It's an isolating experience to be the only one in your newsroom. It can be a lonely and difficult challenge whenever you expose the problems that you're going through and you're either gaslighted or outright ignored. This is a big part of the reason we're here today to speak about the changes that we want to see, because we hear from the Black journalists we encounter that this has to stop.
The only reason I believed I could do this work, I could be a journalist, was that growing up I used to see Andria Case on the news in Toronto. For me, that is the power of one. It takes just one Black journalist in a newsroom to make a difference so that other young journalists can see that they can do it too. That's the only reason I knew I could do it too. We need more than one. It's been only one for too long, and it's been only one in too many newsrooms across the country for no good reason. This is why we're fighting for change. This is why we're speaking. This is why we're advocating, because we know that better representation is about the audience and it's about representation across the country, but if we don't start or if these companies don't start better reflecting Black journalists and Black youth across this country, then they're going to have a tough time inspiring them and getting them into their newsrooms.