Black, and female to boot

Last week, Newsweek reporter Raina Kelley wrote on the media coverage of Harry Reid's comments about President Obama. (Reid was quoted in a new book, saying he supported Obama because he was "light-skinned" and lacked a "Negro dialect).

Kelley praised the media for their recognition of three main points:

1. Harry Reid's gaffe is very different from Trent Lott's years ago. Whereas Lott attributed today's (well, 2002's) problems to racial integration and the end of segregation, Reid supported a black man for president.

2. Reid should not be forced to resign. This would only anger voters who support Reid and distract from the real issue: race relations in America.

3. Reid chose his words poorly, but there is some truth to his statements. Researchers, Kelley said, have found that people are more receptive to perceived threats when they see darker faces. Reid's stereotypes about black people are misguided, but there exists psychological backing as to why he holds these ideas.

So what do we make of this? If a black woman is pleased with coverage of the Reid race comments, that says something about progress in America. But beyond what Kelley argues, there is another element:

Why was this column written by a black woman?

There are a plethora of possible answers, from "she chose this topic and pitched it to her editors," to "she and Ellis Cose are the token race reporters here at Newsweek." I hope the latter is not the case.

Whenever I see Rev. Jesse Jackson lament racial profiling in urban areas, I wonder how much power his comments would have been were they echoed by a white person. In the same vein, I wonder if writing a column as a black woman--a column about race--dilutes the pool of receptive readers? Does it fail to fully integrate Newsweek's newsroom by giving "race" to the minority reporters? I would say so.

For the American Society of News Editors' most recent data on minorities in the newsroom, click here.