As we reflect on the four-year mark since the so-called "racial reckoning," great distance has grown between promises made and promises kept. Amid a surge in racism, xenophobia, and the rise of White Christian nationalism, mainstream media has largely fallen short of meeting the urgent demands of the moment.
Racist narratives, problematic framing and formulaic approaches to covering communities of color persist in today’s news coverage and are often deeply entrenched in the reporting. This perpetuates stereotypes, supports established power structures, and overlooks the voices and needs of marginalized communities.
Meanwhile, racism remains a persistent and deadly crisis in America. From shockingly high maternal mortality rates for Black women and housing discrimination, to food insecurity and the attack on voting rights, racism permeates nearly every sector, domain, and level of influence. Racial inequities rooted in social injustice continue to lead to disparities in health, education, housing, labor market, environment, criminal justice, and wealth.
That’s what makes The Emancipator such an essential part of the media landscape. As the nation’s only newsroom dedicated to exploring solutions to racial inequity, The Emancipator drives crucial conversations on the state of race and racism in America and around the world. Our commitment to in-depth, rigorous journalism not only informs the public but also serves as a catalyst for change. By shedding light on systemic injustices and highlighting pathways to equity, we inspire action and foster a more just and inclusive society.
Meeting the Moment:
From scrappy startup to the main stage at SXSW in two short years
Our journey began in the spring of 2022 with a clear vision: to create a newsroom dedicated to exploring solutions to racial inequity through innovative, narrative-shifting journalism and authentic community engagement. From inception, we designed The Emancipator to meet the demands of modern news consumption, emphasizing social-first content, video storytelling, groundbreaking editorial products, solutions, and community-centered events.
Plan of Action and Execution
We started by building a robust contributor model, leveraging an external network of experts and voices that include scholars, community activists, journalists and artists from across the country. Then we built a small, but scrappy in-house video production and social media team to produce original, social-first content that is tailored to break through today’s oversaturated media environment. Our content meets audiences where they are, which—let’s face it—is scrolling on their phones with limited time and heavy competition for their attention.
We produce creative and engaging reels, video essays, TikTok explainers, and online events that spark meaningful conversations and foster mutual understanding between communities.
We partnered with another local newsroom to produce our first podcast episode on the future of reparations in Boston. Our pioneering video commentary series redefines traditional, outdated op-ed pages, bringing crucial perspectives to the forefront in a novel and engaging format.
We have successfully built a number of strategic partnerships with local and national newsrooms and organizations to help extend our reach and impact, including GLAAD, PEN America, GBH, Capital B, WBUR, among others. Additionally, we are leaning into collaborative journalism projects and editorial cross-publishing partnerships and will continue to build out this practice in the months and years to come. All of these models have enabled us to attract high-profile contributors and distribute our content to a much broader audience than ever before.
Challenges and Overcoming Them
Building a nonprofit, antiracist newsroom from the ground up is rewarding work but not without its challenges. For starters, the majority of our funding comes from philanthropic support and individual donors. This makes the growth of the publication’s staff and job stability completely dependent on the success of future fundraising efforts. With that in mind, work is currently underway to partner with an outside strategic consulting group to help us develop a long-term funding strategy that will help sustain our financial stability for as long as our newsroom is needed.
Another challenge we encountered was our recent separation from The Boston Globe, one of our initial partners and the incubator of our site until earlier this year. This development forced our team to reimagine and rebuild our website from the ground up, straining our resources at a critical juncture in our growth. Despite the difficulties, we leveraged the lessons learned during our first year to create a more dynamic and engaging website. This new site was proudly unveiled during a main stage event at last year's SXSW Conference, marking a significant milestone in our journey.
Winning gold at last year’s Shorty Impact Awards validated our argument that not all results can be measured by simple KPIs, especially in the complex realm of racial progress. This recognition highlighted the importance of qualitative achievements, such as community impact and societal influence, affirming that our innovative efforts are making a meaningful difference, even if traditional metrics cannot fully capture our progress.
That said, we have made tremendous strides and are encouraged by the results:
The Emancipator website
Social Media
Events
We’ve engaged communities nationwide through more than 50 online and in-person events, including:
Newsletter Subscribers
Nearly 50k+ subscribers
Awards
The news industry itself (where we hope to exercise thought leadership) is taking note of our work. In addition to our Shorty Impact Gold last year, some of our most recent honors include: an Edward R. Murrow Award, 4 Webby nominations, 2 Online Journalism Association nominations, 1 Solutions Journalism Awards nomination, among others.