Susan Goldberg
For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It
[Editorial] When we decided to devote our April 2018 magazine to the topic of race, we thought we should examine our own history before turning our reportorial gaze to others. Race is not a biological construct, as writer Elizabeth Kolbert explains in this issue, but a social one that can have devastating effects. “So many of the horrors of the past few centuries can be traced to the idea that one race is inferior to another,” she writes. “Racial distinctions continue to shape our politics, our neighborhoods, and our sense of self.” How we present race matters.