By Carole Simpson, $18.95; AuthorHouse; 314 pages
When I started reading Carole Simpson's book I did not know what to expect. I assume that it would be a collection of her experiences and misadventures in the world of journalism. I am glad to say that I found much more. In her book, NewsLady, Simpson details her odyssey as an AfricanAmerican who battled racism and sexism to become a number of firsts in the world of journalism.
Simpson starts at the end, opening with what would be one of her last assignments as a broadcast journalist in "Time to Go." She quickly follows with a detailed profile of her immediate family history, describing her parents and her grandfather as well as their impact on her life. While this family history has little to do with Simpson's career as a journalist directly, it does paint a vivid portrait of the ethnic complexity within the African-American community and how it would directly come to affect Simpson while working with other African-Americans.
In "All My Skinfolk Ain't My Kinfolk," Simpson shares one of her experiences with colorism and intra-ethnic conflict while working on a documentary centered on the African-American community. Every journalist knows that his or her name will be directly linked to the story that is presented. For a broadcast news anchor this is twice as true as his or her face will be linked with their story even if that person's name is forgotten. Simpson recognized this fact and attempted to take an active role in the production of the documentary. Unfortunately, the result of Simpson's efforts was conflict. The documentary's producer insinuated that Simpson thought herself above the project's production staff because of her skin tone.
Simpson's experience with the complexity of race and intra-ethnic clashes would not end with the making of a documentary. She learned personally how the idea of race in the United States did not translate into other cultures. "Cry, The Reviled Country" recants Simpson's experience as a correspondent covering the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Upon talking to some local women in a marketplace, Simpson was questioned as to why a "colored" woman would care about what happened to Blacks. Simpson tried to explain her racial standing in the United States, but it meant little to the women she was trying to interview. What Simpson described as "craziness" was common knowledge in South Africa.
NewsLady not only entails stories of how Simpson dealt with issues of race and racism, but also issues of gender and sexism. Before even starting her career, Simpson was forced to ward off unwanted sexual advances as an intern at the Tuskegee Institutefirst, by her supervisor while working late in the evening, and then again by a group of young white men as she walked down the street. This would only be the beginning, as Simpson continued on to describe various acts of sexual harassment so outrageous they could easily be written into a raunchy sex comedy. The only exception is that these incidents happened in real life and there was nothing funny about them.
If Simpson wasn't dealing with sexual harassment then it was sexual discrimination. Too often, Simpson said she was pushed aside in favor of a man due to what her bosses often saw as an inherent inferiority of women.
Simpson finishes NewsLady with a less-than-perfect ending to her career in broadcast journalism. She does not dramatize the experience or play up the events for a happier endingshe simply tells what happened and how she felt. Still, she did it in a fashion worthy of her 37 years in broadcast journalism.