Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1920-02-21
HAVE TO KEEP 1T UP.

Under the caption of Inconsistency APP
peared an article in a Chicago weekly pap
err complaining of the same thing that Cay
tons Weekly has complained of from time
to time, the treatment accorded to the col
ored man by the reporters of the daily
press. The editor hereof not long since was
moved to appeal to the management of
daily paper of this city to have the report
ers Of said daily paper modify their news
stories about the colored person of whom
they had to write Our complaint lie in the
fact that in three inch article telling
about ii criminal Negro, the Negro designs
ton was used just thirteen times. Now
this Chicago publication is writing along
the same line and here is what it says:
''Rcaders of newspapers never at
loss to know what the nationality of a
criminal might be-if he chances to be
member of our group. 1t will say "BilI
Williams. \rgrO,' or "Sam jackson, Color
er.' etc. 1t has no doubt been a great
source Of wonder to many and it certainly
has always ben source of annoyance to the
members of our Race. Why should the
nationality of the criminal, when he hap
pens to be of darker hue, be exploited
simply for that reason? 1t certainly is not
because crime committed by one Of us is
any more Of serious offense than if COM
mitted by a "white' man. These lines were
were inspired by the manner in which the
arrest Of five young men was reported in
a recent issue of a local daily the men are
confessed burglars and suspected murder
ers. Here is the paragraph mentioned,
with the addresses omitted:
''The members Of the alleged gang are
Joseph Howard, Peter Real, Joseph Herzog,
Charles Venski and Joseph Bailey.'
IInrn 1S
characteristic of different nationality,
carrying u.s. consecutively, through what
might be American, Scandinavian, German,
Jewish and possibly Irish, but not word
along that line is mentioned. On the page
opposite the above was big head line tell
ing all about the efforts to lynch William
Lockett, Negro slayer If there isn't a
word of Inconsistency in practices of this sort
we are greatly mistaken. Let us have the
idea of mentioning the nationality Of the
criminal carried throughout the entire sys-
tenn of publicity in these cases not at all.
The criminal is a criminal no matter what
his complexion, race. 1t is practices Of
this sort that give those who are super-pre-
JUDGED foundation for their radical
deaS.'
What good purpose can be served by
designating one, who falls into the clutches
Oh uallV newspaper reporter, us d Negro
is beyond our explanation, but granting it
be necessary to make the designation then,
what good purpose can be served for re-
peatng the designation dozen or more
times in a three inch artice9 Evidently the
reporter is afraid the designated person will
change color before the article is finished
and that is why the Negro designation is
constantly repeated.
To say the least it is but another mark
of unfarness that is so unjustly hcaped up
on the colored man from time to time by
the white man. Probably a reporter who
writes such articles per Sc bear the colOred
man no real i'll will, but he is carrying out
nationwide propaganda to humiliate the
colored man whenever and wherever the
white man comes in contact with him, and
yet this is a country Of educated Christian
white folks Would you think it?