United States: Complexity Of Covering Protests As A Black Woman Journalist-Cerise Castle Shot With Rubber Bullets
Location: United States, Los Angeles, CA
Date: June 6, 2020
When in 1854 Mary Ann Shadd Cary debuted her news weekly, The Provincial Freeman, she was the first black woman to publish a newspaper. That was not an easy milestone to achieve: She had to battle to get her ideas into print. For a start, she migrated to Canada West (today’s Ontario) to avoid United States laws that suppressed independent black activism. From there, she built a team and raised funds.
More than a century later, black women journalists keep dealing with problems unique to their gender and race. This has been proven once again throughout the last week when black women journalists rushed to the protest scenes to cover something that is beyond just a big story for them.
Cerise Castle was shot with rubber bullets on May 31 while covering protests in Los Angeles for KCRW. Castle is also the former producer and host for the Emmy-award winning nightly news program, VICE News Tonight.
LAPD just shot me and protestors gathered at Beverly & Fairfax with rubber bullets. I was holding my press badge above my head. pic.twitter.com/9YCXq3rUvc
— Cerise Castle (@cerisecastle) May 30, 2020
Despite her injuries, Castle continues to report. For her, it’s about taking charge of the language being used around the protests and the people participating in them.
“I’ve found myself not wanting to leave work or step away for a break because I am afraid that without me there, something offensive or even racist will go on the air,” she says.
In an industry that’s still “largely white, very male and very deferential to power and authority”, black women journalists fight back with tremendous determination shown through their work.
Demonstrations sparked across United States after murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, in the pursuit of justice. With numerous police forces deployed to protest sites, journalists face constant threat of violence, arrest and censorship. Hundreds of journalists have reported to have faced attempts at censorship, verbal attacks, blatant threats and police violence. Hundreds of journalists have been arrested while on duty and black journalists who take the ongoing civil unrest very personally are especially targeted. CFWIJ follows the events closely with great concern.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
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