The Inquirer’s self-examination only scratched the surface of its mistreatment of Black staffers | Opinion

For nearly three decades, I worked as an editor and reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. There I found a fulfilling career. One in which I, as a Black journalist, was able to bring a much-needed perspective to the news, and to mentor dozens of aspiring young Black, brown, Asian, and white colleagues.

It was with enthusiasm and reflection that I read Wesley Lowery’s extensive examination of matters of race in The Inquirer newsroom and of the paper’s coverage of the lives of Black and brown residents of Philadelphia. In my view, he did a good job on a broad and complex issue.

During my years at The Inquirer, particularly up to the mid-1990s, I watched significant progress being made in the hiring and promotion of journalists of color. Training programs for copy editors, reporters, and college interns were established. To their credit, newspaper leaders Gene Foreman, Acel Moore, Arlene Notoro Morgan, Maxwell E.P. King, and many others did yeoman’s work to increase racial diversity at the newspaper. I participated in many of these efforts, and they made a significant difference. I am proud of that work, and I think it was reflected in the pages of the newspaper.

» READ MORE: I spent 31 years at The Inquirer, and I’m proud of our diversity efforts | Opinion

Despite the gains made under that leadership, reporting on the city’s Black community lagged. Much has been made about the paper’s role as a regional newspaper, covering the numerous suburbs as well as the city. Moore, my mentor and a trailblazing Black journalist, used to say: If you read the papers, Black people were never born, married, or achieved any of the basics of American life. He was right: Most news stories involving Black people were focused on crime and poverty.

When I began reporting on the city’s North and Northwest communities, I was often greeted by this comment: “The Inquirer has never been in this neighborhood.” My response: “I’m here now, so tell me your story.” As part of my work, I sought to round out the paper’s coverage of those parts of the Black experience that Moore long complained were neglected. I wrote about progress, success, and uplift in underserved areas.

But in 2007 — a year after the McClatchy newspaper group sold the paper to a group of local investors led by the public relations executive Brian Tierney — there were crippling layoffs. Management dismissed 17% of the staff in a single day — among them were 20 journalists of color. Many of those talented young writers, editors, and photographers were people whom I had mentored directly. I was devastated.

» READ MORE: From the publisher of The Inquirer: An apology to Black Philadelphians and journalists

If you read recent comments, the problem was the union contract that specified that folks with the lowest seniority had to be the first to be laid off. My question is, why were layoffs necessary in the first place? Was there no alternative?

It should also be noted that some Black senior editors who were not part of the union were also forced out. I know this because they told me, one of them near tears. Most of them are long gone.

Some question whether there was racism in The Inquirer newsroom. To them I say: yes. Keep in mind that all racism is not overt, and in some cases, there is willful blindness.

Consider how some senior Black staff writers fared after the arrival of new ownership in the late 2000s.

“Some question whether there was racism in The Inquirer newsroom. To them I say: yes.”

A senior Black sportswriter, who achieved national acclaim while covering the Sixers, was drummed out of the paper in 2010. This former columnist, now one of the country’s top sports analysts, spent 15 years at The Inquirer, eventually becoming the company’s highest-paid editorial employee. Management tried to fire him. The union, to its credit, fought long, hard, and successfully on the man’s behalf. Eventually, however, he left.

In 2009, a Black reporter, who had covered Philadelphia and especially New Jersey since 1976, decided to resign in the midst of what he described to me and others as harassment and a punitive reassignment.

In 2015, I decided to call it quits after 29 years at The Inquirer. A year or two before my departure, a top editor summoned me to his office to tell me that I was being reassigned from covering North and Northwest neighborhoods to writing obituaries, an assignment that is often considered a demotion for a journalist with my seniority. At the time, I was the only Black or brown person on the city desk.

I wrote obituaries begrudgingly for a while. After I got my lawyer involved, the bosses decided that I should be a general assignment reporter. My supervisor at that time, in my first-ever performance review since my arrival at the paper in 1986, indicated that as a reporter I was slow and that I did not write enough articles. I was then ordered to write a story a day.

To those who attack Lowery’s independent reporting on “Black City, White Paper,” and who say they did not see racial bias in The Inquirer newsroom, I say, take a closer look, examine the numbers, look at how journalists are assigned to beats. Reach out to people in underserved communities. Ask them when was the last time an Inquirer reporter was in their neighborhood.

Most important, talk to some of the many Black, brown, and Asian journalists who used to work at The Inquirer.

Vernon Clark is a journalism educator who spent three decades as a reporter and editor at The Inquirer before his retirement in 2015. He lives in Philadelphia.