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05/26/2003 Archived Entry: "Dennis Hans asks the Big Question -"
Dennis Hans asks the Big Question -
What if Jayson Blair were black?
It's the one question I haven't seen raised in the many analyses I've read on what went wrong in the case of the young New York Times reporter with the vivid imagination and shaky grasp of ethics. Now you might say that no one has raised the question for a very good reason: Blair is black.
I concur, but only in part. If I were assembling a cross-section of Americans to illustrate the diversity of our skin colors, I would include Blair as a slightly lighter than average African-American. But if I were assembling a newsroom staff that reflected the experiences and attitudes of our multitude of races, ethnicities and cultures, I would count Blair as a lilywhite suburbanite. Like me.
This is not a matter of who is or is not "authentic." I consider everyone authentic, from Pat Boone to Eminem, from Clarence Thomas to Malcolm X. I'm authentic and so is Blair. But Blair is an authentic black man who grew up in an upscale white neighborhood with upscale white friends, doing things that white kids do in white settings, going to school with white classmates and learning from white teachers.
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