How the Sun Lost Its Shine

Elaine Tassy

doi:10.5771/9780761850021

Summary

How the Sun Lost Its Shine: A Newsroom Memoir is award-winning journalist Elaine Tassy's no-holds-barred account of her four years working as a reporter at The Baltimore Sun. As one of few black female staff writers, she noticed and spoke out about the vast differences she saw in how editors, mostly white and male, utilized reporters, and how they covered local news-decisions often seemingly based on race, class and gender. With humor, brutal honesty, statistics from the Sun's website, and references to scholarly works, Tassy describes dozens of workplace experiences and the ensuing consequences, both physical and emotional, to being a 'Job Socialization Failure.' She gives evidence that should both comfort and support those who face unanticipated office politics, while offering an eye-opening reality check to professionals entering the workplace under the impression that their gender, race, age and willingness to challenge authority will not influence their working life.