Harder and social and economic gains plus wild cards missing billions counting the cost on aljazeera. Hi anthony ok youre watching the stream as a journalist myself and most of my colleagues charlie hard not to be the story just to tell the story but what happens when your black journalists and youre covering issues about race and racism we are still in the stream some black journalists around the United States has been covering the joule protests and this is what they told us. Being noble and gentle is in general as training but especially when youre working in a predominately. White any given day that the actions of questions like can i write about yet another legend of a black man or is breaking that law office with no one who looks like me to turn to or do i feel comfortable with letting a number of reported this story know that they may be missing the critical nuances of the situation weve been trying to cover the Racial Health disparities in the system and grazes on the policy violence all these things that are factored into the moment were experiencing right now. On one hand its nice that my turn was finally how the floor in a white dominated industry on the other you have to wonder why it takes a black pain and black trauma to become a trending topic for a black journalist to be valued one of the perspectives of covering this protest this historic moment as a person of color is that the change that people are seeing in these protests is the understanding by americans who are not subject to racism and not subject to Police Violence that this is everybodys problem to solve this is no longer a black problem thank you to all those journalists who helped us start off this program i know you have opinions as well we are streaming and you choose jumping to the chat and you can be part of this conversation to. Me the final im going to say hello to them and they will introduce themselves to you how they sell it. I there Soledad Obrien journalist this is my 31st year as a reporter and anchor mostly in broadcast and cable and have been covering documentaries and breaking news stories often involving race for her many many many of those years thanks for joining us hello there patrice good to have you on the string tell everybody your. Everyone my name is patrice pac i am a freelance journalist ive been a journalist for about 11 years now and i really just cover stories more and about the black community throughout the day at. High they can say. I am Quincy Walters im a reporter at the u. B. Who are bostons n. P. R. News station ive been covering stories about identity pretty much since i started in journalism here is. Welcome everybody im going to start up here im not one of quincy stories is the headline i mean a pecial state of anger hundreds in boston protest George Floyds death what has it been like the out there in the protests for you could say. Its been. Sort of a range of emotions i think the 1st one being concern over you know we are in the midst of a deadly pandemic that was sort of my 1st concern and my 2nd concern is that you know the impetus for these protests is because of police. Brutalizing black people and you know im going out into the world as a black person and at this protest and sort of how can i ensure that its known that i am a journalist. But as we see in recent weeks being a journalist does not make you immune to being harassed by police and also sort of just being able to. Capture the moment and speak to people and sort of share why are there out there especially during this pandemic but also you know answering some questions that you know folks in the newsroom i have or not like so its sort of. What questions well questions to the needs you know. So its sort of like you know in news meetings were kind of thinking about a years its like quincy you know what is this sound like you know. For instance this past week i had to kind of it seemed like a story was forming about maybe doing a profile of. Old who also went viral for singing a few years ago and said we cannot have a headline story. Saying. Thats not what the protesters are asking for those are things that. Hes kind of steering them in in a in a direction where you felt just its a better context or maybe it approaches stowage so is that i cant even imagine how many times there have been incidences of police of silence of people of color being at the wrist the the end of that police finance so when you saw it on the ground you heard about his death what went through your mind as someone who covers race and coach and has done so. I think it felt a little bit different and i think the question is does this difference remain clearly we were in this window we had a we had any cooper here in new york city and chris cooper no relation of the bird or the handsome murderer in central park and all of those stories and of course george floyd and i i think all of those stories caught on camera really captured on a different point of view about race in america and kind of one right after the other and i think it was the combination of all of them. And in 8 minutes and 46 seconds of george floyd that many people all people a lot of people different people not just black people reckon. Like wow this has hit some kind of a boiling point so i think there is something that feels a little bit different its interesting you know when you cover. These stories and theyre been so many for a really long time in their eightys were traumatizing because i dont know sounds too dramatic but its exhausting and its like an assault i mean some days you think like do i do i do i post this do i really up it so people can see the detail of whats happening or do i just feel like im adding to the void of negativity and really you know something thats going to really stress people out and make them more anxious and so thats the debate that i just have personally and also i think in newsrooms i do you sit there and say one of the stories we should be covering to cover this and not cover that whats our point of view on whos a voice that were going to elevate voice are we leaving out of this conversation so i very much admire quincy because it sounds like he has a lot of restraint and patience when he has to say to people like no this is not going to be the story this is maybe help me help you. But you know sometimes doing to help me help you its freaking exhausting its tiring its i think its really tiring. Patrice im going to put you in here this is an op ed that you wrote for the New York Times not a lot of black genista sharing sharing that. Paying them just covering race right now is usual pad lot journalists are exhausted but we keep on keeping on patrice if you keep. My breakdown the exhaustion im getting its not because youre not getting the 2 hours just its big. Yeah yeah thats well beyond that just its its all the things quincy and all of that have been saying it 1st of all you have the pressure that comes with journalists journalism regardless of your race today the news cycle is 247 because of the internet and social Media Publications are still companies every day they need to make money and so therefore they need to push out a constant nonstop flow of information right and whos producing that information journalist on top of that you have black journalists mind you we are in the midst of 2 pandemics the coronavirus endemic is still happening black people in the United States and the u. K. As well as some as well as some other nations are still being disproportionately impacted by this disease and then we also have a pandemic of privacy and systemic racism which has been going on since black people who were brought over here and you know inside of that black journalist we are not in a vacuum we are also hes all right and so there are so many black journalists who either know someone personally or indirectly who has contracted and or died from the corona virus we know someone who is an essential worker. 75 percent of essential workers and at least new york are people of color my mother is a nurse right. And then again it goes back to its own what i was saying and what i mentioned in my essay sort of like a day to day and sometimes hour to hour. News releasing of another black person that has died or has been brutally assaulted or killed by a Police Officer or a vigilante so it is non stop and while as journalists we are objective and we are able to separate you know our personal self from our professional style we still have feelings you know things are so exhausting things are so frustrating. And me personally i still get angry and i want to sort of parallel this to essential workers rights so i have a newsletter that i launched on april 5th called coronavirus news for black folks and in it i started a series called essential and black to spotlight black essential workers because historically white staff media i didnt feel like they were really showing them right and talking to them about their devastating experiences and so i spoke to a kenyan nurse who is based in jersey and she said you know. People forget i think sometimes that you know you even were nurses refill cry she said they would cry every day and on top of that shes a black nurse so she has to constantly you proving to her peers because shes a travel agent as opposed to having like a main staff so she would constantly have to validate herself improve her self that shes good enough to do her job on top of taking care of people during this devastating kind emic so theres just so many layers to it and it doesnt only apply to black journalists it also applies to white journalists right they are not devoid. Of any inherent bias or any. Yeah inherent bias i think its interesting all of the conversations have been around black journalists but i would like to also know how white journalists are being impacted and. And you know i mean for them to interrogate on their own racial dialogue degrade if that will change if you are impact joe. Johns hes white not a black journalist share those schools with us in the meantime i want to go to judea craven shes a report just to slate magazine she told us how she sees how black next to look my identity is why i bring a different perspective to the job and inform how i do my work from the stories i decide to pursue to how i interact with the people i interview blackness and the subsequent education or racism is simply another level of expertise that my black peers and i bring to the job and it allows us to do something a lot of folks in our industry because doors really havent been able to do in their words which is see black folks is human and move our narrative forward accordingly. So that. Yes makes a great point i mean i think there are so much value to being a journalist who is not in the mainstream especially when the stories and the conversations are complicated where its not well this or this but actually incredibly nuanced and and complex and even you know theres no sort of black monolith that all agree is sun every topic and so ive really found it very helpful to be able to even understand what are those conversations that are happening and how do we think about whose voice should be elevated or competing voices that need to be heard so i think she makes a really really good point the other piece that i that i thought patrice up is was was fantastic but i think also theres the whole personal side of it too i cant tell you the number of people who take me aside friends who are white and theyre like i just need to talk to you about this and im like i just cant do it should kill how do you get me i cannot as you said with love you know i cannot do like what i cannot do is spend all day at work tickets and then go and you have to you know spend some time in my personal life and have people call you and say i just want to process this and i think its i think its a compliment right i think its sort of like i feel like i need to walk through this with somebody but its a really terrible to get up your black friend to have a conversation because youre black friends really really really tired. So solid that i have to share this with you tracey hunt is a reporter shes a producer a deadly n. Y. C. Radio in new york and she was talking about this on twitter and people were saying a cake im going to text white people and im going to tell them to do this and im going to tell them to do this and it will help them at work out how to talk to black people tracy hunt says i just had an idea its im doing this center got friends approved and shes basket from harry and davids harry and david is a Grocery Store and have some really nice treats so this idea of being a receptacle for a expert on race quincey i notice that im actually just going to go here and look at how you describe yourself on twitter in your description here you describe yourself as black as a us saying i am a black man i have this expertise box how does it inform your work how do you think it better informs your lists. Yeah so the thing is i have black friends and family a novel idea but you know through that i know what you know people are feeling and what people want and i think that you know this kind of idea came to me at a protest i went to on wednesday where people were calling to action to go to our our city council and so in my mind that kind of a switch went off and said you know people want to see results so you know its sort of like taking huge was from the from what your friends are saying or your family are saying and sort of using your i guess. As a journalist to sort of mine for you know this change that they want so in personally for me ive kind of been like yes last week was a tie in to. This significant reckoning that were having in america once again but next week its time to start looking into you know what do protesters want to find out so you know me and other other coerced sort of compiling a list of things to sort of ask the Boston Police department for you know things that can kind of shed light with how they operate and i think that you know. A lot of my white colleagues feel like you know we all our hands should be on for these protests and some people are walking on eggshells of all you know maybe we should you know look at other places and it seems like everyone is very polite and nothing. Getting said like turning points say well you know. You know maybe all hands on deck. We dont need all hands on deck for approaches maybe somebody can spend their time. Looking and doing some kind of accountability journalism so i think thats sort of you know what i. Im just wondering about whats going on in newsrooms around the United States and a piece of interesting thoughts on a new chief i know many that thank you for sharing your thoughts with us the industry of journalism in the usa by itself is segregated to this day it is a cost system from c. N. N. To m p r then many black goes on to say journalism as an industry it has a culture based on clean tech with katie patrices saying yes yes yes. Yeah. I need to i need more here i looked at her and i did marry lot of. Mainstream journalism i think this shows how difficult it is that this conversation even amongst ourselves as journalists of color because were so used to not saying this stuff out loud well you were on a Mainstream Media platform and you found that or character quite clearly you d asked me carlos. What do you mean by i mean. You have about feet yeah so i worked. For about 3 years i resigned our. Air and i wrote and work for publications that are going to black audiences. Ebony ok africa. I was at a post says as an intern i was also an internet c. N. N. In america documentary unit which soledad obviously ran i was in that during brag a little so i am totally. Yes yes bassist emil i was going to have students. Do you have yet to find the broken wrist give us a shrink week 88 news stream between did you find out what was your experience because you are now free on communion and doing extraordinary projects like courage a stylist news for black people so what would you experience what did you find in mainstream well people can get a really. They can find out about my experiences and some of my former black how receptus these experiences they go to my twitter page because we are revealing a lot of the racist and oppressive things we experience while working is there. For example like there was a happy hour we had there was a news there for some reason and people that photographed it jokingly another white video producer proposed the idea of white people picking cons for the 1st time for black History Month video so just just a lot of these instances that go again to show that newsrooms are not isolated theyre not in back in their part of mr marty which is rooted in systemic racism thats why we are seeing all the periphery televisa videos and these vigilante killing were seeing the amy coopers we have any coopers in the newsroom still to this day and its unfortunate because you know segregation that the user was referring to that is the case when theres room and as i said in my essay its pushing out a lot of very brilliant talented capable black journalists who honestly dont want to enjoy this let me just remind everybody who amy to play hes infamous in the United States right now she was in central park and that was a. Birdwatcher. And there was an interaction between her and the bird watcher which i happen to be a black man and she called the police and she was afraid for her life but she did some some extraordinary acting was she was doing that that is that story that contributes to the kind of the mood right now so im looking at where do we go from here oh you will tweet diana you are described as boss lady you are a woman of caligula journalists of color i wonder if this is the solution boss lady oh youre talking about who controls the news the narrative how the stories. Maybe if there were more people of color. In newsrooms that maybe quincy wouldnt have to that little dance around this is an important story where we go eccentrics but. I dont think in the short term quincy is going to continue to do that in the short term and patrice will continue to push back and talk about her experiences in other news or else because thats where we are so i dont im not a im not particularly pollyanna about results coming anytime soon but 2 things id like to add to what patrice said that i thought was excellent segregated newsrooms i think in a couple of ways when i was working at c. N. N. Im so excited the police work on my my our big project and big up unit thats i feel really old but also im very excited about the heart of the last start of your career i love i was a runner and i love life in america but it was so interesting and you when you said that you reminded me that some of the segregation is when you start working on projects that are going to be focusing on people of color so that in america you know did black in america d latino in america in America Muslim in america is out of there so when you start doing that you appeal to people who are like oh my god finally im going to have a chance to tell some of these stories that ive wanted to tell and so you do in some ways have this segregated you know unit of people lots of people of color in this unit but the other piece of it is that unit is expected to be diverse and i used to have this argument and the. Then all the time its really easy to talk about now that im not there which is you know the expectation was that i would have a diverse team but nobody else was expected to the people would brag about my diversity right and i would go to diversity events and be a diverse face c. N. N. But you know people say you know soledads team is 60 Percent People call or whatever but it can somehow do what i did a morning show yes and youre going to that i cross you yeah no no no we were right at the end of the show this is a conversation thats been going on for decades what is your final thought in our last 30 seconds more decades is a conversation thats going to go on a decades i wish i could Say Something more hopeful but you know. If i could trace how hopeful are you as a final thought. I am hopeful you know we got to keep this energy that the protesters have out here but im hopeful that the program black people im glad youre not have been in that situation well were going to. Concede a diplomat friend thought i did i say im a pragmatist yesterday i spoke to someone who said you know i was protesting during you know rodney king and so you know that was almost 30 years ago and you know here we are and where were you 30 years before that. And you know i just say you know people often say look to history as a guide to what has history has shown us you know incremental progress sort of progress. So but you know i hope this time is different a lot of people are out on the streets during a deadly pandemic and that sort of unprecedented so i mean even that counts for something. Patrice sell it and thank you for sharing your experiences as black journalists covering the george floyd protest existing as journalists of color in the school right now. And so watching everybody to see next. 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