I pride myself on attending such a historically progressive university as UW-Madison. Despite (well-founded) criticisms of our lack of diversity, I think the university makes a strong effort to represent and honor diverse cultures and ideas. But when I picked up both campus papers this morning on my way to class, I realized I may have been giving this campus too much credit.
The Daily Cardinal ran a news brief on a woman who was robbed on Langdon Street last Friday night. They wrote:
"According to the police report, a woman walking home alone was unlocking her front door when a black man grabbed her purse and sprayed her with pepper spray when she struggled."
Not until the next paragraph does the author provide further description of the suspect:
"The suspect is described as being 200 pounds and wearing a black baseball hat, white shirt and blue jeans."
I've taken enough reporting classes to know that mentioning a suspect's race is dicey territory. Would we mention the suspect's race if he were white? Does the race of the victim matter? What effect will the inclusion or exclusion of race have on society's stereotypes of crime in America?
I am not arguing for the total removal of race from crime coverage. However, the Daily Cardinal's placement of "black man" in the paragraph above his size and clothing descriptions indicates to the reader that "black" is the most important descriptor of this criminal. In a three paragraph story, race stands out, and readers are inclined to look more carefully for black men on Langdon than white shirts and blue jeans on fraternity row.
Clearly, despite the Daily Cardinal's claim that UW is colorblind, the paper's crime briefs are not.
While Badger Herald reporter Alexa Sunby refrained from using race in her coverage of the Langdon incident, the Herald committed another racial gaffe.
The front-page teaser for a story on a Madison Police Department investigation that led to a heroin bust features two black actors, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. This picture (seen above) comes from the movie Bad Boys II, in which Smith and Lawrence play narcotics detectives investigating the flow of ecstasy into Miami.
The South District Community Police Team, the group that conducted the investigation, has only one black officer on the team. (The rest are white, Asian or Hispanic.) Why then, accompany the story with a picture of two black men?
Maybe the Badger Herald is trying to diversify its news pages with more images, and hopefully stories, showing minorities in a positive light. It was not as if the paper used two black actors to illustrate the drug dealers in the story. Even so, we must be careful when we pair race and crime. Students and faculty without time to read the article on the heroin bust may not look into the photo's relevance to the story, and quickly make assumptions about suspects or the investigating officers. In a society that is clearly not colorblind when it comes to crime (as the Daily Cardinal demonstrates), that risk is too great.
The Badger Herald and Daily Cardinal may have had the best intentions in publishing their stories as they did. But given our society's racialization of crime, I argue race should only come into play when it bears directly on the story and when it is accompanied by fuller descriptions of all parties. If the Daily Cardinal wanted to refer to the robber's race, they could have included it next to the details of his clothing (although I'm not sure how relevant the suspect's race is at all). Similarly, if the Badger Herald wanted to run a photo with their heroin bust coverage, they could have used a photo of the police team, the officer in charge or any number of drug-related images.
If my campus wants to maintain its "we welcome diversity" reputation, student papers should be more cognizant of the pictures they paint and the messages they send.
Photo Credit: The Examiner
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