3. Like not a few other listeners, I found the discussion dispiriting, despite the evident good faith & intelligence of Jon.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
4. Jon's response to the "why the Canadian media is so white" question was that it was about class, not race. Media is upper class hobby.
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5. That's basically a solid analysis (although glides over how race & class intersect). What was frustrating was Jon's solution: nothing
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6. Mangling Orwell, Jon basically said you can't expect factory workers to become writers & attempted remedies are just affirmative action
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7. What does Jon ignore? Long history of plebeian writers, born to working class who against the odds make literary & journalistic careers
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8. I'm talking about people like (off the top of my head) Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Alice Munro, M. Richler, Tillie Olsen, Henry Roth
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8. Is it easier to a writer if you are a landed aristocrat like Tolstoy? Sure, everything is easier if you are a landed aristocrat.
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9. But despite the huge leg-up that a Tolstoy has, somehow or other the Chekhov's of the world manage to make something of themselves.
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10. Chekhov (paraphrase): what the aristocratic writer owns as a birthright, the plebeian writer has to pay for with his/her youth.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
11. There's another thing: these systematic biases aren't set in stone, they can be challenged by human action, collective & personal.
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12. To give a concrete example: consider the role David Carr played as mentor to many writers from non-white & non-affluent background.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
13. Jelani Cobb writes about Carr's mentoring beautifully here:http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/postscript-david-carr …
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Replying to @HeerJeet
14. Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the most important magazine writers in America. But he used to be a university drop-out with scruffy resume
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