Lewis Wallace, the only openly transgender man working in public media, was fired from his radio job at Marketplace after he re-posted an essay on his personal Medium account that his boss had initially directed him to take down. The title of the essay – “Objectivity is dead and I’m ok with it.”
It was an attempt to reconcile what Wallace understands to be the fundamental duty of journalism, while trying to, in his view, “adapt to a government that believes in “alternative facts” and thrives on lies, including the lie of white racial superiority.” It’s worth a read, and not just because it cost him his job. (His boss said the post was a violation of their ethics code.)
From his post:
Neutrality isn’t real: Neutrality is impossible for me, and you should admit that it is for you, too. As a member of a marginalized community (I am transgender), I’ve never had the opportunity to pretend I can be “neutral.” After years of silence/denial about our existence, the media has finally picked up trans stories, but the nature of the debate is over whether or not we should be allowed to live and participate in society, use public facilities and expect not to be harassed, fired or even killed.
Obviously, I can’t be neutral or centrist in a debate over my own humanity. The idea that I don’t have a right to exist is not an opinion, it is a falsehood.
On that note, can people of color be expected to give credence to “both sides” of a dispute with a white supremacist, a person who holds unscientific and morally reprehensible views on the very nature of being human? Should any of us do that? Final note here, the “center” that is viewed as neutral can and does shift; studying the history of journalism is a great help in understanding how centrism is more a marketing tactic to reach broad audiences than actual neutrality.
Neutrality isn’t real: Neutrality is impossible for me, and you should admit that it is for you, too. As a member of a marginalized community (I am transgender), I’ve never had the opportunity to pretend I can be “neutral.” After years of silence/denial about our existence, the media has finally picked up trans stories, but the nature of the debate is over whether or not we should be allowed to live and participate in society, use public facilities and expect not to be harassed, fired or even killed.
Obviously, I can’t be neutral or centrist in a debate over my own humanity. The idea that I don’t have a right to exist is not an opinion, it is a falsehood.
On that note, can people of color be expected to give credence to “both sides” of a dispute with a white supremacist, a person who holds unscientific and morally reprehensible views on the very nature of being human? Should any of us do that? Final note here, the “center” that is viewed as neutral can and does shift; studying the history of journalism is a great help in understanding how centrism is more a marketing tactic to reach broad audiences than actual neutrality.
There’s a lot to unpack in his essay. But at the heart of his argument is an important distinction between accusing someone of believing the lie of white supremacy, and of enabling the lie in order to benefit from it. “Do I want to weigh in on whether or Donald Trump personally feels racism or white supremacy in his heart? No,” Wallace said in a
“Do I want to weigh in on whether or Donald Trump personally feels racism or white supremacy in his heart? No,” Wallace said in a lengthy interview with Current, a news outlet that covers public media. “Do I consider white supremacy to be a false framework that we should reject as scientifically false and dangerous to all of us? Yes.”
This is the core mistake that people continue to make he says, which is why he was so wanted have the conversation publicly. And because he waived his two-week severance, he’s now able to. (He also wryly observes that he’s now contributing to the epidemic of unemployment among the trans people, who are unemployed at twice the rate of the population as a whole. Some 44% of working trans people are dangerously underemployed and living at or near poverty.)
Since we all have a stake in how journalism evolves, it’s a conversation we should all care about. But regardless of your opinion on media neutrality or Wallace’s actions, this is also a story about inclusion. “I also believe that media needs to change to make space for the diverse voices it purports to desire within its ranks,” he said in a follow-up post on Medium.
Making space means finding ways to allow the many difficult conversations about how your work is conducted to happen. And this is exactly what makes this story important fodder for leaders from every industry.
If you’re asking your employees or colleagues to operate within a system that requires them to check their humanity at the door or renders them invisible, they may find a way, perhaps a public one, to bring that to your attention. If that feels like a threat, it’s going to be a bumpy ride for everyone. But if that feels like an opportunity, then not only might people thrive at work, but your market share might too.