This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

As a former newspaper reporter, I am committed to reading various newspapers every day, including the Oregonian, which is published in Portland.

Why this headline?

The Oregonian has distinguished itself lately with a thorough and no-punches-pulled analysis of its racist history.

As a long-time reader of the newspaper, I was shocked to learn of some of the misdeeds, as well as very poorly chosen words of previous editors, which, given their evident racism, might have been intentional. 

Beyond shocked!

Two long and detailed stories have been printed and more may be on the way.  Headlines for the two, which are part of a series which has been labeled “Publishing Prejudice:”

• The Oregonian’s Racist Legacy:  The overtly racist words printed by Henry Pittock and Harvey Scott made Oregon a more hostile place for people of color.
• Concealed Consequences:  Editorials supported World War II incarceration of people of Japanese descent, and news coverage denigrated those targeted.

Therese Bottomly, executive editor of the Oregonian, deserves credit for enabling this introspection and, then, publishing what ensued, no matter the discredit that arose for the newspaper.

The current Editorial Board chimed in:

“As an editorial board, we often write about the importance of accountability when institutions or leaders make mistakes.  Acknowledging and accepting what went wrong in the past is key to correcting course in the future.

“That standard holds for us, as well.  ‘Publishing Prejudice: The Oregonian’s Racist Legacy’ has been horrifying and humbling to absorb. The decades-long pattern paints a picture of a news organization that downplayed lynching, supported incarcerating people of Japanese descent during World War II, embraced slurs and stereotypes in its news stories and editorials and sought to block basic rights for those who were not white and male.”

Here, from Bottomly, is a summary of the intense editing process for “Publishing Prejudice,” which stands as very different than normal editing:

“The Oregonian/OregonLive newsroom is not as racially and ethnically diverse as the community it serves, and the investigative reporter and investigative editor assigned to this project are white men.  To reduce implicit bias and enhance the stories, the newsroom created a novel, months-long review process to obtain iterative feedback from people of color before publication.

“Members of the newsroom’s diversity committee received drafts of the stories in June, providing valuable feedback on reporting, editing, and the project’s general direction.

“The Oregonian/OregonLive in July contracted with two former newsroom employees, Amy Wang and Eder Campuzano, who each had chaired the newsroom diversity committee.  They reviewed story drafts and provided important guidance, helping identify reporting holes, offering feedback on issues to expand or condense, and providing recommendations on ways to limit additional harm to communities of color through word choice and story framing.

“The newsroom contracted with five community members between August and October.  The panelists reviewed story drafts, providing perspectives the newsroom lacks, giving feedback to enhance the reporting with additional facts, and helping identify words or ideas that could perpetuate harm to communities of color.  The panelists are Oscar Arana, Brian Bull, Hong Mautz, Zachary Stocks, and Jillian Toda-Currie.

“The Oregonian/OregonLive maintained sole editorial discretion over the stories, and it accepted many, but not all, recommendations from outside consultants.”

I hope you will go on-line at oregon.live to read the stories on your own.  As they did in me, I also hope both stories will invoke a renewed commitment to diversity, acceptance, and tolerance, if not respect, for immigrants, refugees, or persons of a different skin color than your own.

The failure of several past Oregonian editors to reflect these qualities is beyond revolting.  Given my long history in Oregon, I remember some of the editor’s names.  What they did and what they wrote makes me say I would rather forget them and move on.

The story on the internment of Oregonians of Japanese descent particularly resonated with me.  For a specific reason.

This.  One of the persons emphasized in the story, Vicki Nakashima, is a former colleague of mine in Oregon state government.

We worked together closely at the Oregon Executive Department when both of us served, essentially, as deputy directorsl  Vicki had an assignment to recruit management staff with a specific eye to diversity and credentials.  She succeeded very well.  My assignment was to oversee media and related communications policy.

In one case, we co-directed a program – we called it simply, “The Good Ideas Program” – to ask for, receive and analyze good ideas from state employees, ideas about to improve workplaces and state programs.  We rewarded those whose good ideas were accepted.

Vicki was especially effective at recruiting employees to respond.

To put it simply, I learned a lot from her.

But, in point of fact, I did not know much about her history.

After the internment story broke, I talked with her.

When the Oregonian alerted her that it was starting its introspection, because, for one thing, the introspection focused on Vicki’s father, a victim of the Japanese internment policy in Oregon.  Vicki was not sure what to expect, wondering if it would just another case of false hope for clarity for past racism.

But, the editor, Bottomly, came across as genuine and, then, at one community meeting, she rose unannounced and provided a stirring and genuine apology to all those in the room.

As she has done several times, including in print, she said she “unreservedly apologized.”

So, read on and make your own appropriate commitment to genuine diversity and respect.

.  The week of October 2nd, the national art exhibit, “Resilience – A Sansei Sense of Legacy” opened at JAMO.  My cousin, Tom Nakashima is one of the artists and his pieces in the show were inspired by my father’s advocacy on behalf of the JA community. 

On October 5th, we had a “community meeting” about the importance of the art exhibit at OHS.  Without any announcement, Therese got up in front of me and gave a moving apology.  I still cry when I think about it.  Her staff (reporter and photographer) were also there and they told me they did not know she was going to do this.