A note from the editor on race, Spotlight and The Mac Weekly
By: Zac Farber, Editor in Chief
Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: Opinion
In the opinion section this week, Celeste Prince raises questions about how The Mac Weekly selects which students to profile in its Spotlight section and how the paper addresses issues of race. These questions merit a response.
I believe, and the Mac Weekly staff believes, that representing the entire Macalester community is integral to the role The Mac Weekly plays on campus, and we always welcome feedback about the inclusion of the complex and diverse identities of the student body.
I want to address Prince's comment that "a little representation is even better" when it comes to race. On this, I am in wholehearted agreement. While I do not believe that The Mac Weekly has purposefully disenfranchised students of color or neglected to include them in stories, there is no disputing the fact that the paper's staff is lacking in students of color. Our editors are culled from our writers, and our writers are recruited primarily through a beginning-of-semester meeting that we advertise in the pages of the paper and in fliers around campus. We don't really select writers, and everyone who is willing to write is welcomed. This approach seems inclusive, but for whatever reason, it has not succeeded in attracting students of color to positions on the paper. We have always had a disproportionately white staff in relation to the makeup of the student body, and this semester the trend has been exaggerated and we have almost no students of color on staff. Informal social networks surely play a role in this pattern, and I would agree that this homogeneity is detrimental to our ability to cover the entire campus. We are welcome to any suggestions about how to make The Mac Weekly more accessible to students of color.
Prince also asked about the details of the Spotlight selection process. The Spotlight section editor-this semester, Liz Scholz-makes the selections of whom to profile. While we do try to cover a wide cross-section of the senior class (the section is, with some exceptions, reserved for seniors), the aim of the section is not to bestow an honor upon students or even to highlight student accomplishments. Instead, in choosing students, the Spotlight editor tries to show the relationships that Macalester has helped foster and the fun things that students do together. We have already tentatively selected the Spotlight subjects for the rest of the semester. Partly in response to Prince's concerns, we have added a form on the Web site where students can nominate themselves or their peers for a future profile in the Spotlight section.
I believe, and the Mac Weekly staff believes, that representing the entire Macalester community is integral to the role The Mac Weekly plays on campus, and we always welcome feedback about the inclusion of the complex and diverse identities of the student body.
I want to address Prince's comment that "a little representation is even better" when it comes to race. On this, I am in wholehearted agreement. While I do not believe that The Mac Weekly has purposefully disenfranchised students of color or neglected to include them in stories, there is no disputing the fact that the paper's staff is lacking in students of color. Our editors are culled from our writers, and our writers are recruited primarily through a beginning-of-semester meeting that we advertise in the pages of the paper and in fliers around campus. We don't really select writers, and everyone who is willing to write is welcomed. This approach seems inclusive, but for whatever reason, it has not succeeded in attracting students of color to positions on the paper. We have always had a disproportionately white staff in relation to the makeup of the student body, and this semester the trend has been exaggerated and we have almost no students of color on staff. Informal social networks surely play a role in this pattern, and I would agree that this homogeneity is detrimental to our ability to cover the entire campus. We are welcome to any suggestions about how to make The Mac Weekly more accessible to students of color.
Prince also asked about the details of the Spotlight selection process. The Spotlight section editor-this semester, Liz Scholz-makes the selections of whom to profile. While we do try to cover a wide cross-section of the senior class (the section is, with some exceptions, reserved for seniors), the aim of the section is not to bestow an honor upon students or even to highlight student accomplishments. Instead, in choosing students, the Spotlight editor tries to show the relationships that Macalester has helped foster and the fun things that students do together. We have already tentatively selected the Spotlight subjects for the rest of the semester. Partly in response to Prince's concerns, we have added a form on the Web site where students can nominate themselves or their peers for a future profile in the Spotlight section.
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dany
posted 11/11/09 @ 12:20 PM CST
the mac weekly has been a hostile environment for students of color for as long as I can remember-- 6 years now? This is cyclical and culutral. Sure, Zak, you may not be willing to interrogate that in a public forum, but I would really really really recommend some internal work. (Continued…)
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