It’s not my fault…I was raised this way!

My personal response to Jean Marie Brown’s “Fault Line” presentation

Sitting here listening to Fort Worth Star-Telegram Managing Editor Jean Marie Brown’s presentation on Fault Lines, I am somewhat offended.

I feel like a little kid being lectured. I feel like I am already considered ignorant of issues on diversity. I feel like someone must have thought it necessary to have someone come in here and tell me how to include race, gender, geography, class and any other identifying factor into my reporting when I already know how to do that. 

Then again, I guess that’s just my own fault line.

As a white dude born in 1983 in Los Angeles, I’ve been raised in a pretty diverse world relatively free from exposure to racial tension. I had to learn later in life that prejudice still exists, even in incredibly subtle ways that I might never experience first hand. Just because I’ve never dealt with it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

I’m also a product of my generation. I was raised amongst and played with peers of multiple races, classes, genders, religions, geographical backgrounds and sexualities.

I’ve lived in four different cities in two countries. I’ve eaten at restaurants that boast three Michelin stars and I’ve eaten freshly killed chickens in the lean-tos of Dominican coffee farmers.

I’ve gone to college, and I’m currently in a top-rate graduate journalism program that emphasizes high ethical standards, one of which is a dedication to telling the whole story.

What I see as obvious might not be as blatant to others. What others see every day might sit squarely in my own blind spot.

Although I sometimes think I’m above all this diversity stuff, I’d be an idiot not to realize that not everyone’s like me.

But if I don’t see that by now, that’s my fault.

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