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 a shame that headlines for straight-news stories about the stalled stimulus talks between Congress and the White House didn’t plainly say this before the issue was swamped by coverage of the major political conventions: “Democrats want to send American … Read more
I began writing this piece with trepidation, wondering if it would be fair to compare the president of the United States of America to a president in SyFy’s cult classic made-for-TV movie franchise “Sharknado.” Serious-sober journalistic … Read more
I’ll never forget the day the publisher spotted me as I was returning to my desk after lunch. She dressed me down in the middle of the newsroom, with more than a few of my colleagues within earshot. She scolded … Read more
last June, I traveled to Ghana for the first time. For most of my life, I wanted no connection to the dark continent. I had been convinced, by whom or what I don’t know, that the American in my … Read more
The more I read about Tara Reade’s story, the less I know about her sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden. That’s a problem, not just for Reade but for every serious journalistic attempt to litigate decades-old … Read more
Was it reasonable to wonder if President Donald Trump began restricting, but not banning outright, travel from China on January 31 because of xenophobia rather than to avert the spread of the coronavirus to the United States? If context means … Read more
I can’t say with any certainty whether Joe Biden, the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, is in “cognitive decline,” as many journalists and critics have begun to ponder aloud. I can say with certainty that what you … Read more
When The Washington Post tried to silence reporter Felicia Sonmez, it was likely guided by a tradition bias — a preference for the way things have been over how they should be — that has caused numerous news organizations to … Read more
I have no interest in re-litigating why you chose to apologize for simply doing your job as a journalist. Plenty of others have already done so, some condescendingly, some empathetically. Instead I … Read more
