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Plus tips for students on covering and staying safe at protests
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In a Twitter thread that went viral this month, comedian Kenny DeForest told the story of being at a club when Dave Chappelle performed a surprise set. Riffing on headlines shouted out by the crowd, Chappelle ended up addressing systemic racism after cruel comments from a white woman whose privilege was showing (OK, glaring).
According to DeForest, Chappelle recounted a story about a South African friend who told him that once that country’s citizens’ disgust over apartheid reached a peak, there was no turning back and no choice but to reform the country. Chappelle said that America needed that critical mass if it was ever going to end systemic racism.
He delivered that set in 2015.
Point being: Pollsters are increasingly suggesting that America is tipping toward critical mass. For your students, that means more protests and another major news cycle as our federal, state and local governments presumably take action. For your Black students, that means even more trauma and anxiety. And of course this comes on the heels of marathon coronavirus coverage conducted remotely in isolation — strains on all of us, but felt especially intensely by students, whose peers are often the most important people in their world.
Student journalists work intensely, often easily putting in
Read more here: https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2020/as-protests-reach-critical-mass-how-to-really-be-there-for-your-journalism-students/