The press serves a significant role in creating change. I also had to process my role as a black columnist. I bear a certain responsibility to speak the mind of those who are black. I take that burden seriously, yet don't assume that I know what all black people are thinking just because I'm black. There are black Republicans as well as Democrats.
Some blacks are liberal, but many are conservative.
Being black does force me to consider the other side of the story. It's the side white journalists fail to see due to their assumptions. I bear a responsibility to remind my white readers that there is another way to look at what they assume to be truth. Many assume that Richard Hicks needs to go as principal at Hillside High School. I'm convinced Hicks needs to stay.