As a radio personality, I felt an immense amount of pressure to discuss this civil rights movement before I was educated enough or ready to. The memes about "If you're staying silent, you're a part of the problem," had me scrambling trying to find the right words to say. We're always taught in broadcasting to "stay unbiased" "state the facts" "tell the truth" -- but here's the thing... the TRUTH isn't being told in full anymore... As someone who works in media, we are glamorizing the looting & the vandalism and in turn, that is putting this misdirected stigma on peaceful protesters who's messages are getting overshadowed by the violence.
But how do I articulate all of that in my 30 second breaks? Correctly, and effectively?
You don't. You let the people whose voices need to be heard do It. And that's why on #BlackOutTuesday -- I stayed muted, and opened up that conversation with people on social media about educating me on It more so that I could learn and do my job better for them, for us. Here It is.