Thanks so much for your responses. Race can be a difficult topic of conversation, for sure, and I appreciate you taking the time to explain to me your reasoning.

Nancy

So I was not aware that there would not be a photo of her in the Huffington Post article.

I suggested that 91短视频 could run a photo of the MLK memorial in Washington DC in their article, but again none were on file as noted by Bonnie.

I debated naming her as an African American woman in the article, but also anticipated criticism if I had done that. Journalists have gone back and forth on this issue and there has been extensive discussion with the African American community about when and how to mention the race of people in news articles. The journalistic rules that are generally followed are that people should be identified by race if and when race is important to the news article.

A few years ago on campus, I led a campus discussion on race about when and how to use racial references when referring to crime… to ensure that white perpetrators were also named as “white.”

In my last Huffington Post article, I noted that most school massacres are carried out by white men, and that it was important to recognize that white men more often than African American men felt entitled to carry out large scale atrocities.

I am not blind to race. But if every hero and every perpetrator were named by their race, I’m not sure this would make the news less racist. It is important to identify when and when not to identify.

I can see your point of view in this case. I agree that being blind to race is not what we are striving to achieve. I agree that white privilege is something blind to most white people. I agree that we don’t have enough positive media coverage of African American heroes. This is something I have worked to correct for many years.

I will remember your critique.

Regarding the posting a photo of Antoinette Huff, the 91短视频 Communications Dept. is able to post photos pulled from its own university photography archives — as we did for this somewhat-dated photo of Lisa Schirch. We cannot, legally, grab news photos (or any others) off the Internet and re-use them without obtaining the permission of the photographer (or the entity) that holds the rights to that photo, which can be difficult and time-consuming to obtain.

Should this be so? I think not.

Perhaps a headline such as ‘Meet the Black Woman Who Used Conflict Transformation Skills to Talk Down the White Male Atlanta School Shooter’ (along with Antoinette Huff’s picture) might be more appropriate.

I’ve changed the headline because perhaps mentioning race is the appropriate thing to do – especially when so many news reports sensationalize ‘black on white violence’ and distort reality in doing so. When we attempt to be ‘colorblind’ we do not acknowledge the experience and reality of ‘others’. When children grow up seeing their ‘race’ misrepresented (perhaps mainly portrayed in a negative fashion) in the media, they internalize a skewed view of reality. Yet in this article, ‘race’ was not omitted, the face of a white woman is prominently displayed. There was opportunity to to undo racist attitudes with this story, and the opportunity was not taken. I find this to be racist. Systemic racism, of this sort, is violent for sure. Please think about the messages children receive from such news reporting.