The Times Tribune reporter Borys Krawczeniuk on September 11, 2009  identified a speaker at the September 10th Tea Party Express event as a black with no name and misses a compelling story.

Over 1000 attend to hear Kenneth Gladney

Here is what Borys Krawczeniuk writes as a focus on race in a political event open to everyone without any exclusivity.

Borys needed to use the word black twice, one time after a singer openly declared his heritage, so readers were not missing a race component.

Borys could have, with some research, learn all about the Kenneth Gladney story. However he would not find anything about Kenneth’s story in his own newspaper The Times-Tribune because if you search the web site you come up with nothing because the paper did not report the story.

No Story On Kenneth Gladney found in searching The Times-Tribune

Kenneth Gladney Was Publicly Beaten By SEIU Members.  It was important for Borys to mention Kenneth’s skin color, but Kenneth’s name was an important fact overlooked. More egregious is no effort to listen to Kenneth and realize he has a story that also can be easily researched on the internet. Kenneth is one of the unemployed not likely to return to work for 2 or 3 years. Faced with no prospect of a job turned to capitalism. While running his business, Kenneth was badly beaten in his efforts. His story is worth repeating, his business not withstanding.

Borys observation that the crowd was mostly white, or could have he said the crowd contained some blacks. This attitude mimics news reporting focus on race and skin color rather than American heritage. Honestly what is Borys’ point about skin color? Can the paper say it directly! Is it about the citizens of Scranton? Is The Times-Tribune a paper about the various American heritages?

Still not clear on the skin color of Lloyd Marcus after he said “not an African-American” but “an American”, Borys clarified for readers Lloyd’s skin color with “Lloyd Marcus, a black singer on the tour”. Lloyd appears to think of himself as African-American, one of the many great heritages that make up the Country. You can enjoy Lloyd’s creative work here and more at his web site.

Scranton deserves a better understanding of the composition of Americans and The Times-Tribune can be a leader for that “conversation” with some cultural training for Borys Krawczeniuk. Its about American heritage and the beauty of how it makes being an American refreshing and not divisive.