you’re not surprised about the current state of the world's most influential country.

Lesson #2: decolonize ourselves

Another lesson coming from the Black Lives Matter movement should be that we need to decolonize our sources. Once you’re aware of systemic racism, you’ll understand that the news sources you grew up with are very Eurocentric or US centric. To change perspective we need to listen to voices that don’t get the attention they deserve.

It was my reason to come to Asia and learn about the media ecosystem in this part of the world (I’m currently in Bali, Indonesia). Because in my country The Netherlands we’d always look close at the developments in other European countries or the US. As if countries outside of The West are all lagging behind.
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I interview journalists in this region to get their view on inclusive journalism. Data journalist Kuek Ser Kuang Keng is the latest in this series. He talks about the difference in racism discussion between his home country Malaysia and the US where he worked for several years, the white newsrooms in America and the role of data in creating inclusion.

Lesson #3: reflection is key

One more insight I personally got from the antiracism demonstrations is the similarity in approach with mental wellbeing. It’s not a coincidence that so many journalists struggle with their mental health and at the same time the profession as a whole also lacks diversity. The demands of the newsrooms are high, there is hardly any space or time for reflection. In order to go forward, we need to look back first and learn from our history. Not just on a (inter)national level regarding the colonial past or the ethics of journalism itself but also on a personal level in relation to our own lives, our upbringing, our values. What do you bring to the newsroom and how vulnerable are you to today's stress?
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I'll talk more about the links between these topics in newsletters to come.

As with the current challenges in systemic racism and the questions around mental wellbeing, the root of the issues need to be observed and changed. An enormous undertaking but you can start with simple questions to ask yourself today.

What can you do?

Journaling is a great tool for reflection and since I’m part of a weekly writer group in Ubud, Bali we do prompts often. So I’ll give you one for this week:

• Think of your favorite radio or television show, film and/or magazine, newspaper, comic books you consumed as a child and teenager. Were there roles for people of color? If so, what were their characteristics? If not, what reasons could you give for their nonexistence? Was this realistic for environment the story took place in? Why or why not?

See you next week!