Alameda newspaper clarifies use of race in crime story

The Alameda Sun newspaper clarified its use of race in crime stories after readers complained about the publication unnecessarily including racial descriptions of suspects.

On August 30, the local weekly published a story about two men suspected in robbery-turned-murder of West End restaurant owner Cindy Le. The Sun article included the age and race of the two men, allegedly Black and Latino. The front page also included mugshots of the two men.

By contrast, an April front page story in the Sun about an Alameda resident arrested for blocking installation of smart meters did not include a racial description. The man arrested was white. The Sun did not publish any letters asking for that man’s race.

In response to inquiries, the Sun explained that race was included to meet a “word count.”

The language was used in the story to meet a certain word count and the use of race to describe the suspects was inconsiderate,” wrote co-publisher Eric J. Kos. “Sun staff decided to remove the inconsiderate language from the online version of the story.

“The Alameda Sun’s official policy on crime reporting moving forward is to reserve the description of a person’s race unless it is pertinent to a particular investigation. In that case it would only be appropriate to describe a suspect this way if police are attempting to determine the suspect’s whereabouts in connection with a crime and a physical description might help bring the suspect to justice.”

For nearly two decades, most reputable news organizations have moved towards eliminating the use of race in crime descriptions. Due to concerns about contributing to racial stereotyping, racial descriptions of suspects are not included unless other characteristics like age, hair or eye color, height or weight, are also included. Editors have also decided to use race if it is deemed useful in helping the public identity a suspect.

In 2008, the Society of Professional Journalists, an organization which represents journalists, tackled the question of omitting racial descriptions. Some outlets would question if sharing race was “useful” or if the information was “so general that it only contributed to stereotypes about one group or another.” The Poynter Institute also has also written about the inclusion of race and ethnicity in crime reporting.

In addition to the biases of individual journalists and editors, multiple studies have shown the impact of media on racial bias. A 2014 study by the Sentencing Project found that “Many media outlets reinforce the public’s racial misconceptions about crime by presenting African Americans and Latinos differently than whites.” According to the report, titled Race and Punishment: Racial perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies, “Skewed racial perceptions of crimes – particularly, white American’s strong associations of crime with racial minorities – have bolstered harsh and biased criminal justice policies.” The report also found that white people overestimate the proportion of crime committed by people of color and associate crime with people of color.

A week after publishing their clarification; however, the Sun published a letter supporting their decision to include race in the crime story.

“You [The Sun] did nothing wrong by describing all the characteristics of the suspect,” wrote Susan Alford. “I want and deserve to know as much as possible about suspected and convicted criminals.”

The story only included the age, race, and gender of the two men. Alford, whose race is unknown, did not express concern about the height, build, or other characteristics of the two murder suspects.

Rasheed Shabazz is editor of the forthcoming site, the Alameda Bee, a focused on local news, commentary, with a racial justice lens.