What is Decolonized Journalism?
Allow me to explain
In the summer of 2020 during the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, the country had its eyes opened to many social issues that have existed for decades, some for centuries. How the media portrays nonwhite people is one of those issues. It’s a problem that is still seen across all mainstream media channels that helps drive negative narratives against Indigenous people, Black people, and Latinos mostly. Giving voice to people like Trump only worsens that problem.
There’s no question that the far-right has normalized racism and bigotry against anyone who isn’t a white Christian male. Women, children, and the LGBTQ community are all part of the widespread Ku Klux Klan-like bigotry. Attacking those groups while declaring everything as socialism or communism only adds to the Klannish hate against those who have been ”othered”.
But it’s not solely about calling out racial, ethnic, and cultural animus that comes from far-right actors. How much the media demonizes nonwhite groups, for example, is as much about what the media doesn’t report as it is about what it does. From portraying white mass shooters as smart and quiet while citing neighbors and friends who say things like “we never would have thought he would do such a thing,” to demonizing nonwhite people, legacy media still has a major problem.
Decolonized journalists don’t have this issue and are cognizant of any biases in their reporting and address them before publication. Similarly, a reporter in this field never trusts what “police say” because their history of lying and propagandizing their own actions is expansive. Taking a lead role in exposing injustices by so-called “law enforcement” agencies is part of the job while not immediately taking everything they say as fact.
Some examples include my reporting on Uvalde, no-knock raids, police union bosses accessing crime scenes, police union propaganda, and the gang mentality within nearly every police department in the U.S. But it doesn’t end there when it comes to policing. Monitoring and reporting on agencies like Border Patrol and their increasing power over U.S. citizens is also part of reporting without biases seen in the media that paint them as heroes.
A decolonized journalist is typically outspoken about injustice and the overall trend of allowing fascism to creep into society. This serves two purposes. One, it highlights what modern-day journalists would call bias in our reporting while ignoring that some issues, such as hate and far-right extremism, require no objectivity. Second, it lets the reader know that white-owned media bias will not be accepted.
The Klan and groups like it don’t deserve to be heard. Those groups’ motivations for stifling progress toward equality for all are reason enough. A decolonized journalist will always put the views of the oppressed at the forefront and expose the oppressor–which is more times than not, our own government and its foot soldiers with badges.
This also means questioning media bias when it comes to interventions in foreign countries. The more recent examples involving Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela, and many more highlight just how much the media ignores while carrying water for the U.S. government, its State Department, and so-called “intelligence” agencies. Everything I’ve ever learned about journalism tells me and everyone else that this is not how you hold truth to power.
Without telling the full story, that is, talking to Cubans, Venezuelans, or echoing the voices of Palestinians makes corporate media reporting not just incomplete and biased, but willing propagandists for the United States government. Meanwhile, they are driving how people think of these groups. For example, in the U.S. most thought of Nelson Mandela as a terrorist when he was in fact, a freedom fighter which is how he is seen now.
Similarly, a large portion of Western society views all Palestinians as terrorists and acts as if people often referred to as dictators don’t have support in their home countries. A decolonized journalist questions all of this and exposes mainstream media bias while telling the stories of the people the West is hell-bent on oppressing. They also expose the U.S. government's motivations to lie to the media while pointing out that the media accepts these lies to appease their own motivations.
A decolonized journalist does not fear speaking the truth. They do not have a corporate overlord dictating what they report nor are they afraid of being ignored by media giants that are struggling with an ever-growing lack of support. That they are driven by profits, clicks, and ad sales makes them blind to why they struggle with the general public. As long as they’re making a buck, they can’t be bothered to reflect on what they report and how they report it.
They simply don’t care.
Another example is using words like “crisis” at the same time that a good portion of the U.S. was employing “invasion” narratives about the migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The latter was able to point to “liberal media” and say things like, “See, there is an invasion. Even leftist media is calling it a crisis.” This led to a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposing one of the most oppressive immigration bills since 1994. It didn’t pass because one side plays too many games.
Not being concerned with a politician’s party is also a key to being a decolonized journalist. If a president or lawmaker wants to pass an oppressive law, they concern themselves with the policy idea and not the party. From the 1994 crime bill to the immigration bill passed that same year, the most oppressive bills in recent history were passed with bipartisan support largely because they weren’t being held to account by the media which is supposed to do just that.
Jim Crow laws and the ridiculously long time it took for the Civil Rights Act to pass were because of bipartisan support and broad media bias. Slavery was bipartisan. Genocide is more often than not bipartisan. Wars and sanctions that starve and displace innocent people are all bipartisan. Insider trading in Congress has bipartisan support as does putting corporate interests over taxpayers, voters, and the human lives both represent.
Decolonized journalism means calling attention to all of these things and more. We won’t tell anyone who to vote for but will certainly hold you to account when that person moves to oppress others. We hold all politicians to account because trusting them is arguably the dumbest thing any journalist can do. Call us advocates, biased journalists, or whatever you want, we don’t really care. It’s not our job to give a damn about the opinions of others. It’s our job to hold truth to power by any means necessary and do what corporate media won’t.
Independent journalism may be the future of reporting. Decolonized journalism is the future of finding and exposing the truth and providing the context required for the public to get the full story. A reader's biases do not typically play into what we do. If it did, everyone would only get part of the story. Because of that, readers may not like some of what we report but our body of work in its entirety is what should matter above all else.
Decolonized journalists are doing real work whether they like it or not.
I’m a freelance writer and journalist for The Antagonist Magazine and Unicorn Riot. Find me on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work become a paid subscriber or donate on Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp