Sometimes I hear white folks say things like, “Hiring should bebased on talent, not skin color. Affirmative action is just reversediscrimination.”

I’veheard it plenty of times.

It sounds logical, but I think people say it because they feeltheir place in society is being threatened. No one who’s tasted powerwants to be deposed. They’re afraid — and fear, as we’ve learned,breeds discrimination.

In a perfect world, the color of one’s skin would not be a factorin any aspect of life.

But, alas, ours is not a perfect world. Especially the world ofjournalism.

Historically, minorities have been sorely underrepresented inAmerica’s newsrooms. Why? I can’t say for sure. An open-minded,equal-opportunity idealistic Democrat like myself cannot fathom thatblacks, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders and other minorities havebeen systematically held back by Big Bad Whitey.

I can’t imagine an editor — even an old boys club kind of guy –choosing not to hire a burgeoning young reporter simply because hewas black.

But I’m open to the possibility that it happens.

I have to believe that it happens with much less frequency thesedays than it might have in the past — a past in which women weren’tallowed to vote, and white people thought they were smarter and morecapable than persons “of color.”

Ibelieve that in 2000, it’s not the bigotry of the editors orpublishers that keeps minorities from the newsroom — rather thesimple fact that the newsroom has been a white world for so long.

Are you white? Imagine walking into the newsroom of one of thiscountry’s black newspapers and asking for a job. The receptionist isblack. The managing editor who interviews you is black. Nearly everyface you see in the office as you walk through it is black.

Wouldn’t you feel out of place? If you weren’t hired, wouldn’t youwonder if it was because of the color of your skin?

Perhaps more minorities don’t get into journalism simply becausethat’s the way it’s always been, because in the beginning theyweren’t wanted or welcomed. It’s going to take some bravery from newminority journalists and outreach by editors of our newsrooms to makea change.

The New York Times reported that while minorities make up 28percent of the nation’s population, minorities account for only about11.8 percent of the journalists employed at daily papers in theUnited States. That’s a slight increase from 11.5 percent in 1999,but one of the American Society of Newspaper Editors goals is fornewsrooms to reflect the racial diversity of the population by 2025.

In order for that to happen, one of every two journalists hiredfor the next 24 years will have to be a member of a minority group,according to research by the Freedom Forum.

The Daily Aztec has been accused in the past of being run by abunch of white people who don’t care about minority issues andpurposefully disenfranchise minority readers by not printing storiesor opinion columns on minority issues.

Well, I’m the editor in chief, and I’m white. So, I guess youcould say it’s run by Whitey. But I run this thing with the help of93 other editors, managers, writers, photographers, designers andsalespeople. All of whom are students, and 33 percent of whom areminorities.

If you assume that the employee pool we have to choose from is thestudent population of San Diego State University, then we’re wayahead of the pack in terms of reflecting the racial diversity of ourpopulation. About 37 percent of the students at SDSU are minorities(according to Academic Affairs figures from Fall 2000, not includingstudents who declined to state their race on their applications).

We’re on a fairly diverse college campus — a campus that istrying to maintain and increase it’s diversity — and variety in thenewsroom is supported. Perhaps other newsrooms don’t have such aprogressive climate to work in. Sometimes I hear white folks saythings like, “Why can’t we have a National Association of WhiteJournalists?”

Give me a break. We’ve had one for decades — it’s called theAmerican newsroom. It’s about time we mix it up.

–Sunny Sea Gold is a journalism junior and the Editor-in-Chief ofThe Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to daletter2000@hotmail.com.

–This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TheDaily Aztec.