An interesting question came up at a meeting last week between N&O managers and editors and leaders of the African-American community: Can that community be covered adequately by a reporter who is not black?

Several people at the meeting recalled favorably The N&O's black reporters who had covered Southeast Raleigh in the past and made clear they'd like to see that situation continue.

"We need someone who understands the African-American experience, understands the systemic factors, the struggle and the things that over the years have caused this area to lag," said City Council member James West. Southeast Raleigh is unique, he said, and needs a reporter who understands that. Others nodded their heads.

The News & Observer has a beat that includes coverage of Southeast Raleigh, as well as the historically black colleges Shaw and St. Augustine's. The last two reporters who covered that beat were black; the current one is white.

The readers' concern is understandable and deserves a reasoned response. Here goes.

First, as an editor pointed out at the meeting, the African-American community does not equate to Southeast Raleigh. Raleigh's booming growth has brought more diversity to other areas of town, such as Northeast Raleigh. Meanwhile, predominantly black Southeast Raleigh has become more diverse as well, as the city's growth affects the demographics of that area.

But more important, it is not journalistically sound to assign reporters based on race, or to assume that they can't cover a population because of their own ethnicity. Reporters are professionals who are trained to use their reporting and writing skills to cover a variety of topics under any set of conditions and circumstances.

Newspapers want the skin color of their reporters to be invisible to readers, and that can't happen if they're assigned on the basis of race. "I would very strongly resist the suggestion that a reporter has to be African-American to cover Southeast Raleigh," said Linda Williams, deputy managing editor.

"If it were reversed and we were to say that a black reporter couldn't cover the white community, imagine how upset they would be," said Williams, who is black.

She'd rather have a reporter who is out in the neighborhoods getting to know the people and the issues that concern them. Residents of Southeast Raleigh, she said, aren't sitting in offices eight hours a day waiting for telephone calls from reporters.

The folks at last week's meeting valued the coverage they'd gotten from the previous African-American reporters. But I remember a conversation with one of those reporters, who complained of being stereotyped -- "ghetto-ized," she said -- by the paper and the community as the black reporter covering the black beat.

The reporter assigned to the beat now, Josh Shaffer, previously was the Raleigh city hall reporter, which equips him well to understand issues of the inner city. Shaffer lives near downtown himself and asked to be assigned to this beat. He is the reporter who, in February, broke the story of a Raleigh police sergeant who owns 10 rental houses in Southeast Raleigh that have been the target of multiple police calls for drugs, prostitution and assaults.

"Hopefully, after a few months of covering stories, they won't care so much about my background," Shaffer said.

More important than the race of individual reporters, Williams said, is whether the newsroom is stocked with journalists of varying backgrounds who can bring cultural awareness and sensitivity to the reporting so that it avoids stereotypes and covers issues that affect different communities differently. The N&O does not have enough minority journalists -- few newspapers do -- but they are in key positions of influence in the newsroom and throughout the company: the Wake County editor, the director of photography, the What's Up section editor, a deputy managing editor and, yes, the publisher.

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