Journalism Class Partners with Teen Vogue to Document 2020 Racial Reckoning
As the first anniversary of the 2020 racial justice uprising approaches, 麻豆传媒 School of Communication (AU SOC) journalism students offer insightful reporting about their peers鈥 reckoning with race through a journalism project published by .听
The project, Racial Reckoning: A Year After a Movement Rocked the Nation, is five stories produced by students in Dr. Sherri Williams鈥 spring 2021 COMM 588 Race, Ethnic and Community Reporting class. The series launches May 24, almost a year after a white police officer killed George Floyd and ignited a national racial justice movement.
The project is intended to have emerging journalists document history through the lens of their generation and have the stories amplified by Teen Vogue, a national media outlet that prioritizes racial and social justice reporting, Williams said.
鈥淭his is the first anniversary of this nation鈥檚 latest Black liberation movement sparked by anti-Black violence and it鈥檚 the 100th anniversary of the historic massacre of Black people in Tulsa,鈥 Williams said. 鈥淩ace is still one of the nation鈥檚 biggest problems and underreported stories. Teaching emerging journalists to produce thoughtful reporting about race can help us understand the consequences of internal and institutional racism and show us how we can dismantle it.鈥
The project was a natural collaboration with the magazine because the inclusive journalism that Williams teaches mirrors the journalism Teen Vogue produces, said , senior politics editor at Teen Vogue.
"We were proud to partner with Dr. Williams鈥 class for this important series commemorating one of the largest social justice movements in history,鈥 Kirkland said. 鈥淭he stories her talented students put together are so relevant to Teen Vogue鈥檚 mission to uplift and amplify the experiences of young people, many of whom were on the frontlines of these protests."
Kirkland was a virtual guest speaker in the class early in the spring and students pitched story ideas to her for the project based on the beat they covered during the semester. McKenzie Beard, Dezimey Kum, Zeina Mohammed, Tobi Raji, and Zoe Watkins are contributing writers to the project.
Tobi Raji, a 2021 alumna of the journalism and public affairs master鈥檚 program, wrote about how mainstream media and movements overlook violence against Black women.
鈥淚 want our stories to be as inclusive as possible,鈥 said Raji, 26. 鈥淚 just don't want us to forget about Black women鈥t鈥檚 not an attack on Black men. It鈥檚 not really their fault. It鈥檚 society鈥檚 fault as a whole because it鈥檚 inherently patriarchal. It鈥檚 just a reminder that Black women matter too.鈥
McKenzie Beard, a 2021 graduate of the undergraduate journalism program, wrote about growing support to remove police from schools. Beard wanted to show that worries about a heavy police presen
ce and excessive use of force go beyond neighborhoods where students of color live 鈥 those are also concerns in their schools.
鈥淭hey're not only being over-policed in the classroom, but the police presence affects their actual ability to learn,鈥 said Beard, 21, who is entering the journalism and public affairs master鈥檚 program at AU this fall. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 contained to our neighborhood boundaries at all.鈥
Last year Williams partnered with , which published presidential election stories that students in her race and reporting class produced for the project. Williams was also the co-director of the 2018 award-winning national student journalism project published by The Nation in which Black student journalists documented racism on college campuses. That project was the subject of a Journalism & Mass Communication Educator article.
Raji said the graduate-level race and reporting course helped her develop her narrative and news writing skills to tell powerful stories to a national audience.
鈥淲hat I was given was...a chance to have a seat at the table because of this class,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ecause of the skills that I worked on, I was able to actually sit down at that table. So I鈥檓 excited to see my article published by Teen Vogue and I鈥檓 excited for what this professionally means for my career in the future.鈥
Beard said the race and reporting class and writing for Teen Vogue taught her to think about stories, sources, and the audience in a deeper way than she had before the course.
鈥淚 started thinking about my credibility as a reporter,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 wanted it to be that the credibility of the piece stems from the lived experiences of those interviewed for the story. These sources look, sound and care about a lot of the same things as Teen Vogue 谤别补诲别谤蝉.鈥