Karen Attiah - Last Black Full Time Columnist at WaPo Fired [View all]
Posted in the African American Group
I may not have always agreed with her on everything, but she was a damn good columnist. Also note - she was Jamal Kashoggi's editor.
https://karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washington-post-fired-me-but
My journalistic and moral values for balance compelled me to condemn violence and murder without engaging in excessive, false mourning for a man who routinely attacked Black women as a group, put academics in danger by putting them on watch lists, claimed falsely that Black people were better off in the era of Jim Crow, said that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake, and favorably reviewed a book that called liberals Unhumans. In a since-deleted post, a user accused me of supporting violence and fascism. I made clear that not performing over-the-top grief for white men who espouse violence was not the same as endorsing violence against them.
My only direct reference to Kirk was one post his own words on record.
Note - It was his own words she posted: "Black women not having the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person's slot."
My commentary received thoughtful engagement across platforms, support, and virtually no public backlash.
And yet, the Post accused my measured Bluesky posts of being "unacceptable, gross misconduct and of endangering the physical safety of colleagues charges without evidence, which I reject completely as false. They rushed to fire me without even a conversationclaiming disparagement on race. This was not only a hasty overreach, but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and rigor the Post claims to uphold.
Since then, my words on absolution for white male violence have proven prescient. The suspect in Kirks killing is indeed a young white man, and already, lawmakers are urging us to pray for him. The media is painting the 22 year-old as a good, all-American suburban kid. The cycle I mentioned has once again come to pass.
I was the last remaining Black full-time opinion columnist at the Post, in one of the nations most diverse regions. Washington D.C. no longer has a paper that reflects the people it serves. What happened to me is part of a broader purge of Black voices from academia, business, government, and media a historical pattern as dangerous as it is shameful and tragic.
I think that's it for me and amazon for streaming. I can get acorn, britbox and amc elsewhere.