EDITORIAL: Black lives matter
June 6, 2020
The Appalachian Editorial Board sends its condolences to those affected by police brutality and systemic racism directed toward black people. These issues have perpetuated in the U.S. for generations and most recently took the lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. We stand with Black Lives Matter and other anti-racism groups fighting for justice.
App State is a predominantly white institution, and white privilege and racism pervade the establishments we are a part of, including our campus and community life. Similarly, systemic racism negatively impacts the diversity of our newsroom. We acknowledge that our coverage, at times, has failed to give way to diverse voices both on and off campus. We commit to being actively anti-racist both in and outside our newsroom and acknowledge that racism is a far-reaching problem in the U.S.
We cannot remove ourselves from our experiences. However, we can listen to and use our platform to shine a light on underserved voices in our community. We have the responsibility to seek truth and report it as defined by the Society of Professional Journalists.
Our nation has failed to listen, kept its eyes closed to the injustice done to marginalized communities, and its silence is the foundation of these issues.
As an editorial board, we are making changes to diversify our paper and educate ourselves, including creating a diversity style guide in our handbook. We plan to be conscious of and deliberately pursue underrepresented voices in our personal reading and reporting, and look critically at the contexts in which our stories are presented.
We encourage the community to engage and share ideas in letters to the editor, which can be sent to editor@theappalachianonline.com.
To all those fighting for justice in the High Country, we stand with you.
For books, podcasts and other educational resources on anti-racism, click here.
For a few organizations you can donate to, click here.
Helpful Instagram accounts to follow:
Helpful Facebook pages to like:
Elizabeth Bunch • Jun 7, 2020 at 7:13 am
systemic racism also includes all minorities, including Native American and melungeons not once has media has considered this. My family came from the Appalachian mountains – and I am Native American white mixed. In fact many would have said I am a melungeons (my family is, I wouldn’t be ) my family left the mountains and went to Detroit. People of Appalachian mountains suffer from systemic racism for generations? inbreed; cousins marrying cousins; the way we all talk, etc.. I have shut that side off as growing up I was embarrassed that part of my family came from the Appalachian mountains. because of the stereotypes.Stop seeing black vs white, systemic racism isn’t only black vs white, the bigger picture is Native Americans, stop leaving them out of everything. Most of us in the Appalachians are mixed! Did you know in the 1800s census records, many Native American/white mixed wrote “White” in the records because of the way society has done and said about Native Americans? most people do not know they have Native American blood. – I knew from oral tradition. stories passed down throughout generations and the tribe where my family comes from? They are 100% gone. sad the way our American history has become.