The “entitled white male perspective”

[NY Times media columnist David] Carr says that years ago he was on a panel with Jack Shafer, who is now a writer for Slate, when someone pointed out to them that the panel was mostly white men. Shafer joked, “But the entitled white male perspective is such an interesting perspective,” and everybody laughed. When Carr told me this, I laughed, too. But I think the time for laughter has passed. It’s now time for the likes of Shafer and Carr and Ackerman to get serious about this subject. We know people will listen—there’s a million white-dude panels in history to prove it.

This is the last paragraph of a provocative piece titled “Why White Men Should Refuse to Be on Panels of All White Men”, by Cord Jefferson, Senior Editor of Good Media. It was first posted in May of this year, but I missed it and — no surprise — it’s still relevant!

You can read the full commentary here.

The truth is that although name recognition of prominent speakers can sometimes increase attendance at events, relying on the usual suspects often robs discussions of new ideas and unique insights…