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I think it stems from my experience in the field as a journalist,
where I was often covering underrepresented communities.
And I would go into a community where
a journalist hadn't often been.
And where usually the sources were official people, rather than
community members or,
what we refer to in my classes sometimes as "real people."
Versus kind of elite level sourcing.
And recognizing how rarely those people were talked to.
And the value of the perspectives they brought.
And how much their perspectives were often different from
the things I was hearing from official sources.
Everything from, say,
where to put in a new community park,
to why residents mistrusted police.
And it really was enlightening to me.
I can remember, as a very new reporter,
covering a stream of home invasion robberies in a community that was largely Asian American.
And police officers saying,
"Well, you know, they just need to put their money in the bank, they just need to put their money in the bank."
And I thought,
"Why aren't people putting their money in the bank?"
And when you talk to community leaders, or real people,
you find out that that's because many times,
immigrants are from countries where they don't feel secure putting their money in the bank.
And so, when they come here, they'd rather keep their money at home and,
people know that, and then they target those people.
So, it's not like,
"Oh these people don't get it."
Or, "What's with these people who keep all their money at home,
and why they have all this stuff hanging around their house,
why don't they put their life savings in the bank like the rest of us."
You can really get past that kind of, dominate perspective
and see other perspectives when you go out into the community and start actually talking to people.
You recognize things that you just had never yourself considered.
In my own journalism education, which was quite good,
we didn't talk about diversity issues.
And, that may be a bit of a generational thing.
It just wasn't as common in the early 90's when I was in journalism school.
In fact, we never talked about diversity.
Not one time.
We talked about,
"What is good journalism," and "Getting it right," and "Getting it fast."
And, "Getting everything on the record," and "Having your sources be attributed."
We never really talked about who your sources should be.
Or, who should be speaking about this issue.
We talked about getting the whole story.
We never really talked about what that meant.
And I think, too often, that meant a pro and a con.
The person who's for it and the person who's against it.
And we never really got deep with uncovering the various values systems,
held by different people and how important it was to talk to people who wouldn't necessarily seek you out to
give you their side.