journalist
Personal Information
Born October 12, 1935, in Okolona, MS; son of James Lee (a teacher) and Willie Mae (a teacher; maiden name, Tucker) Raspberry; married Sondra Patricia Dodson, November 12, 1966; children: Patricia D., Angela D., Mark J.
Education: Indiana Central College (now University of Indianapolis), B.S., 1958.
Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Army, 1960-62; served as public information officer.
Memberships: National Association of Black Journalists, Capital Press Club, Kappa Alpha Psi, Gridiron Club.
Career
Newspaper columnist, 1966--. Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, IN, 1956-60, began as reporter, photographer, proofreader, and editorial writer, became associate managing editor; Washington Post, Washington, DC, teletypist, 1962, reporter, 1962-64, assistant city editor, 1965, urban affairs columnist, 1966--. Journalism instructor at Howard University, 1971-73; lecturer on race relations and public education. Member of board of advisers, Poynter Institute for Media Studies, 1984--; member of board of visitors, University of Maryland School of Journalism, 1985--. Television commentator, WTTG, Washington, DC, 1973-75, television discussion panelist, WRC-TV, Washington, DC, 1974-75. Member of Pulitzer Prize board, 1979-86.
Life's Work
Less than ten years after William Raspberry began writing his "Potomac Watch" column for the Washington Post, Time declared him "the most respected black voice on any white U.S. paper." But Raspberry never saw himself as a black man seeking approval and power from the white establishment. As he told interviewer Peter Benjaminson in Contemporary Authors: "I never take into account what a black columnist or black man would say about this issue, what he ought to think about this thing. I write about what makes sense to me about particular issues, and certainly the fact that I'm black has an influence on what I think makes sense about those issues. It's not something I have to put into the mix; it's part of who I am."
Raspberry wasn't new to journalism when he came to the Washington Post in 1962. As a college student in the mid-1950s he worked for the Indianapolis Recorder, a black weekly, in various roles, including reporter, proofreader, and associate managing editor. After a stint in the army, Raspberry landed a job with the Washington Post as a teletypist--though he had never even seen a Teletype machine--and "some months later," Time noted, "a sympathetic editor recognized Raspberry's potential as a reporter."
The young reporter worked a few years doing general assignment work on the city desk and was "trying to find a way to set myself apart from a whole string of new young reporters," he told CA. "So, I thought it would be well to try to develop a specialty." He began writing on civil rights issues, because at that time no veteran reporters at the Post were covering the topic locally. After just a few years on the civil rights beat, Raspberry was considered an authority on matters of education, criminal justice, and drug abuse, areas usually avoided by other writers.
But Raspberry rejected being labeled an expert. "It's not true. I'm not an expert in anything," he told CA. "There are very few experts on newspapers. What you have are people who pay attention to particular things. Of course, you gain some inside knowledge of things just by looking at them. You have, fortunately, on major newspapers, almost instant access to whatever experts you require for particular things. People who know about things will take the trouble to explain them to you and give you an instant education, even for the purpose of writing a single column on the subject."
He recalled in Editor & Publisher that he turned the columnist position down when it was first offered to him because he thought he would "run out of ideas in three or four weeks." Now that he has been writing his urban affairs column for more than 20 years, Raspberry is part of the establishment, and as one of its senior members, he wields a certain amount of power. "One of the things that happens, though--after you've been writing a column for a number of years," Raspberry commented to CA, "is that people, officials, learn about you and have a sense of your interests and will sometimes respond. At least I can get people on the phone that the people who have problems can't reach by phone. I guess locally, people see me as their entree to the Washington Post --to the power of the Washington Post --and they phone me, not as a columnist but as someone who can maybe get something accomplished for them."
Raspberry writes three columns each week, two of which deal with national issues and are syndicated, and one that is mainly concerned with local material. "Not every column has to have a solution," he explained in Editor & Publisher, "but if I can't nudge a reader a little in the direction of a solution or at least a better analysis of a problem, I shouldn't write that column." Raspberry also quotes others in his columns. "Whenever I do something like that, I've learned to put the phone number and address of the source on the bulletin board behind my computer screen because I know I will get reader requests for them," he stated in Editor & Publisher. "People are thirsty for ideas."
Raspberry often addresses the subject of race relations in his column. The veteran reporter is invited to speak on various aspects of the issue at conferences and seminars; his thoughts and writings are quoted in the publications of institutes and associations, and as with any explosive topic, his opinions have stirred up controversy. Not everyone is in agreement with his contention that "a myth has crippled black America: the myth that racism is the dominant influence in our lives," a concern Raspberry wrote about in Imprimus and later condensed in Reader's Digest.
Raspberry has drawn comparisons repeatedly between black Americans and other minorities, particularly Asian Americans, who he believes "have spent little time and energy proving that white people don't love them." The columnist maintained in Imprimus, "While our myth is that racism accounts for our shortcomings, {Asian Americans'} belief is that their own efforts can make the difference, no matter what white people think. They have looked at America like children with their noses pressed to the candy-store window: if only I could get in there, boy, could I have a good time. And when they get in, they work and study and save and create businesses and jobs for their people. But we, born inside the candy store, focus only on the maldistribution of the candy. Our myth leads us to become consumers when victories accrue to the producers."
Raspberry has excoriated some civil rights leaders for dwelling on the issue of racism rather than spending their time devising practical solutions; "when people believe that their problems can be solved, they tend to get busy solving them," he wrote in Imprimus. "I don't underestimate either the persistence of racism or its effects," Raspberry voiced in his Washington Post column, "but it does seem to me that you spend too much time thinking about racism.... It is as though your whole aim is to get white people to acknowledge their racism and accept their guilt. Well, suppose they did: What would that change?"
"Well, quite a lot, as a matter of fact," countered Roger Wilkins, who answered Raspberry in Mother Jones. Wilkins wrote that "the people who govern and spend as if there is no tomorrow argue as though yesterday doesn't count.... If Raspberry, or anybody else, has an idea about how to get the country to accept responsibility for its history, those of us whom he admonishes for making white people feel uncomfortable would be glad to hear it." Raspberry, though, would rather spend his time looking for practical solutions. As he stated in Imprimus, "Just for the hell of it, why don't we pretend the racist dragon has been slain already--and take that next step right now?"
Awards
Named Journalist of the Year by Capital Press Club, 1965; nominated for Pulitzer Prize, 1982; honorary degrees from Georgetown University, University of Maryland, University of Indianapolis, and Virginia State University.
Works
Writings
- Author of thrice-weekly column, "Potomac Watch," Washington Post, 1966--. Contributor of articles on race relations and public education to periodicals, including Reader's Digest.
Further Reading
Books
- Contemporary Authors, Volume 122, Gale, 1988.
- America, June 30, 1990.
- Conservative Digest, July/August 1989.
- Editor & Publisher, February 2, 1991.
- Imprimus, March 1990.
- Mother Jones, December 1989.
- Reader's Digest, August 1988; November 1989; August 1990.
- Saturday Evening Post, May/June 1981.
- Time, September 16, 1974.
- Washington Post, November 23, 1969; June 25, 1971; September 17, 1971; March 4, 1988; December 17, 1988.
- --Fran Locher Freiman
