In her new analysis published in the Washington Post blog The Monkey Cage, “The White Press has a History of Endangering Black Lives Going Back a Century”, WISIR faculty member Megan Ming Francis explores the long, often clumsy, and occasionally dangerous role of the white press in protest and policing. To frame the role of the white press in the George Floyd protests, she looks toward the past: examining another moment of inflammatory press behavior a century ago in Arkansas. A topic also explored in her book Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State, she argues that “In their best moments, newspapers and the news media can democratize information and amplify important public discussions, expanding everyone’s welfare. In their worst, they can spread falsehoods, encourage violence, and do great harm. Reckoning honestly with history can help these institutions choose a better path.”
The full article can be found here.
