ABSTRACT
The first came in 1978, when the American Society of Newspaper Editors endorsed its minority employment goal of newsroom-to-society parity by the year 2000. In Los Angeles, one Asian American reporter speaks of the difficulties in covering an assault case in which a Korean grocer allegedly attacked a Chicano youth he suspected of having shoplifted from his store. In trying to foster a multicultural editorial sensibility for “Imaging America,” our conversations across the country have focused on how the emerging historical prospect of retro-assimilation will affect media practices. The ASNE newsroom employment survey shows a slowdown in the employment of journalists of color at newspapers around the country—minorities account for 10.49 percent of the news-editorial work force. Compare that to 1990 US census figures, which show roughly 24 percent of the nation’s population as nonwhite.
