As a student of journalism, I am required to take classes that encourage and mandate a dialogue about diversity. My colleagues and I are instructed on the paramount nature to the future of journalism that we openly discuss race and ensure the hiring of more people of color.

The general public’s attitude toward the media will continue to be skeptical and distrustful we are told, unless newsrooms create an environment of inclusion and acceptance of cultures other than our own so that we adequately represent the diverse communities that we cover.

Over and over again, we are given statistics and studies that show television, radio, and print media in the United States is “too white”. For example, a study by Tim Porter, head of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, published April 21, 2004 described National Public Radio (NPR) as being “lily white” because 73 out of 83 of their daytime hosts (in seven urban markets) are white males.

This same study of NPR said that while the population of one community the station serves is 19 percent black, only 7 percent of the hosts are black. It’s worse for Hispanics, who make up 25 percent of one of those markets, yet only represent 1 percent of the station’s host positions.

Still, another study said that minority journalism students are passed over for jobs because they generally graduate from smaller colleges and hence do not benefit from internships, writing coaches, rigorous assignments on deadline, and brilliant professors who spent a career of their own in the field, as we “j-students” so enjoy at SF State.

Finally, one guest lecturer raised the argument that there are not enough minority “experts” (like psychologists, political pundants, lawyers, etc.) included in debating the issues of the day in the U.S. media.

As most, if not all, of my professors can attest, I have listened to them kicking and screaming that there had to be more to the numbers than they were giving us. Unsympathetically, I responded to these statistics and studies with disdain, explaining away possible reasons for the gap in “diversity” in the U.S. media.

For instance, the NPR study had to be wrong because most of the black and Hispanic population of those seven urban markets are not listening to NPR, so who is complaining that there aren’t enough black and brown voices on the radio? Why does skin color matter anyway – as long as the content is representative of the national and international community, what difference does it make who’s delivering the news?

Regarding the lack of minority experts in the news, again, the content of someone’s rhetoric matters more to me than the color of their skin. I am an American woman who is black and moderately conservative. The opinion of Jesse Jackson, Barbara Lee or Louis Farrakhan does not represent my view of the country or the world.

And as for those minority journalism students who graduated from smaller schools, if they can’t hit the ground running they best step aside, because it would be unjust to hire them over me – in essence, punishing me for attending a larger school and better department.

However, my opinion and attitude have somewhat shifted since hearing the BBC hoopla this week surrounding Audrey Pulvar, the new co-anchor on France’s evening news program, Soir 3. The smart and beautiful Caribbean-born journalist is the first black national news anchor of France.

This milestone was achieved after France’s High Council on Integration strongly recommended to the government that broadcast companies be more inclusive and cognizant and accepting of cultures other than their own. Hmmm. Where have I heard this before?

The hiring of Pulvar struck a chord with me because France is just now getting around to what the American media community has been working on for decades. But because I was not part of the inception in the U. S., I took for granted that my professors, black, brown, and white, have been-there-done-that.

Although there may be some biases lingering in American newsrooms today, it is nothing compared to the out right racism experienced by those who have paved the way for my colleagues and me.

Their revolution of change has afforded us the right to be in this profession, so rather than criticizing their open-minded and open-hearted liberalism, I should be thanking them, embracing their words of wisdom, and enthusiastically accepting the torch to continue the fight for equality and inclusiveness for future generations of journalists.

To all of my professors who respectfully endured my ranting, I am sorry for not being more appreciative of your struggle and insight. But most of all, thank you for being first.