For Immediate Release

Contact: Madison Donzis, madison@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 210.488.6220

New York, NY – After widespread public outcry from over 46,000 ColorOfChange.org members and countless others, The New York Times Executive Editor, Dean Baquet, has addressed Alessandra Stanley’s outrageous “angry Black women” oped, as well as The Times’ lack of diversity and broken editing process, through an article penned by Public Editor Margaret Sullivan.

Rashad Robinson, Executive Editor of ColorofChange.org, has issued the following statement: “ColorofChange.org commends Executive Editor Dean Baquet for announcing his commitment to diversify the staff at the New York Times – starting with its roster of culture critics, where there are currently zero Black critics. His recognition of the paper’s troubled editing process and how it could be helped significantly by the infusion of a more diverse array of voices and perspectives is a critical first step in the right direction.

“Now we need to see action. The Times must follow through on its commitment to bring greater diversity to its staff, and continue to work toward substantive steps for fixing and editing the process that has routinely green-lit harmful content.

“ColorOfChange.org plans to continue to monitor the Times’ progress on these efforts. In the past 24 hours, 10,451 ColorOfChange.org members have sent letters to the New York Times Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, asking that she continue to use her platform to push for greater diversity and substantive changes to the editing process at the New York Times. We thank her for her efforts thus far, and trust she will keep the pressure on the Times to clean up its act once and for all.”

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With more than 900,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest online civil rights organization