Issac Bailey, a 2014 Nieman Fellow, is a journalist, race relations seminar creator and facilitator, and the author of “Why Didn’t We Riot? A Black Man in Trumpland” (Other Press, October 2020). He is also the author of “My Brother Moochie: Regaining Dignity in the Face of Crime, Poverty, and Racism in the American South” (Other Press, 2018). He has contributed to Politico, CNN.com, Time, and The Washington Post. He is a former columnist and senior writer for The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and he was a 2011 recipient of a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for stories about a child protection case. The state subsequently revamped the way it handles such cases.
It’s tempting to fall back on journalistic defaults during confusing times like these, such as making political ramifications the primary focus of the unfolding scandal involving President Donald Trump and his attempts to influence the 2020 elections by pressuring … Read more
The optics were flawless. The best Hollywood screenwriters and directors could not have produced a better performance. There he was, a black Republican, a decorated war hero and general, a secretary of state who was one of the most trusted … Read more
White racism flourishes in the United States in America for a variety of reasons. Its historical roots stretch back hundreds of years, to even before there was officially a USA. But it has staying power in a rapidly diversifying nation … Read more
I can’t imagine standing in the middle of a Walmart and having a fellow customer repeatedly calling me racial epithets as the manager silently watches from a corner of the store, politely refusing to intervene, for ill-defined reasons. It would … Read more
A confession: Until recently, I didn’t really understand what happens during a woman’s menstrual cycle. (And I still kind of have a few questions.) I confess because I’m a male veteran journalist who is only now realizing the depths of … Read more
It’s clear what journalists must do in the wake of Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the Mueller report: continue to aggressively pursue the Trump-Russia story, and not give one damn inch to partisan critics or even … Read more
A bombshell from BuzzFeed in January initially seemed to ensure that President Donald Trump would join Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon as presidents who were either impeached or forced from office during my lifetime. But it, like the reaction the … Read more
The Washington Post’s decision to publish unverified sexual assault allegations is the most disturbing example of the flattening of the media landscape since the political press decided to spend more time on Hillary Clinton’s emails during the … Read more
Journalists, even those whose job it is to set standards, continue to have a hard time determining if the word “racism” applies in a story. Here’s a simple rule of thumb: Treat the word like you treat every other word. Read more
I’m beginning to wonder if journalists have been bending over backward so far to disprove the “liberal media” narrative that they have unwittingly become advocates for conservatives and, more importantly, have been misinforming their audiences at critical junctions of our … Read more
