How diverse is …
1. … your executive leadership?
A.
B.
2. … your editorial leadership?
A.
B.
3. … your station’s board of directors?
A.
B.
4. … your community advisory board?
A.
B.
5. … your newsroom and/or staff?
A.
B.
6. … your pool of sources for news and/or content?
A.
B.
7. … your corps of interns?
B.
Democratic House Interns organized to show show the diversity of the Democrats #DemInternSelfie #DemDiversity pic.twitter.com/Fg0tbVYQd8
— US Rep E.B.Johnson (@RepEBJ) July 19, 2016
8. … your programming and content?
A.
B.
9. … your audience?
A.
B.
10. And, how diverse are you?
A.
B.
Congratulations! You’ve completed the quiz! Now add up your score. Score zero points for every “A” answer and a point for every “B” answer.
But how can you really add up a score on diversity? You can’t.
If you have to take a test to find out whether your organization is diverse, it probably isn’t. And even if you consider your organization diverse (and it probably isn’t), the work of cultivating diversity never ends. The moment we begin to take our eyes off the ball is the moment we forget why we’re here.
As Saeed Jones, BuzzFeed’s executive editor of culture, recently said in an interview about diversity in newsrooms, “… [W]e have to get past the point of this being exceptional work.” Diversity is built into public media’s core and mandate. The first ten declarations of the Public Broadcasting Act use the words “diversity,” “unserved,” “underserved,” and “minorities” — and “diversity” is mentioned twice.
Let’s stop patting ourselves on the back as if diversity is something special, a mythical mermaid unicorn, and a side project or initiative that’s diverting our attention from the “real” work. It is our work, it is our attention, it’s our audience, it’s the mission that’s been handed to us as arbiters to represent a true public.
In the words of the wise one:
Yoda out.