MDA | Race Reporting Handbook Why We Need to Talk About Race A message from the Race Discrimination Commissioner How do we tell stories that involve race and racism, in a society that finds it very difficult to talk about race? Even though all our institutions are affected structurally by racism in some form, as a society we have limited racial literacy to talk about how this occurs, or even understand how it impacts us. It can be particularly difficult to talk about racism when so often the person who calls out racism is criticised more than the racism itself. That’s because racism isn’t about race, it’s about power and privilege. Calling out racism attacks power and takes away privilege. In the media, it’s the power to decide who tells stories, whose stories are told, and how they are told. In the media it’s the privilege, if you are white, to be centred in nearly every aspect of the media and to rarely, if ever, need to be concerned about the way in which the media represents your race. You are represented as an individual, your race is never used as an adjective and your actions are yours alone, unburdened by the weight of representation where your deeds, good or bad, represent an entire community or group of people. It is the privilege of being the voice of news and stories, of being portrayed as the unbiased authoritative source of knowledge, and as what is good or normal. The power of the media shouldn’t be underestimated. It doesn’t just tell stories. It shapes narratives, keeps institutions accountable and is vital in a functioning democracy. To keep power in a society accountable we need a strong and successful media to shine a light on that power. However, equally, media needs to be able to shine a light on itself and see whether it can do better to counter racism within its own institution. The MDA reporting on race handbook is a great resource for media institutions, owners, directors and employees on how to be anti-racist when writing stories, in hiring practices and in leadership. It throws down the challenge to the media to take the anti-racist path. It’s a path that can be difficult to walk down with many obstacles. Sensationalist headlines and reductive approaches to race might on their face fuel commercial interests but what they actually do is damage the interests of the public and ultimately media organisations. They reduce trust in the media as an institution, particularly within negatively racialised communities. 8