'It is heavy. It is exhausting'. Black journalists feel 'the weight' during a tumultuous time

Tracy Schuhmacher
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
A group of Black journalists spoke in a panel discussion about Reporting While Black, presented by RIT’s Division of Diversity & Inclusion and the RIT journalism program.

April Franklin, a host and reporter for WXXI News, was working a weekend shift during the George Floyd protests when the phone rang.

A listener on the other end said she wanted to express her editorial opinion. Franklin listened as the woman expressed her perspective of the protests and looting in Minnesota based on what she had seen in the newscast that day. Franklin recognized the woman was white and reasoned she may support the station financially.

"I was fired up," Franklin said, but she knew she had to choose her words carefully.

When the woman paused, Franklin thanked her for supporting WXXI News and told the caller that she had been talking to a Black woman who had a Black son.

"We had a really interesting conversation," she said. The call ended with the woman offering her blessings, but Franklin found herself exhausted by the experience.

That sense of weariness was common among a group of Black journalists who participated in an online panel discussion called Reporting While Black on Oct. 1. It was presented by RIT’s Division of Diversity and Inclusion and the RIT journalism program. Jonathan Ntheketha, associate director of student success and development in the Multicultural Center for Academic Success at RIT was moderator.

"Right now there is an attack on Black people in America," said Katrina Overby, a post-doctoral researcher and adjunct faculty member at RIT. "It is heavy. It is exhausting." Journalists can leave their jobs at the end of the work day, she said, but they can't leave being Black. 

'The weight'

Sheila Rayam works at the Democrat and Chronicle as community engagement editor.

"Right now, at this moment, I've never felt the weight more of being a Black woman and a journalist," said Sheila Rayam, a Rochester native who is community engagement editor for the Democrat and Chronicle. She feels a responsibility to make sure her colleagues' work is written through a culturally competent lens.

"Not only are you trying to report fairly and accurately for the public," she said. "Outside the newsroom ... my friends and my family are asking me questions, taking me to task, trying to understand, so I'm trying to educate.

"And then there are members of the public who assume I'm going to write things with a Black slant, whatever that is. And then I'm also being an educator to my colleagues, who are all very smart, kind people, but they don't bring their life to the room the way I do when it comes to being a Black woman." 

Several journalists said they feel that need to educate and are called upon to provide "the Black perspective." And sometimes they are quiet during such discussions. 

"As a Black woman, a lot of us have been trained to be quiet, or to operate in a certain way," said Karen Edwards, evening anchor for Spectrum News. "Don't let anyone think you're angry. Don't let everyone see your passion too much, because it will be interpreted incorrectly."

"Just because I'm not loud doesn't mean my voice isn't being heard," she said. "Just being in the room makes such a huge difference."

Representation matters

Tyler Brown, a reporter with WHAM-TV (Channel 13), worked in Binghamton before coming to Rochester. There, he was the only person of color reporting in the market. "It kind of puts this target on you, but at the same time it can be very powerful," he said.

Black people in the community have told him that it's important to have representation. And Black children have said things like, "You look just like me. I want to be just like you." 

The day the death of Daniel Prude came to light, it was a hard day to go to work, he said. He headed to Jefferson Avenue to talk to people in the neighborhood, and a man thanked him for making that effort.

"Not only do we need more representation in news, but we need more representation in our content too," Brown said. He has been pushing for more Black sources in his stories, he said. Other journalists on the panel said that they were doing the same. 

At protests, his colleagues look out for each other, but Black reporters from all of the local stations also watch out for each other. "It's because we realize how small in numbers we are and how differently these issues hit us and affect us," Brown said.

'There's no end'

Joshua Rashaad McFadden, an assistant professor of photography at RIT, talked of his experience documenting the Black Lives Matter movement and protests across the country since 2013. His work has appeared in national publications including The New York Times and National Geographic

In 2017, when Philando Castile was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop, McFadden was in New York City, and he went out to document protests in the streets. "That's the first protest that I was photographing that I realized that this is starting to have a toll on me emotionally," he said. He took a hiatus from that kind of work.

That lasted until March, when he was living in Rochester, working at RIT and dealing with the coronavirus lock downs. Then the news of George Floyd's death broke. "I made a decision to go document it," he said. McFadden drove overnight to Minneapolis and found a city in "deep, deep pain."

"Being there to interview, to document, that's what we bring with us home every day as journalists, as reporters," he said. "It does begin to take a toll."

He traveled to Atlanta and Louisville, Kentucky, documenting the unrest that occurred after the killings of Rayshard Brooks and Breonna Taylor. And when he returned home to Rochester for the start of the school year at RIT, the news of Daniel Prude broke.

"Documenting these situations to where it seems like there's no end certainly would have an emotional impact on us as Black reporters," he said. "It certainly has an impact on me."

But he knows the work of the journalists must continue, because the incidents cannot be ignored.  

"We have no choice ... because we live it," McFadden said.

Reporter Tracy Schuhmacher focuses on food from many facets. Send story tips to TracyS@Gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram as @RahChaChow. Your subscription makes work like this possible.