Diversity Diaries: Deborah Howell

By Deborah Howell
Editor/Washington bureau chief, Newhouse News Service

10.17.01

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Diversity is everywhere in my life. A Vietnamese carpenter built our deck. A Guatemalan and his Latin American crew painted and shingled our house. I lean on a woman from Ireland for decorating help. A Korean family runs our dry cleaners. My hairdresser is from Paris. My favorite clothes saleswoman is from Iran. Our housekeeper is from El Salvador (and, yes, she has a green card and we pay Social Security taxes and we are sponsoring her for citizenship).

They're all first-generation immigrants, and I can't live my life without them. But I don't read this in the newspaper.

Another piece of bad news: Most of them do not subscribe to a daily newspaper.

This country is changing so rapidly. If we are to capture new American readers and readers of color, we have to write something that says they are a part of the American dream, too.

It's the story
If you cover or care about race, you have to put your reporting where your heart is. Let me tell you a story about Jonathan Tilove in that regard.

Tilove was doing a big project with Toren Beasley, the Newhouse photo director, who is black. Beasley turned around to Tilove one day and asked, "Tilove, when was it you stopped being white?" We all laughed, but there is a certain place where people cross over into a land where their race and yours isn't so important.

It's the story that's important. Tilove sheds his whiteness and doesn't even know it.

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Diversity Diaries
Diversity Diaries is a collection of true stories from newspaper people around the country who have experienced or observed pivotal moments in diversity.  10.04.01