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still thinking about the time a famous radio person asked why everyone in my age group insisted on making side projects on top of our full-time media jobs.
i said, "oh, because our editors won't allow us to tell our stories the way we want to tell them."
i said, "oh, because our editors won't allow us to tell our stories the way we want to tell them."
this fancy radio person (who afaik is cis and straight and white and wealthy) was like "really? it seems like there's more demand than ever for stories about queer people, trans people, people of color, etc."
and i started to explain...
and i started to explain...
...that yes, we may be allowed to talk about queer or trans or Black or brown people. but our editors and managers will make sure it's told through straight cis white lens. and sometimes we aren't willing to make that compromise. so we make our own stories on the side.
the person i was talking to seemed skeptical but maybe they would have been convinced. unfortunately i got interrupted by a lil queer bb who needed some support and never got to follow up!
anyway, just thought i'd share for the straights whites who apparently don't know this :)
anyway, just thought i'd share for the straights whites who apparently don't know this :)
if your producers are making stories on top of the work they do at their day job, it's not NECESSARILY because they feel like it's not safe or productive to share with you, but it could well be!
see also: i stopped writing for [redacted] because every time i pitched a story about a person with a marginalized identity (which was all of my stories), they did so many microaggressions about my subjects that i couldn't a) trust their edits or b) stomach it anymore.
one sign you have a problem is when your producers / reporters are surreptitiously passing on stories they'd love to tell because they worried that their subjects will experience too much racism or transphobia from your instititution in the process 
