In the words of one of my favorite country songs: ‘Man, I lived it … ‘

“Respectfully, I suggest that your concern about racism in the newsroom with Al as evidence is misdirected…” – A reader writes in response to last Sunday’s column

Dear Sir, the fact that Al The Shoeshine Man shined shoes for a living was not what bothered me. I stated plainly: “What disturbed me and some other black colleagues was not that Al shined shoes. It is an honest living … ”

What I did not say is that editors could easily have set Al up at some place in the vast building of the big-city newspaper that would have been more dignified. I also did not say that I later learned there was a place in that newsroom for a black shoeshine man long before there was ever a place for a black reporter.

Years ago, I interviewed the black reporter who was the first ever allowed into that newsroom. Actually there was a black reporter before him, he told me. He wrote a column called, “Negro News.” But he was not allowed in the newsroom and had to drop his column off with the guard at the security desk.

The first black reporter allowed in the newsroom told me that he was hired on the heels of the Kerner Report, amid the riots of 1968. He said the editor brought him into the newsroom so that white reporters and editors could get used to seeing him.

On the day he arrived, he walked through the newsroom to be introduced to another editor. Standing near that editor, to his surprise, was a black man who gave him the silent brotherly nod as their eyes met.

That other black man was the resident shoeshine boy. And it was clear to the new black reporter that black men were already welcome in the newsroom. That whites clearly were comfortable seeing us there — just not as reporters but as shoeshine boys.

Al’s presence, particularly shining shoes in a big-city newsroom into the 1980s and ’90s, at the feet of white reporters and editors while they worked — an image so connected historically to white racism and oppression and black subservience — was, for me and some others, a reflection of the newsroom’s ugly history, its cultural insensitivity and current climate.

I don’t expect folks who are not African American to “get it.” Anymore than why editors were left scratching their heads after black readers got all hot and bothered over the newspaper once running a photo that kicked off a series on black men — of a black man sitting on a train platform on a case of beer.

Over a career in journalism, I could write endlessly of my experiences of “Reporting While Black.” Of the existence of discrimination and racism within the newsroom. Of countless slights and innuendos. About substantive stuff that you don’t mention — not once — in your note to me.

But time and space won’t allow me to even scratch the surface.

I’ve not, as you say, “confused my own feelings and questions about affirmative action.”

Hardly. I’m 58, a veteran black journalist. I survived the American newsroom. And I succeeded by my West Side grit, by my faith and maybe just by being too stubborn or too stupid to quit.

I have “forged” ahead, as you say, despite the obstacles all good journalists face — and also the systemic racism deeply ingrained in the fabric of the American newsroom.

In the words of one of my favorite country songs: “Man, I lived it … ”

And what I learned while living it is that white privilege and perspective trumps black perspective in mainstream society — and newsrooms. Even to the point that my experiences, lived in my skin, are challenged and called into question by audacious paternalistic assumption.

… Misdirected? Excuse me?

Respectfully, sir, ain’t I a man?

Email: Author@johnwfountain.com

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