journalist; writer; political commentator
Personal Information
Born 1969, New York, NY; raised in Baltimore, MD. Daughter of Lucas (a businessman) and Cynthia (a journalist) Chideya.
Education: B.A., Harvard University.
Career
Worked as reporter at Newsweek magazine, c. 1991-95; free-lance journalist, c. 1990s- ; published book, Don't Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African-Americans, 1995; served as writer at MTV News, 1995-96; CNN political commentator, 1995- ; started Internet web site Pop & Politics, 1996; began work on book The Color of Diversity, 1996.
Life's Work
"I don't want to say the same thing as everyone else," Farai Chideya told People, reflecting on her unique position as a young black woman among older white male pundits on the Cable News Network (CNN). "I'm trying to update our view of America." With a background in journalism, a stint at MTV, frequent spots on CNN political roundtables and other public affairs programs, an Internet website, and a well-reviewed book under her belt, Chideya has done a great deal of updating in a short time. And there is little risk of her parroting the views of her peers; she has dedicated herself to overturning American myths about race, gender, sexuality and other matters with tenacity and zeal.
She was born in New York to a Zimbabwean businessman father and an American mother who worked as a journalist and as a high school teacher. During her childhood she traveled to Zimbabwe and Kenya. She did most of her growing up in Baltimore. "It's still my 'home' -- the place where I've got roots and family," she explained to Contemporary Black Biography (CBB). "It's a cool town, very blue collar, mostly black folks and whites but now with increasing numbers of Asians, South Asians, and Latinos. The city's growing," she added, "just like I am."
Her parents divorced and her father returned to Africa when she was quite small. "It was really traumatic for me," she told CBB. "I was close to my father. But I felt that by being sad that he was gone, I was being disloyal to my mom--who was and is the backbone of our family. I think it's important to remember that a lot of families get divorced, and what happens between your parents shouldn't necessarily diminish the love you have for either parent."
Her mother's healthy skepticism was a crucial force in determining Farai's direction in life. "My mom was always willing to analyze political rhetoric," she recalled in People. "Questioning the status quo was a family tradition." Cynthia Chideya's passion for words was a formative influence, Farai told CBB: "She taught me to read when I was about 3, and I've been a compulsive reader ever since." She developed a particular fondness for science fiction and fantasy.
Despite her literary upbringing, Farai gravitated toward medical school--much like her sister had--when considering her career. She attended Harvard University but fared less well in science than in English and eventually gave up the idea of a medical career. "I thought it might be better to get into writing," she reflected in the Los Angeles Times. The Harvard experience, she recalled to CBB, expanded her horizons considerably. "I had a great time there," she noted, "even though when I arrived, I felt as if everyone there was more sophisticated than I am."
What she ultimately found, however, was that heritage was less important than she'd imagined. "You can't envy what other people have or had," she insisted. "Some of the kids of millionaires were happy, some were not. College is a great time to get to meet people from different backgrounds, but don't feel awkward about your own." She added that she'd met some of her closest friends at Harvard: "African American, Asian American, foreign born, American born, whatever." Even so, as she recollected in an essay she ultimately posted on her web site, the racial politics at Harvard were not always easy to negotiate. "I was a dogged multiculturalist," she wrote, "even though that put me at both literal and figurative remove from Harvard's African-American community." She described the two groups that flanked either side of the salad bar in her dormitory's dining room: "Most of the black students in Adams [Hall dorm] sat in the quarter near the door; I sat with my friends and roommates--black, white, Asian, Latino--on the artsy, smoke-filled three-quarters' side. Very few managed to float between the two worlds."
While at Harvard, Chideya earned a minority internship at Newsweek magazine. "I had to make a lot of adjustments--in my style of writing, in the way I interviewed people--but it was a great learning experience," she reflected in her interview with CBB. She made her initial impression on Boston Bureau Chief Mark Starr, who told the Los Angeles Times, "She just arrived full force. I think we learned as much from her as she learned from us." Starr confided that Chideya's communicative skills even helped to him overcome his dislike of rap music. "She literally came in and explained it to me in terms of jazz, which I like," he said. "I wouldn't claim to love rap but I certainly have an appreciation for it."
While at the magazine, Chideya worked in the New York, Chicago and Washington bureaus. At the latter, she covered the machinery of government in intimate detail. A story she wrote for the magazine on the "World's Ten Best Schools" earned her a National Education Reporting Award. She also contributed articles to such publications as Time, the Village Voice, Mademoiselle, and Spin. Many of her articles dealt with the involvement--or lack thereof--of African Americans and young people in general in the political process. Essence magazine led off a series of articles urging black participation in the 1996 elections with a piece by Chideya, who wrote: "There is no better time for us to make our voices heard, and African-Americans have a special stake in this year's elections." She went on to assert that the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 was possible in part because black voters stayed home.
While at Newsweek, Chideya found herself increasingly frustrated at the way the mainstream media--her employer included--dealt with minority issues. She explained in an interview for the Internet journal SOS Spotlight that "the editors had pre-conceived notions about black America. Right now, the burden of proof is on black Americans to disprove these stereotypes."
As a result, she began researching what would become her first book, Don't Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Disinformation About African-Americans. "It may be one of the best-kept secrets in America: 'the liberal media' is not terribly liberal," she wrote in the book's opening chapter. "American journalism is often misleading, myopic and unreliable when it comes to detailing the lives of African-Americans." Published in 1995, the book promptly established her as a bright new voice in the debate over the representation of race and diversity.
Chideya recalled in the Los Angeles Times that her book project began as a collection of clippings. "Every day as I went through the papers I would find something that I thought was stereotypical about the black community," she explained, "and I would rip it out and put it in a drawer. Pretty soon I had 200 pieces of paper." This mass of journalistic evidence confirmed her belief that mainstream journalism failed to challenge prevailing, simplistic views. As she asserted in the book, "many white Americans have little to base their knowledge of African-Americans on but what they see, hear, and read in the media." Furthermore, she claimed, "In journalism's game of connect-the-dots, 'black' has come to symbolize crime, reckless childbearing, moral turpitude-- 'pathology.' African-Americans have come to symbolize the worst America has to offer."
Yet Chideya has refused to attribute such portrayals to some white media conspiracy. "The minority of the problem is pure racism," she pointed out in SOS Spotlight, placing the blame instead on "a comfortable laziness among television audiences, a willingness to trust what they see and what they hear as the absolute truth. So people take what they see and begin to equate poor with black with inner city with depraved. Racial scapegoating allows people to disassociate themselves with people who are poor, and they figure, 'It's not my problem.'" She offered an example to the Los Angeles Times: "When many people talk about affirmative action, they really don't know exactly what they are talking about." "No one has come to the table, liberal or otherwise, with any ways to deal with job discrimination other than affirmative action."
After her tenure at Newsweek, Chideya began working as an assignment editor for MTV news. MTV's youth-oriented, cutting-edge approach was a marked departure from the world of upscale print journalism. The experience, she told CBB, "was incredibly interesting and fun. MTV News is the chief news source for a lot of teenagers and college students. It really reaches out to its audience by providing coverage that young adults care about, whether it's music or politics." Even so, Chideya noted, "I did wish MTV was a little more adventurous in covering hard news topics. For example [co-anchor] Tabitha Soren did a segment on Bosnia that I thought was one of the best things they ever did."
Chideya was still on staff at MTV when she began making on-camera appearances on the political talk show Inside Politics on the CNN network. She later joined the program as a full-time panelist, trading observations--and occasionally barbs--with such heavyweight pundits as David Broder and Bob Novak. "I was tremendously intimidated," she confessed in People. "I don't know the middle initial of every President, but I make it my business to know as much as I can." According to Tom Hannon, producer of Inside Politics, she did not need to worry. He declared, "She's quickly developed into a star. She's clear, knowledgeable and frighteningly articulate."
"I still am intimidated from time to time," Chideya herself averred to CBB, "because I simply don't know as much as the people who are older and more experienced than I am. One time I was asked about the chances for re-election of Republicans in the Senate and I really had no idea. I had to recall what information I knew about the subject." Even so, she emphasized, "television is all about thinking on your feet. But more important, you have to be comfortable with the fact that you just don't know as much as people who are older. If you acknowledge that reality, you'll do your homework, make sure you know as much as possible, and then deliver an honest opinion based on what you do know."
Chideya's opinions were not only honest, but a marked departure from the conventional wisdom spouted by her older and purportedly more knowledgeable peers. "Having nonwhite reporters is a way of providing checks and balances," she ventured in People. She was careful to point out in the Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, her conviction that "it's a fallacy that anyone is completely objective. We all reflect our own upbringing, our thoughts and ideas."
Chideya's thoughts and ideas found an even more complete mode of expression on her Internet web site, Pop & Politics. She began the electronic forum in 1996, featuring essays and other materials representing a range of issues. "No matter who you're working for," she insisted to CBB, "you can't say exactly what you want. Writing for someone is a matter of compromise between the writer and editor. My web site is my domain (so to speak), so I can put down my ideas just the way I see them."
Pop & Politics has included meditations on what constitutes the political "mainstream" in addition to comments on popular culture and such personal essays as "The Black Man of My Dreams"--in which Chideya plunges into touchy personal questions about dating men, both black and white--and a piece in which she confesses, "I can't do the Soul Handshake." The site has permitted Chideya to meet all kinds of new readers. "The web is a wonderful tool for reaching people across the country, across racial and gender barriers, even internationally," she informed CBB. "Hey, I've even gotten e-mail from a hip-hop fan in Tokyo!"
As for her personal life, Chideya described herself in "The Black Man of My Dreams" as "27, single and happy. But I'm still looking for Mr. Right." People indicated that she enjoyed shopping for vintage clothes and, in her own words, "bizarre little shoes," unlike the "dork clothes" she sported on CNN. She told CBB that she was working on a new book, The Color of Diversity. "It's taking a teen- and twentysomething perspective on diversity," she noted, "from immigration to biracial identity to life in the 'hood."
Further Reading
Books
- Chideya, Farai, Don't Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African-Americans, Plume/Penguin, 1995.
- Essence, August 1996, p. 60.
- Los Angeles Times, March 20, 1995, p. E1.
- People, April 22, 1996.
- Time, October 21, 1996.
- Chideya, Farai, Pop & Politics, updated January 1997, http://www.popandpolitics.com (accessed January 1997).
- Nightingale, Marisa, SOS Spotlight: Farai Chideya, updated February 28, 1996, http://www.americanexpress.com/student/right/news/docs/sosspot.html (accessed January 1997).
- Additional information was provided by a December 1996 interview with Farai Chideya.
— Simon Glickman
