Mura Ioana

JMC 141
Book Review
“The Race Beat” by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff.

There is nothing more valuable in this world for a human than his/her freedom. It is

the gift given by God to each infant. Each person has freedom when born. There is no

restriction in behavior for babies. There are no laws to obey, no rules to respect, no

secrets to hide, none to fight with, and no race differences for children. But when one

grows older, he/she becomes to realize that he/she is encircled with human vices. The

older one grows, the more confused the life becomes for him/her. He becomes to be

involved into continuous fighting and competition, which will result in one’s loosing his

freedom and infantilism and succumbing to the rules that society imposes. It is unfair that

there is always someone who intervenes with one’s life and imposes his way of thinking

on others. The Bible says it is a big sin to loose the talent God gave to you. But what is it

a talent? Isn’t it the personality of each human?

But what to do when one do not obey the rules that society impose on individual, by

his/her own wish, but one is forced to do so? What to do when an entire society turns its

back to a person, when whatever one wants to do means nothing to the rest of the people?

This is the subject that the book “The Race Beat” analyzes. Written by Gene Roberts, a

journalism professor at the university of Maryland, College Park, and Hank Klibanoff, a

managing editor for news at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this book is an evidence of

stolen freedom and a presentation of courageous people that know that if their freedom is

given by God to them they should fight to keep it. As written on the cover of the book, it

is a book about “the press, the civil right struggle, and the awakening of a nation”. This
unique book is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. “The Race Beat” is also a book about the

influence of media on the society, or as appreciated in “The Boston Globe”- “A

compelling reminder of the need for a vibrant and free press, with the resources and

resourcefulness to shine a light on the nation’s wrongs.” 1 The 23 chapters of the book

narrate the inhuman behavior to the Negroes in the 1950-1960 years in USA. Each

chapter is another proof of that discrimination that Negroes could face in mostly the south

of USA, but not only there.

Humankind is made up of such a material that it always cares about someone’s

point of view; it always need love and need to be sustained so that it can go further. But it

is a normal appearance, because if there is none to sustain an idea, no matter how genial

that idea is, it will not ever be famous. That was the problem with the Negroes in the

twentieth century in USA. That is what American Dilemma tells about. Whites used to

oppress blacks and because of this oppression black’s performance was poor. Whites

used to ignore blacks, that is why blacks did not have any performances. The only

solution proposed for this circle of unfairness was the “principle of cumulation”2,

proposed by Myrdal, a Swedish economist, that says that all this unfairness would stop at

the time when either whites would stop the oppression of negroes, either negroes would

demonstrate to the whites that they are capable of doing something. But there were

centuries of discrimination and if a nation get used to something it is very difficult to

change it. Jonathan Daniels said in “News and Observer” that “sometimes it is easier to

ask people to give their lives than to give up their prejudices”3

1
Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff “The Race Beat”
2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Dilemma:_The_Negro_Problem_and_Modern_Democracy
3
Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff “The Race Beat” pg.23
 The first chapter, called “An American Dilemma: An astonishing ignorance”, talks

about the ignorance Negroes were imposed to. It is about the race study of Gunnar

Myrdal, a Swedish economist that went to USA to make a research about the condition of

Negroes in America. His expectations about the American freedom were crashed. Myrdal

thought that America is a country where there is “free speech and a free press.”, and he

would also say “Americans respected other viewpoints even when they strongly

disagreed. As a result, diverse ethnic groups were living with one another in peace while

Europe was tearing itself apart.”4 But what he saw there is something far away from his

thoughts. After his researches, he says “But for all his excitement, information, and

knowledge, Myrdal remained mystified. How had the South’s certifiable, pathological

inhumanity toward Negroes been allowed to exist for so long into the twentieth century?

Why didn’t anyone outside the South know? If they did know why didn’t they do

something about it?”5 This is the big dilemma of the Myrdal’s book and of “The Race

Beat” too.

Each human being has the right to express him/herself. Each human being has the

right for a chance. There is none in this world that can suppress these rights, as there is

none in this world that can say that he or she is better than the others. We all have same

potential and as it is written in the Bible, there is the matter of belief and you can say to

the mountains to move and they will. That is what this book taught me and that is what

the 2008 elections in USA taught me. Who would have ever thought that an African-

4
Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff “The Race Beat” p.4
5
Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff “ The Race Beat” p.5
American would be the President of the US? I know, few. But as I already mentioned

there is nothing impossible, or as the advertisement say “Impossible is nothing”.

The way Roberts and Klibanoff describe the condition of Negroes at that time it is

almost impossible to believe that at a certain time it will be exactly a Negro that will lead

the whole whites from USA and will do all possible to help them to arise their country,

will try to help them with the economical crisis and will treat them not the way white

Americans treated his grandparents, even maybe his parents.

If you pay attention to what this book say about the influence of media on the society

than we see that it is more than a hypnosis what media can do with the people’s minds.

Even in the fifteenth century church leaders would say that the printed Bibles would

corrupt the society.

Special interest for me presented the 2nd Chapter called “Fighting press” It is media’s

propose to fight for the rights of the society. As soon as it is so influential, this influence

should be used for positive purposes. A journalist should not be afraid to talk, should not

be afraid to fight, should not be afraid to kill with his words something that deserve to be

killed, should not be afraid to say the truth, to defend. A journalist should be strong,

should work for those who listen to and believe him. A journalist is almost an angel.

These rules should be something like the ten rules that we have in the Bible. That is what

in the second chapter the authors talk about. “Across the South, almost without limitation

Negroes had access to black week lines that ridiculed white hypocrisy, spoke out bitterly
against racial injustice” 6 I can only add my deep respect for that journalist that were

brave to save the dignity of a nation, and at the same time to save their own dignity.

I am not sure whether I will become a journalist or not, but what I know for sure is

that if I will be one I would never allow myself to be driven by dishonesty and the

majority opinion.. I would never allow myself to be a coward who would be afraid to say

the truth. I would never succumb in to wishes of authorities who would order me to write

what they want to hear.

“The Race Beat” is a perfect book for a starting journalist to learn journalistic integrity

and to believe that it can make a difference in the lives of suppressed nations and lead to

the awakening of a nation blinded by prejudices.

6
Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff “The Race Beat” pg.12