5 takeaways:
➀ Never change who you are to keep a job. When Kenneth Cooper, senior editor at GBH News (formerly WGBH), thinks of the proudest moments of his 30-plus year career, being part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team is near the top. But there was another moment when one of his friends was advising a group of restless young African American journalists: “Look at Mike Frisby [The Wall Street Journal’s White House reporter]. Look at Ken Cooper. They own their identity, and they’re successful.” In recounting this conversation to the Widening the Pipeline fellows, Cooper added: “I think she was trying to tell these young people, ‘Look, you don’t have to cede your identity to be a success in journalism.’ And I’ve always thought that was a price too high and unreasonable. When I’ve trained journalists of color, I’ve always tried to teach them to own their identity, and model that, and embrace their community.”
Kenneth Cooper (standing, 3rd from right) with his Boston Globe colleagues, winners of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize. Photo: Courtesy of the Boston Globe.
➁ Impress with intellect, not pizazz. In an era when numbers of “followers” and social media presence are highly valued, Cooper focuses on one important element when looking for newsroom talent: “I’m taking my measure of the quality of their mind and how smart they are. That’s particularly what I do when I interview people. You know, I want to see and sense that they’re thinking about their answers. People who come in with sort of glib answers don’t do a lot for me. I really want to emphasize that. You may have had this skill, you may have had that experience, but if you’re a smart-thinking individual, I can train you to do whatever you haven’t done or don’t know how to do yet.”
➂ Editors often forget that their lived experience isn’t the only one that matters. Cooper recalled a newsroom discussion about a proposed policy that would ensure that egg-producing chickens are not confined in spaces that are too tight. While that may be a valid animal rights story, Cooper thought of it from another perspective. “What I did say … is ‘Eggs are a cheap source of protein. And I’m concerned about the low-income mother with children being able to afford that cheap source of protein.’ And the reason I felt that and said that was because I was that kid at one point with my mother and her four kids and her grocery list in a little notebook — one of those little miniature spiral notebooks was so specific [that] it went down to the cents. So many cans of green beans at 30 cents, this is in the ’60s, 33 cents a can or whatever. And I did assign a reporter who did that story.”
➃ Sharing context about lived experience is important. People of color must battle the same stereotypes in the newsroom as they do in the streets, and Cooper has heard the “angry black man” trope often. But he knows how to turn it on its head. “I once said to a white guy who actually grew up poor in housing projects in South Boston, and he was working for a presidential candidate, and I was covering that candidate. And I said to him at one point, I said, ‘Look, I’m Black, you’re white. We’re on the same airplane. Who do you think worked harder to get here?’ And the answer was obvious to him, even him, who grew up poor in the housing projects in South Boston.”
➄ Discrimination doesn’t have to dismantle your future. Cooper doesn’t pull any punches for journalists of color. “You’re going to run into racism in your newsrooms. And you have to calibrate carefully your response. I know calling people out is a big thing, and that may sometimes be the appropriate response. But I would urge you that, when confronted with such, take a breath, take a minute, and calibrate your response so that your response doesn’t end up harming you and your career — and you get your point across.
The Widening the Pipeline fellowship is sponsored by the Evelyn Y. Davis Foundation, Bayer AG, J&J and Twitter. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
