This was originally published in the March 25th print edition of The Roosevelt News.
Upon publication of the January issue of The Roosevelt News, it came to our attention that its cover image had many problematic implications that we failed to notice before printing or distributing to the Roosevelt community.
We want to issue an apology for our inability to recognize a clear instance of misrepresentation and stereotyping in our work and the subsequent harm we have caused. As a student-led organization, our goal is to represent all of our peers and to provide our community with accurate, accessible information. In light of our recent actions, it’s clear that we have fallen short of these goals.
Our feature section last issue was centered around the impact of drug addiction—specifically opioids—on Seattle and its residents with connections made to other major issues, including homelessness and rehabilitation. The cover design pitched for the issue was intended as a commentary on the exploitative aspects of addiction treatment by featuring a businessman exploiting a homeless person. We depicted the homeless person as a black man, even though nothing in our articles suggested an intersection between race, opioid use, or homelessness. This action was not out of malice or hate, but rather a misguided attempt to represent a connection between systemic issues that we had not otherwise discussed, thus reinforcing dangerous racial stereotypes.
To ensure that our publication—now and in the future—can confront implicit racial bias in our content, we vow to put more effort into educating ourselves through resources at Roosevelt and beyond. This may include participating in implicit bias training at the beginning of each school year and inviting integral student organizations like BSU to talk with our staff. In order to truly represent and work for Roosevelt, we must cultivate stronger relationships in all areas of our school community. We will adjust our processes in order to ensure that our publication reflects the efforts, judgement, and consent of all staff members. Just as our community has rightfully shown us our mistake, we must hold one another accountable as a team.
We are also aware that our staff, much like our greater Roosevelt community, lacks a diversity of voices. As such we want to bring more perspectives to our paper through guest editorials, much like some of the articles in this issue, and staffing. While the latter is not entirely in our control, we hope the student body’s grievances surrounding our lack of awareness inspire new voices to join us in the future, through means including and beyond those aforementioned. We are by and for Roosevelt High School and we thank you for helping us to better achieve this aim.
We will continually strive to serve Roosevelt to the best of our ability, which will always leave room for improvement. While we wish that we had not hurt our community, we know that we must work to learn from our mistake and grow as students, people, and journalists. We know that these efforts will always be part of a learning curve that is accompanied by mistakes, and we are grateful for the effort our community has put forth so that we may best learn from this one. To help us grow and better ourselves, our work, and our community, we must acknowledge our mistakes and work on preventing similar situations from happening in the future. This is an important reminder that we must look within and beyond ourselves in order to be cognizant of issues we have previously overlooked. We can always do better. Thank you.
