ABSTRACT
Responses of focus groups comprised of ordinary citizens were strikingly similar to those of the journalists. The Beacon Journal found that while blacks saw racism as a constant in their lives, whites felt that racism had largely been eliminated. The National Association of Black Journalists’ 1993 Muted Voices study was in large measure a testimonial to the existence of that perceptual gap. Most of the black journalists surveyed thought blacks were forced to spend more time than whites in entry-level positions. A decade ago, management consultant Edward W. Jones conducted a massive three-year research project looking at blacks in corporate America and published the results in a 1986 article in the Harvard Business Re- view. In January 1992, the American Newspaper Publishers Association brought together the heads of several of the nation’s biggest newspaper companies. Summit conveners named a host of committees to work on various aspects of diversity.
