As we enter into Black History month I want to recognize the role that Black media plays in preserving all of the stories that we celebrate during this time and throughout the year. Without Black media so much of our history would go untold, or would be told with indifference or inaccuracy, so it must be celebrated. Celebrating Black media means celebrating those who came before us like Samuel Cornish John Russwurm’s Freedom’s Journal, the United State’s First Black Owned Newspaper; as well as today’s Black media makers: writers, radio hosts, filmmakers, producers and all of the other Black people fighting to stay relevant in a world that loves our work and yet hates to support us.
Part of celebrating Black media is supporting it, whether that means adding your name to a mailing list or enrolling in a paid subscription. Black media is important because it highlights a heavily marginalized perspective. In the same way that establishing more Black owned businesses stabilize our communities, supporting Black owned media ensure that Black media makers have a platform to amplify their voice. I thought that I secured this rare type of opportunity as a writer: to work with a Black owned media platform last year when I was chosen for the Chief Editor position at the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper.
With all of the fanfare that happened when I was initially selected for that prized position, the circumstances of today leave me in a very awkward place.
I still get letters from folks addressing me as the Chief as well as congratulatory remarks from those who have yet to hear the news. At first it was my intention to stay silent until everything blew over, but silence is deadly. I realize that it’s my responsibility to establish my own narrative around the situation and my silence runs the risk of leaving many readers and supporters feeling disillusioned and confused.
During the Fall of last year, in collaboration with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, I coordinated the National Prison Strike for prisoners’ human rights in 17 states across the country. By the end of the strike we collected over 400 endorsements from groups and organizations around the world. Once the strike ended I knew that my work wasn’t over, so when I received a request from Mary Ratcliff, editor of the Bayview newspaper, about her seeking me out to be their newest Chief Editor I was initially overjoyed. It seemed like the perfect place where I could continue to use my passion for activism and my skills as an organizer and journalist. I knew that the paper served incarcerated folks across the country, not only by publishing news on subjects related to the struggle, but by also amplifying their voices and publishing their work. I accepted the invitation to come visit the Bayview area and check out the newspaper. When I visited, to my shock the Chief decision maker of the National Black Newspaper was an elderly white woman. I wondered, ‘How is she able to keep this going?’ I was also surprised that there weren’t as many hoops to jump through as I would have expected from such a large legacy media platform. I concluded that it was due to my being ‘made for the position’ seeing the obvious void that needed to be filled but unfortunately that wasn’t exactly the case.
In contrast to what the small excerpt in the January edition of the newspaper implies, it was not at all my decision to leave the Editor role at the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. I want to make this clear because many incarcerated people struggle with abandonment and I do not want to seem as though I abandoned Bay View readers in any way. When I was dismissed, I’d fully expressed my passion for the work and my alignment with the mission of the paper. I also expressed my commitment to the incarcerated folks that the paper served and my devotion to the abolitionist movement. Understanding the potential that the newspaper has to be a leader in that movement I would never quit on such an opportunity.
As young Black journalist, this chance to be paid for being a writer is one that I would never pass up or quit on.
The decision to leave was not my choice, especially not after only a couple of months. I want to be clear in saying that I was dismissed from the roll. The only reason that I was given was due to my lack of experience, which I thought was clear when I was originally offered the position in September. I was also told that there was no capacity to afford me. Once I was ‘hired’ I was expected to fundraise for my own salary as well as for the salaries of any others that I wanted to add to a staff team. I was coming down to the Bay area every month over the Fall and early Winter to work with the paper which didn’t give me a much time to get things done. The timeline is brief for the months prior to my being dismissed from the Chief Editor role.
I was offered the position in September and I accepted the position as Chief Editor by October after my first visit to the area. I was officially announced as the Chief Editor of the San Francisco Bay View in the November edition of the newspaper. That month on November 21, is when I was publicly presented to the Bay Area as the paper’s Chief Editor at an open meet and greet event. Throughout the late fall I visited the Bay area every month to work directly with the newspaper and wrote stories for the paper remotely. During the first week of December was my last trip to the Bay area as Chief Editor of the newspaper. A couple weeks after that trip, while I was in Detroit for the holiday season, the Ratcliffs expressed their discontent with me. I was dismissed from the position well before the New Year. While I did raise a few hundred dollars over my short time there, they’d faulted me for not raising as much money as they wanted and for not remedying their financial difficulties. While I was very apologetic I knew that they had already made up their minds. I felt like the opportunity that was handed to me, that I knew I could excel in, was ripped right from underneath me. I didn’t even have the chance to demonstrate my effectiveness in the role long-term.
I’d been flaunted in front of the world as the newest face of the paper and then cast away silently with little clarity as to why.
My vision for the Bay View newspaper was to elevate it to a media outlet that we could control and use for the progression of our people culturally, politically, socially and even economically. Having a Black owned platform for media is something that is rare in this country and the opportunity to expand the Bay View from what it is, a small business ran by an elderly mixed-raced couple hanging on a thread in regards to funding and efficiency into what it could be, a media powerhouse with a full staff team and potential sister outlets in other states was something that I took very seriously. The Bay View began as the New View founded by Muhammad al-Kareem, a black man, 41 years ago and was purchased by the Ratcliffs 28 years ago. The Ratcliffs expressed their interest in expanding the paper by bringing me on as the Chief Editor but, while I was in Detroit for the holidays they’d expressed to me that they no wanted me. I was shocked to have been brought on to expand a paper that was not at all prepared. After speaking with a few different advisors associated with the paper I decided that my vision did not align at all with the Ratcliffs. The Bay View, while it is called the National Black Newspaper, is not being ran as such and the Ratcliffs are not interested in rectifying this issue, at least not anytime soon.
I don’t fault the elderly couple for their excitement in wanting to secure a replacement. I understand that the paper has been weak financially due to their inability to finance it with Willie Ratcliff’s construction company that had been doing well before his health began to decline. There have been more than five attempts at securing a Black editor over the nearly three decades that the couple has owned the paper. However, there is and has been a chief editor of the Bayview over these three decades and sadly it’s not a Black person. While there are Black faces that frequent the Bayview, I assure you that none of those make the power decisions. I almost allowed myself to be one of those faces, but I refuse to be silent when my name is involved. It is my responsibility to be clear about my role in any organization with which I am associated. Once the Ratcliffs are ready to sell the paper myself along with some other media makers may be interested.
I deeply regret that I will not be able to create the dream team that I envisioned for the Bay View Newspaper, especially after connecting with so many young eager and talented, Black media makers in the area. I’m writing this story for a couple of reasons and it’s not at all to attack the paper or its owners. This situation was given a lot of attention in the onset so I want to console those who naively believed (including myself) that my role as Chief Editor equated to solidifying the movement towards abolition. My role in a specific organization could never make or break the movement. It is me as an individual who holds the skill and the passion, and it is my choice to direct where that energy could be most effectively used to contribute to the movement. As with any organization, the Bay View is dependent on the individuals who are involved. I assure you, it doesn’t matter what title is under my name, my commitment to the movement is what will achieve its success. This goes for any organizer: Just because you’ve lost an opportunity that you thought you had or you didn’t get a grant that you thought you needed, that does not mean that the movement is stifled and surely doesn’t mean that you are.
