An Apology to the Chronicle
I was amazed yesterday to learn that someone actually reads these blogs out there. Turns out that I’d tried to make a point - one that I believe in - but that I’d done so in a flip manner. Institutions, it turns out, are people. And people react to being criticized. All very normal. It would help, of course, if I could learn to remember this when writing about others.
So, I wrote a blog about the Chronicle of Philanthropy and the controversy about a column they published on structural racism - a relatively new and, in many circles, respected analysis. Its title included the name of Reverand Wright - the controversial former pastor of Barack Obama’s now former church. In both the column and in the lengthy response to numerous letters to the Editor, the author sprinkled quite liberally references to both Obama and Wright, all the while suggesting that those engaged in the academic and policy inquiry under the rubric of Structural Racism were unable to adjust to a “post-racial” America.
What I found objectionable was the overabundant references to the two men who had NOTHING to do with the structural racism work that was being done. Instead, they are big names out there in media land, certain to draw some eyeballs to the critique. My point was that I suspected the author’s intent was to make what was, in my view, an unfair connection between this work and Rev. Wright’s intemperate remarks taken out of context. I believe conservatives would like nothing more than to make the coming Presidential contest one in which race plays a dominant role.
In the course of advancing this idea, I believe I offended those at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, for which I would like to publicly apologize. Editing a journal like the Chronicle is a challenging job. There are widely disparate views in the field of philanthropy. The choices they may make have the best of intentions to spark appropriate dialog about important issues. And, in this case, they succeeded superbly, as one can see in the ongoing Letters to the Editor. They were even kind enough to publish one from me. My beef was with the author, not the editorial staff.
At 59, it’s clear that I’m still on the steep part of the learning curve in more than one area.