Race: Reality vs. Symbolism in San Diego
By Aly Colón ,The Poynter Institute

It began innocently enough with a chance encounter between two editors at the San Diego Union-Tribune.

R.B. Brenner, the Union-Tribune's weekend/enterprise editor crossed paths with Blanca Gonzalez, an assistant metro editor, on his way to a Friday news meeting. He showed her the black-and-white copy of a photo illustration slated to run that Saturday on the front page.

The illustration sought to reflect the diversity of San Diego County for a special section on race relations that would coincide with President Clinton's visit to the area. The photomontage featured six people: men and women of different races, ages, and occupations.

Gonzalez glanced at the montage. She liked it. "It looks very nice," she said.

But where's the African-American?

Brenner pointed to the man in the top left corner. Maybe, he thought, she didn't realize that the man was black because she was looking at a black-and-white reproduction of a color photograph.

But her question sounded a warning bell in Brenner's mind. He said so at the meeting, igniting a series of intense, vigorous, and challenging discussions about race and how it is depicted in a newspaper.

The assistant metro editor's question went beyond representation. It pitted reality against symbolism. It addressed stereotypes and expectations. And it led a number of editors, reporters, and photojournalists to examine the newspaper's role in depicting who we are racially.

REPRESENTING THE RACES

The idea of the photomontage itself came out of series of discussions aimed at covering Clinton's June 14, 1997, commencement address at the University of California at San Diego. The president had said he would focus on race relations, and he was expected to draw upon his own history growing up in the segregated South.

The newspaper had opted to do several stories focusing on such areas as Clinton's life in the South, his record versus his promises on racial issues, and a local package.

"Since Clinton was making a personal speech, we wanted a personal, intimate feel to (the local story)," Brenner said.

Todd Merriman, the senior editor for news, had asked Karen Clark, the Solutions editor, to help find a local perspective. The Solutions team spotlights neighborhoods, individuals, and programs offering solutions to community problems.

The editors had wanted to get people in San Diego talking about race in an interesting manner. So they had invited newsroom staffers, including photo director Mike Franklin, and Robert York, the photo chief, to brainstorming sessions to talk about how to make the story reflective of the people who lived in San Diego County.

The consensus from the brainstorming sessions had been to choose ordinary people who could speak intimately about race and could talk about what they would do if they were in Clinton's shoes. The package became known as "Solutions from the Heart."

CHOOSING FOR DIVERSTIY

The team had chosen 13 people to interview and photograph. They had included an African-American minister, a Zapotec Indian from Mexico, a Filipino barber, a young African-American woman who was a part-time college student, a retired white woman, a woman engineer born in Taiwan and now a U.S. citizen, a young white man who felt he was the victim of reverse discrimination, a Latina counselor, an American Indian woman who had grown up on the reservation, a retired African-American Navy cook now a prison administrator, an immigration inspector of Cuban-Mexican heritage, a white woman administrator, and a Jewish high school student.

Clark and York had met to decide which of photographer Eduardo Contreras' pictures would be used for the package. Both had read the stories. Clark said she knew care needed to be taken in order to ensure some diversity in the photomontage. As Clark remembers it, York at first wanted to pick the best pictures, even if it meant the montage did not contain a range of hues and ethnicity. But once Clark had pointed out that the story was about race and that diversity needed to factor into their decision, York had agreed it should be one of the considerations in their selection.

They had chosen enough people for a six-person and a nine-person photomontage. A dozen photos out front seemed too unwieldy. Graphic artist Anital Arambula had created a six-person photomontage that both Clark and York liked.

It had included the African-American minister, the Zapotec Indian, the Filipino barber, the retired white woman, the young white man, and the Native American woman.

"We made the selection based on what six people worked best for the package...based on our readings and the pictures," York said. "As it turned out, the pictures that seemed most active also represented the people with the most interesting things to say."

Clark had gone through a mental checklist of any objections she could envision. She had felt the photomontage worked. Everything had appeared ready for publication. Then, at the 11 a.m. meeting of the 25 department heads and section editors, Brenner had repeated the assistant metro editor's question about the missing African-American.

LIGHT SKIN, DARK CLOUDS

Brenner argued that the light tone of Rev. James Hargett's skin might cause people to think he was white and that there was no African-American in the photomontage. Another editor agreed with him, suggesting the Union-Tribune would look strange doing a story about race relations without showing a black face.

Franklin, the photo director, strongly disagreed. He felt the strongest stories and photos had been selected. He argued that the African American had been chosen because of his eloquence, experiences in the South, and involvement with civil rights marches.

"Who am I to say he shouldn't be represented out front," Franklin said. "It was frustrating to me that the symbolism was more important than the reality."

Franklin worried the newspaper would be guilty of stereotyping if Hargett was replaced by a "blacker" person. Besides, he added, if anyone called and complained, the paper could respond that a black person was indeed in the photomontage.

But others viewed the photomontage as a visual teaser drawing the reader into the special section. If some readers failed to see a "black" face, would they turn to the section?

The group decided to revisit the issue later with a smaller group of editors. Franklin felt uncomfortable pursuing the discussion further without York, the photo chief, who had helped select the photos.

That afternoon, Brenner talked the case over with Bob Steele and Keith Woods, who teach ethical decision-making and diversity seminars at Poynter. He talked to York. He also consulted Ron Powell, one of the reporters on the project and an African-American. Until then, Brenner said, everybody involved in the decision-making process had been white. There were no African- Americans in the newspaper's first three layers of management. Powell, who had done the story on Hargett, concluded that no change in the photomontage was needed.

THE SECOND MEETING

A group of four Union-Tribune staffers--senior editor Merriman, York, Brenner, and Franklin--met about 2 p.m. to follow up on the earlier discussion. Clark, the Solutions editor, was out of the office at the time.

The meeting of the four men lasted about an hour and 15 minutes. Everyone spoke openly. All felt uncomfortable addressing the question of whether Hargett, the African American, was "black enough."

The race series, already into its third day, had been generating positive feedback from blacks and whites, Brenner said. But if black readers looked at the photomontage and didn't see a black face, it could color their view, he thought. He was convinced the newspaper needed to face the potential reaction to the picture rather than spending time debating whether Hargett was black enough.

"I came to the conclusion that this was an icon," Brenner said. "That there was nothing to help the reader identify the individual (Hargett) as black."

York remained adamant that the minister should remain. "It's pejorative for us to say to a man with his history in the African American community that he wasn't black enough to represent them," York argued.

Franklin brought a personal perspective to the issue. Although he has Latino roots (both his grandmothers came from Mexico), his name and his looks often make it difficult for others to identify him as a Latino. His own grandfather described him as a chameleon because, he said, Franklin could pass for Latino, Greek, Italian, or anything else.

"I have a personal sensitivity to this issue," Franklin said. "I have faced that question."

Besides, Franklin added, the same argument didn't arise with the Latino or Asian pictures in the photomontage. Did the Asian man represent the Chinese? The Japanese? He is Filipino. And was the Latino-looking man standing in for Latinos or Native Americans? He is both.

Merriman, who chaired the meeting, recognized the validity of the argument that the light-skinned Hargett was, in the end, black, and could represent African-Americans. But this was an illustration, not photojournalism, he said. It was meant solely to represent a variety of people and get readers to turn to the package.

"The reporting was the package," Merriman said. "The illustration was a glorified refer," referring readers to the larger package inside.

Merriman suggested a compromise: Let the white woman represent all white people. Replace the young white man with the young African-American woman who was part of the package but whose photo came in after the pictures for the photomontage had been selected. Leave Hargett in the photomontage.

AN UNTIDY SOLUTION

The photo editors were not thrilled, but they saw it as a reasonable alternative. Clark, the Solutions editor, arrived in the building just after that meeting ended. York told her about the plans to change the photomontage. She worried that, in her absence, the debate implied that she had not thought about diversity in the original decision-making process.

She immediately went to Powell, since he had done the story. He told her Hargett should remain in the montage. Clark, who disagreed with the decision to change the montage, decided to attend a late afternoon meeting where a final discussion on the issue would be made.

"The way it was presented to me was: The Reverend Hargett wasn't black enough to represent African Americans," Clark said. "I found that offensive on its face. It was defining people based on generalities, based on skin color."

Next stop: the 4:30 p.m. front-page news meeting. Karin Winner, the Union-Tribune's executive editor, had seen the photos before. The Solutions preprint section had already come out and Winner had read it and praised it. Then York passed out the original and the revised photomontages.

Winner said she could see how readers might not immediately know that Hargett was an African- American. She said she also understood the concern about having the newspaper decide who is "black enough" to represent the African-American community.

Winner went around the room asking for feedback. It was a close call, she said, but she decided to go with the revision.

"I wish it hadn't been necessary to do it," Winner said.

She said she wanted to be particularly sensitive to the black community, whose members had expressed to her their deeply held beliefs that the newspaper didn't care about representing them accurately. The fact that Hargett was so light skinned that he might not be seen as an African-American would send the wrong message, she thought.

"It was a sad situation that we had to manipulate this to send the right message," she said. "But we have to think about how we're going to be received by our readers almost as much as the integrity of the product."

QUESTIONS

1) How could R.B. Brenner's question about the original photomontage have been raised sooner?

2) Who were the principal stakeholders in the process and how well were their concerns addressed?

3) What were the possible consequences of leaving the original photomontage as it was?

4) What are the ethical concerns involved in arranging a photomontage to ensure a particular message is being conveyed?

5) What is the journalistic purpose of a photomontage in this story?

6) How might the discussion about race have been handled differently?

7) Are there other alternatives the Union-Tribune editors might have considered to resolve this issue?

Aly Colón teaches ethics, how to cover undercovered communities, and race relations coverage at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. Previously, he worked at The Seattle Times as its diversity reporter and coach and as an assistant metro editor.