Column: The time a mostly white newspaper tackled a race issue

Sometimes, I wish our readers could be in the office when we’re making our decisions.

I don’t want you here for the yelling and bickering and teasing. (There is a lot of that.)

I want you here for all of the magic.

I want you here when Tyler Vahan, the design and graphics editor, suggests using a quote for the main headline on front.

That way, he says, it won’t be a bunch of white college-aged editors dictating the tone of today’s issue. It’s the students of color we spoke to.

You’d love to meet Aaron Dodson, one of our copy editors. For him, this issue will be a success if his friends are talking about it — in a good way.

I wish you could watch Katie Williams’ careful eye when we begin to weigh the ethics of using a photo from the die-ins in the Pit.

These photos are obviously visually arresting. And she took extreme care not to let their meaning get distorted.

I wish you all could hear Katie Reilly, our managing editor, as she talks about our efforts to recruit, maintain and promote minority staffers. She’s painfully aware that we struggled to get opinions from journalists of color during the creation of this edition, and that’s because we don’t have many in our office.

We know it’s a problem, and we are actively trying to address it, as are most traditional newspapers in America.

And of course, I wish you could listen to the inimitable Amanda Albright and Mary Burke, the leaders of The Daily Tar Heel’s Projects and Investigations Team, who spent their winter breaks coming up with thoughtful, compelling content.

They know we didn’t cover every race or problem facing minorities in this issue. We’ve only examined parts of these incredibly complex topics.

But this issue isn’t meant to be all-encompassing. It never could be. For our investigations team leaders, it was just supposed to start a conversation.

This column is about why a newspaper run by a predominantly white staff would want to tackle an entire issue on race.

There are many reasons people could call us out for this effort — some of them could be valid.

But for better or for worse, we’re responsible for documenting this year accurately and fairly. And this year, we have watched as hundreds of black students have filled campus spaces, demanding more from their university.

So this is our response to the pain we’ve heard in the Pit during die-ins. The tears we’ve seen in front of Saunders Hall. The protests we’ve documented in professional schools across campus.

Obviously, we hope you like this issue, but we completely understand if you don’t. As always, I’m happy to hear from you about this coverage. I’d love to tell you more about the magic.