Wesley Lowery is an accomplished writer for the Washington Post and a Pulitzer Prize recipient for his work on the “Fatal Force Project”. He came to Penn State to speak the Foster Foreman Conference for Distinguished Writers Series. He read one of his pieces and then answered audience questions. Lowery spoke on many different topics, but the overlying theme had to do with racial inequality in the United States. Primarily he talked about police brutality.
“I think we are collectively paying a little less attention right now. In a lot of the work we’ve done, like some of my colleagues at The Washington Post for the past few years, it is about attempting to quantify the depth and the extent of police violence” Lowery said.
Lowery has a lot of experience with police brutality since he has been reporting on it for a few years. He was even arrested when he went to Ferguson to report about the Michael Brown riots. Lowery’s statement about us not paying attention is true, to an extent. I believe that the awareness of inequality is prominent on college campuses, such as Penn State, but in the general public has turned a blind eye. Most people who live outside of hotbeds of thought and innovation, such as universities, do not think about the issues that people of color experience every day.
This is an important lesson for journalists, because we need to be aware of all of our readers and all issues that are occurring in society. A journalist must make sure they are reporting the truth and breaking news that tell the facts without shaming a group because they are simply a race other than white.
Tamara Lawson wrote an article called “Powerless Against Police Brutality: A Felon’s Story.” In it, Lawson discusses the many struggles that someone who is in the system may face.
“Police brutality victims must confront two very challenging situations: (1) how to successfully overcome the government’s criminal allegation that the suspect/victim aggressed the police, and (2) simultaneously preserve the ability to bring a civil rights violation as a plaintiff/victim against the police for the true brutality suffered” wrote Lawson.
Lowery also took some time to talk about social media and police brutality. “I have never watched the Alton Sterling video with sound. I have never watched the end of the Philandro Castille video. I’ve written about those cases, but I know what happens in those videos” Lowery said. I think this is a smart way of approaching the social media issue. We all know how the videos end, so why watch? To see another human die is an experience that is not necessary for our lives. It causes more harm to our minds and hearts. We can still recognize what is happening is a tragedy without watching the death of another person.
Journalists must keep ethics in mind when it comes to the matter of death. In the case of Philandro Castille, journalists must be aware that the subject and images can be shocking to their viewers.
Cassandra Chaney wrote in the Journal of African American Studies about the subject of police brutality as well. “Police brutality is not a new phenomenon. The Department of Justice (DOJ) office of Civil Rights (OCR) has investigated more than a dozen police departments in major cities across the USA on allegations of either racial discrimination or police brutality (Gabbidon and Greene 2013)” Chaney wrote.
Chaney’s point that police brutality is not a new issue Is rather eye opening. This makes Lowery’s work even more important. Lowery has shed a significant amount of light on the matter over the past few years. Lowery’s book, “They Can’t Kill Us All: The Story of the Struggle for Black Lives”, is a tell-all book on the issue at hand.
I think that this issue has opened my eyes in the way of a journalism student. I learned to be aware of all of my readers. I need to make sure that I am taking into consideration all of the people who will see my work, and that I need to be showing all groups the same. Too often, news sources like Fox will slant their news to almost make it sound as if being a race other than white is not okay. We see this rather often in news and also media like movies and television.
It is important for the younger generation to be aware of what is going on and actively working towards a better future for everyone. We need to make sure that news outlets tell the truth without a slant, that we care for one another, and that we are making sure we are working towards a more equal world.
Lawson, Tamara F. “Powerless Against Police Brutality: A Felon’s Story.” St. Thomas Law Review, vol. 25, no. 2, 2013, pp. 218.
Chaney, Cassandra; Robertson, Ray V. Journal of African American Studies; New York Vol. 17, Iss. 4, (Dec 2013): 480-505.