Writing the story when the story is about you

Beginning in June, I will assume the responsibility of rebooting Durham Voice, a community newspaper founded by Jock Lauterer after the murder of Eve Carson, a student at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. Prior to ending circulation, Durham Voice focused on stories in North East Central Durham (NECD) with student journalist from UNC-CH, North Carolina Central University and Durham Technical Community College. The focus of work will expand beyond NECD to include all of Durham with student reporters from local colleges and universities. 

This column is inspired by the work of student journalist at the University of Missouri and the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC-CH.

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Commentary - It’s the moment that changes the way I teach. My students seemed overburdened by the news happening outside the building.

Students couldn’t avoid the mass of news reporters on campus to tell the stories of disillusioned Black students. They were calling for the resignation or termination of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe.

Jonathan Butler, a graduate student at the University of Missouri - Columbia, launched a hunger strike to bring attention to racism on the state’s flagship campus.

“Mr. Wolfe had ample opportunity to create policies and reforms that could shift the culture of Mizzou in a positive direction but in each scenario, he failed to do so,” Butler said.

Payton Head, the student body president, shared a personal experience with bigotry and anti-gay sentiments on campus on his Facebook page. He claims unidentified people riding in the back of a pickup truck hurled racial slurs at him.

“For those of you who wonder why I’m always talking about the importance of inclusion and respect, it’s because I’ve experienced moments like this multiple times at THIS university, making me not feel included here," Head posted on September 12, 2015.

My students seemed wearied by the national attention after the football team announced they would not practice or play until Wolfe resigned. The decision would cost the university a $1 million fine if they forfeited their upcoming game against Brigham Young University.

“How do you write the story when you’re the story,” I asked my students.

I waited for an answer from one of the 19 students. My one Black student seemed overwhelmed by activities on campus. The look on her face clarified what I felt. She needed more than a class on journalism writing could offer. I didn’t want her to answer. I cherished an opportunity for white students to speak.

“I don’t want to be here,” a white woman said. “I want to join the protest.”

‘I can’t write this story without bias,” another student said.

The nods spoke to a common view that extended beyond the call of Concerned Student 1950 – the group of Black students seeking the president’s resignation.

I felt something brewing in my belly. After teaching lessons involving finding the story within the story, my students were learning lessons not taught in textbooks. After sharing my personal grappling in writing columns aimed at offering a perspective beyond the views of white men in newsrooms, my students felt the tension.

There’s more to the story than they considered prior to enrolling to learn the craft of journalism.

I taught them to consider the pain in the story. We discussed finding tension in the story within the story – the unknown truth hidden by an inability to see and feel others carrying what words often miss.

We talked about overcoming privilege. I shared the limits of my Christian, heterosexual, male privilege. I shared how being Black impacts how I view the story. We discussed how personal experience is a tool when used to advance the story beyond what each of us take for granted.

Journalists are challenged to bring their humanity to the story. This is the gift of storytelling. It’s what separates humans from the stale presentation of artificial intelligence.

“You are standing in the middle of history,” I told my students. “This moment is a gift to each of you. How will you write this story? Who are the people who need to be heard? What’s missing in how we inform the world regarding the unfolding of this historical moment?”

I shared my experience growing up in Columbia, MO - being the first local Black person to graduate from the school of journalism. I talked about my encounters with race on a campus with an overwhelming white population.

I told my students to leave to join the protest. I challenged them to take time to heal. While pondering what it all means, I told them to find the story within the story, and to begin by accepting this story is about each of them.

They left to write that story.

I left inspired to help students find stories beyond what they couldn’t see.