Table Of ContentHow Racism
and Sexism
Killed Traditional
Media
Recent Titles in
Racism in American Institutions
Brian D. Behnken, Series Editor
The Color of Politics: Racism in the American Political Arena Today
Chris Danielson
How Do Hurricane Katrina’s Winds Blow?: Racism in 21st-Century
New Orleans
Liza Lugo, JD
Out of Bounds: Racism and the Black Athlete
Lori Latrice Martin, Editor
Color behind Bars: Racism in the U.S. Prison System
Volume 1: Historical and Contemporary Issues of Race and Ethnicity in
the American Prison System
Volume 2: Public Policy Influence(s) toward a Racial/Ethnic American
Prison System
Scott Wm. Bowman, Editor
White Sports/Black Sports: Racial Disparities in Athletic Programs
Lori Latrice Martin
Racism in American Popular Media: From Aunt Jemima to the
Frito Bandito
Brian D. Behnken and Gregory D. Smithers
Voting Rights under Fire: The Continuing Struggle for People of Color
Donathan L. Brown and Michael Clemons
The Race Controversy in American Education
Lillian Dowdell Drakeford, PhD, Editor
How Racism
and Sexism
Killed Traditional
Media
Why the Future of Journalism
Depends on Women and
People of Color
JOSHUNDA SANDERS
Racism in American Institutions
Brian D. Behnken, Series Editor
Copyright © 2015 by Joshunda Sanders
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a
review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sanders, Joshunda V.
How racism and sexism killed traditional media : why the future of journalism
depends on women and people of color / Joshunda Sanders.
pages cm. — (Racism in American Institutions)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4408-3081-5 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-4408-3082-2 (electronic)
1. Mass media and race relations—United States. 2. Sexism in mass media—United
States. 3. Racism in mass media—United States. 4. Mass media and minorities—
United States. I. Title.
P94.5.M552U665 2015
305.8—dc23 2015013427
ISBN: 978-1-4408-3081-5
EISBN: 978-1-4408-3082-2
19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook.
Visit www.abc-clio.com for details.
Praeger
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
ABC-CLIO, LLC
130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911
Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
Previously published articles in Bitch magazine and at the Maynard Institute for
Journalism Education are included here with permission.
Contents
Series Foreword vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
1. Traditional Media, Race, and Gender before the 1970s 1
2. The Early Failures of Racial and Gender Integration in
Traditional Media 19
3. Communities of Color and Media Bias 29
4. Examples of Racism and Sexism in Legacy Media 53
5. The Apex of Inclusion for Traditional Media 95
6. How Social Media Replaced Traditional Media for Women and
People of Color 115
7. Conclusion: The Progress of Women and People of Color since
Integration in Journalism 131
Notes 157
Bibliography 173
Index 183
This page intentionally left blank
Series Foreword
How Racism and Sexism Killed Traditional Media is the second monograph
that explores institutional racism in the media to be published in the Prae-
ger series, Racism in American Institutions (RAI). With ongoing examples
of racism in a variety of media outlets, especially journalism, racism as an
institutional factor in American newsrooms is a pressing topic. The RAI
series examines the ways in which racism has become a part of the fabric of
many American institutions. For example, while the United States may have
done away with overtly racist policies such as Jim Crow segregation, racism
still affects many of America’s established institutions from public schools
to corporate offices. Similarly, schools may not be legally segregated, and
yet many districts are not integrated. While much has changed, people of
color often discover that finding jobs in journalism is difficult, and if jobs
are found black people tend to be pigeonholed in positions whereby they
report on “minority issues.” This open-ended series of one-volume works
examines the problem of racism in established American institutions. Each
book traces the prevalence of racism within that institution throughout the
history of the United States and explores the problem in that institution
today, looking at ways in which the institution has attempted to rectify rac-
ism, but also the ways in which it has not.
How Racism and Sexism Killed Traditional Media explores racism and
sexism in journalism from a historical, social, and personal point of view.
Joshunda Sanders has much experience in this regard, having worked for
many years as a reporter in a variety of news outlets. She notes that for gen-
erations segregated newsrooms attempted to block people of color’s access
to mass market media. Instead, African Americans and other ethnic groups
developed their own media outlets, especially newspapers in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. When newsrooms began to take proactive steps
to bring about a measure of desegregation in the 1970s and 1980s, they
often did so in stereotypical ways. Black reporters could report on “black
issues” or issues the editors and managers deemed salient to minority
viii Series Foreword
communities. In some ways, skin color gave reporters of color access to
jobs, but only jobs that in the eyes of their bosses pertained to communities
of color. This has not only resulted in a stereotypical and jaundiced view
of black journalists; it has also made it difficult for news organizations to
retain reporters who come from ethno-racial communities. The result is
the perpetuation of media racism, and not its eradication.
Joshunda Sanders is well positioned to write this book. Her many years
of experience in the news industry, as well as a broad variety of journalism
jobs, make her an expert on this subject. How Racism and Sexism Killed
Traditional Media touches on a myriad of topics, from media bias and dis-
crimination to integration and its failures in the media, from race and social
media today to the historic evolution of African American and female jour-
nalists. The wide variety of topics explored in this book makes it an impor-
tant contribution to our understanding of institutionalized racism.
Brian D. Behnken
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa
Acknowledgments
The idea for this book emerged while I was doing grant-funded media cri-
tiques for Dori J. Maynard at the Maynard Institute for Journalism Educa-
tion. I have a depth of gratitude that is unmatched in most areas of my life
for the Maynard Institute, Dori, Elizabeth Pinio, Evelyn Hsu, Bill Elsen,
and Michael Frisby, with whom I worked from 2012 into 2013 when I was a
freelance writer in Austin. The feedback, ideas, and editing from this group
of people kept me afloat emotionally and financially during a particularly
difficult time in my development as a journalist, writer, and scholar, and
I honestly have no idea how I would have made it through that really diffi-
cult time without them.
The librarians at the Library of Congress were gracious, attentive, and
endlessly helpful and patient. Thank you. I should know my way around the
place, but there is something so special about your library that it made my
brain stop working as soon as I walked in.
Speaking of special libraries and librarians, thank you to Jenna Freedman,
Shannon O’Neill, and Martha Tenney at the Barnard College Archives for
the generous research award, which lent a valuable component to this work
that I would have not been able to include without your gracious enthusi-
asm, support, and encouragement.
During the writing of this book, two of my most influential mentors in
newspaper journalism, Kenneth Bunting and Dori Maynard died suddenly.
Ken Bunting was a tremendously generous man, and he offered me hope
for ascendance in work—not as a woman or a woman of color, but as a
person with heart and integrity. I hope he would have been proud of this
work, like my many other great mentors including Tommy Miller, Dori
J. Maynard, Celina Ottaway, David Steele, Evelyn C. White, Alice Walker,
Mary Ann Roser, Susan Sward, La Tricia Ransom, Paul Wilner, Marianne
Constantinou, Ellen Sweets, and Andy Alford.
A special thanks to Marcia Z. Nelson, Andi Zeisler, Lynn Garrett, and
Clay Smith for helping me keep myself fed as I embarked on writing this
book before I found a day job.
