'Our history doesn't have to own us': The Kansas City Star apologized for a deep history of racism in its news coverage

• The Kansas City Star on Sunday issued an apology for its history of racism in its news coverage.
• The Star said its own reporters spoke to former employees and researched archived editions of the paper and its sister publication to see how it had historically covered "race and the Black community" since its inception.
• "Reporters were frequently sickened by what they found," the Star wrote, adding that "for much of [the paper's] early history — through sins of both commission and omission — it disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians."

The Kansas City Star on Sunday issued an apology for its history of racism in its news coverage.

In an essay entitled "The truth in Black and white," the newspaper said it initiated the inquiry after George Floyd's police killing in late May.

"We are sorry," the newspaper wrote, adding: "it is time that we own our history."

The Star said its own reporters spoke to former employees and researched archived editions of the paper and its sister publication to see how it had historically covered "race and the Black community" since its inception.

"Reporters were frequently sickened by what they found - decades of coverage that depicted Black Kansas Citians as criminals living in a crime-laden world," the newspaper wrote. "Reporters felt regret that the papers' historic coverage not only did a disservice to Black Kansas Citians, but also to white readers deprived of the opportunity to understand the true richness Black citizens brought to Kansas City."

The Star wrote that "for much of its early history - through sins of both commission and omission - it disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians."

"But our history doesn't have to own us," the paper wrote.

The newspaper emphasized "progress is still being made - and still necessary," and noted the paper's several initiatives for "gradual improvements," including making "diverse hires a priority" and expanding coverage related to race in America.

Journalists from communities of color have historically been underrepresented in newsrooms, a gap that can be seen in current editorial staff and leadership across the US.

Only 21.9% of all salaried employees in newsrooms identified as people of color in the 2019 American Society of News Editors' Newsroom Diversity Survey. People of color comprised less than one-fifth of all newsroom managerial positions (18.8%), according to the survey.

The Pew Research Center reported in 2018 that 77% of newsroom staff identified as non-Hispanic white - roughly 20% more than the overall US workforce, where the non-Hispanic white population account for 48% of all newsrooms.

The Star's apology comes nearly three months after a similar reflection from the Los Angeles Times, which highlighted "at best a blind spot, at worst an outright hostility, for the city's nonwhite population" in its past coverage it identified as "rooted and reflected in a shortage of Indigenous, Black, Latino, Asian and other people of color in its newsroom."

In addition to its own newsroom, the Star encouraged "other Kansas City businesses to come forward and own their history as well, tell their stories, get the poison out - for the sake of the community and their employees."

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