‘Stars aligned’ as protests highlighted racial issues, Washington Informer publisher says

Protests for racial justice amid the new coronavirus pandemic have combined to give real momentum to efforts for change, Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer, said during a virtual National Press Club interview Thursday.

Rolark Barnes, who has been publisher of the African-American news outlet since 1994, said that issues of police brutality and social unrest have been covered by Black newspapers for generations. But the lack of distractions for people who have seen their lives disrupted by the pandemic mean there is a renewed focus on these issues and has shone a light on them.

“The stars aligned,” Rolark Barnes said. “It was the opportune time; I hate to say it. George Floyd’s death ignited things that have been going on and connected the dots on what has been going on in communities across this country.”

The Black press, which has existed since 1827, is familiar with the issues being protested nationwide like police brutality, mass incarceration and the over-policing of low-income and minority communities, Rolark Barnes said.

Where the Black press has an advantage, Rolark Barnes said, is that their reporters are in the affected communities, talking to victims’ families and helping younger generations understand how to address these issues. While other media organizations are catching up, she said the Black press has a leg-up on the competition.

“We see, to some extent, how an organization like Black Lives Matter has risen,” Rolark Barnes said. “We see why young people particularly, and those are the ones whose voices we are trying to amplify, because there’s a new generation dealing with issues our parents and grandparents had to deal with for generations.”

Rolark Barnes said she is confident that the country is changing, although the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 was not a watershed moment for race relations in America. She said the Trump administration “pulled the covers off America” and the issues that continue to exist, and until those systemic issues are addressed, progress will be slow.

“Unfortunately, we are a violent country,” Rolark Barnes said. “We love our guns. Sometimes we love them more than we love our neighbor.”

News outlets have focused on diverse hiring in recent years, although Rolark Barnes said there is still a long way to go. When news organizations face revenue challenges and must make cuts, often it is minority reporters who are at risk, she said.

“As long as there is trouble in the neighborhood per se, those people who run those newsrooms look around and realize, ‘Oh my God, we don’t have anybody to cover the story,’” Rolark Barnes said. “But then when the calm comes, they revert back to their old ways.”

Rolark Barnes said she hoped the media attention on the issues faced by minority communities will continue, especially amid a pandemic that has had disproportionate effects on those same communities. Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police was the story that “blew the lid off and made America aware,” she said.