When a woman kidnaped a six-week-old infant from a baby sitter's apartment in Brooklyn a fortnight ago, the police alarm included a detail essential to the hunt for the baby: both the kidnaper and the child were Negroes. But except for the New York Daily News, no Manhattan daily so identified the missing baby. And most of the papers buried the kidnaper's race deep in their stories, while the New York Journal-American described the hunted woman closely from her missing upper teeth to her open-toed shoes, without anywhere mentioning the color of her skin.
The case dramatized the absurd extreme resulting from one approach to a problem that worries thoughtful editors across the U.S.: When should a Negro be so identified in print? The Brooklyn story ended fortunately in the baby's recovery and the arrest of Kidnaper Mary Jackson, 35. But in their reluctance to identify a Negro as such, most of the editors not only misled readers who might have offered important clues but also created the false, inflammatory impression that a Negro woman had kidnaped a white baby.
Pressure & Ads. The taboo against using the Negro label is the product of pressure groups and the conscientious efforts of newspapers to be fair to a minority. Once it was hardly a problem, since newspapers ran little news about Negroes. But now newspapers are running far more news about the Negro than ever before, partly because of his gradual rise in U.S. society, partly because they are wooing him as a reader since his improved economic status has interested advertisers in the Negro market.
Though it varies from one newspaper to another, the ban on racial identification is usually lifted only when the story 1) is favorable. 2) involves a wanted felon, or 3) would make no sense otherwise, e.g., the report of a racial clash. The result: Negroes are seldom identified when they figure in crime stories.
But is a newspaper properly serving either its readers, its community or the interests of the Negro when it masks the fact that there is a heavier crime rate among Negroes than whites? In New York City, for example, it would come as a surprise to most newspaper readers that Negroes comprise 10% of the population but commit about 35% of the crime.*Says a police official in a big California city: "Sixty percent of our crime lies squarely in [the Negroes'] lap, and the papers ought to show the community what the crime problem is and where it is. It's only fair reporting, no more. It would pressure responsible Negroes into doing something about it."
Says a Los Angeles news executive: "Frankly. I do think there is a tendency in the press to be tender in handling Negro stories. But we are even more chary in using the word 'Mexican' or 'Mexican-descent.' " Says another Los Angeles editor: "Where we run into the most controversy is when we just give the names of boys involved in East Side gang fights. Then we get complaints from Mexican-American groups. We say: 'Well, we didn't say Mexican.' And their answer is: 'You don't have to.' They want us not to print the names at all."