Kristen Welker asked the candidates about The Talk. That moment proved the value of newsroom...

[demmiblue]

Kristen Welker asked the candidates about The Talk. That moment proved the value of newsroom diversity.

Any debate moderator could have asked the candidates the question about The Talk — the terrible conversation that parents must have with their children of color to warn them about the hazards their skin color may present for them as they go out in the world.

It’s a talk that advises them how to stay safe, for example, when pulled over by police: Keep your hands visible, be extremely polite and don’t make any sudden movements.

It’s a talk that most White parents don’t feel the need to have with their kids.

Anyone could have asked it, but Kristen Welker was the one who did. And because the NBC News correspondent is Black, the question carried an extra measure of seriousness and authenticity.

It not only prompted some of the most enlightening answers of Thursday night’s final presidential debate. It also perfectly illustrated why American journalists in newsrooms across the country have been so righteously indignant in recent months about matters of race in their own organizations.

Diversity actually does make a difference. It actually does make for better journalism.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/kristen-welker-asked-the-candidates-about-the-talk-that-moment-proved-the-value-of-newsroom-diversity/2020/10/23/d166944e-1533-11eb-ad6f-36c93e6e94fb_story.html

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. I did point out to my sons that if they got pulled over for any reason,

they were far more likely to get a ticket than I was under otherwise identical circumstances, because they were young males. They are white, so they didn't face the same danger that a young man of color would, but their age would work against them.

Now that I am clearly a senior citizen, I never get a ticket the rare times I am pulled over.