Reporter discusses race, politics and journalism

The JHU Forums on Race in America hosted April Ryan, former White House reporter for American Urban Radio Networks, on Tuesday night. She spoke on a multitude of issues ranging from her perspective on racial inequality to fake news.

Though Ryan has been reporting on presidential administrations since 1997, she has gained more attention in recent months due to two incidences involving the Trump Administration.

The first occurred in February this year, when she asked U.S. President Donald J. Trump if he would set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. Trump then asked if Ryan was friends with the Black Caucus and if she would like to set up the meeting.

The incident was seen as controversial because many believed that the President assumed Ryan knew members of the Black Caucus because she is black. However, Ryan told the audience she didn’t see the situation that way.

Despite this, Ryan still maintained that race is a crucial issue that reporters don’t pay enough attention to.

“When you look at it, race touches everything. It touches money. It touches nutrition. It touches health,” she said.

She also spoke about her own experiences being stereotyped as a black journalist in a predominantly white profession.

“People automatically assume because I’m a black woman I’m in the Democrat’s corner,” she said. “I ask questions, and I don’t care who you are. I’m going to do my job.”

Ryan also explained that as a journalist, she feels it is important to have connections across the political spectrum.

“I’m friends with Democrats and Republicans,” she said. “Any good reporter who’s worth their pen has relationships in every party everywhere. Because if you don’t talk to one side, you don’t know what’s going on.”

Ryan also elaborated on a second notable incident which occurred in March 2017 at a White House press briefing. She attempted to ask former Press Secretary Sean Spicer about the accusations regarding Trump’s connections with Russia. Spicer cut her off and told her to stop shaking her head.

“My main responsibility is to get it right,” she said. “Sean Spicer told me to stop shaking my head. I just asked a simple question about Russia... I started shaking my head because it started getting crazy after a while.”

Ryan also spoke about the recent controversies regarding fake news. She believes that a lack of answers from the White House is a prominent cause of inaccurate news reports.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty in this White House,” Ryan said. “People want to know more, but the answers aren’t coming from the White House, so you’ve got a lot of people trying to craft these stories and these answers in these crazy sensational ways on different issues.”

She also noted the role of social media, especially Facebook, in perpetuating false stories.

“Facebook is one of the biggest culprits of fake news.” she said. “You have to think about who’s credible when you view it.”

Ryan also believes that students have the potential to enact major social change.

“Johns Hopkins and all these other Ivy League schools: You are here to challenge the system,” she said. “You’re the best and brightest.”

She cited a number of historical events as examples of young people leading social movements.

“[The] Civil Rights Movement [was led by] young people,” she said. “Immigration movement, student’s movement [was led by] young people... young people are the lifeblood to make change.”

Many students enjoyed  Ryan’s talk. Sophomore Nana Bruce-Amanquah explained that though she hadn’t previously heard of Ryan, she was glad she went to the event.

“Before I came to this talk I had very little idea of who she was,” Bruce-Amanquah said. “I knew she was a reporter because I had seen her on the poster. But it was cool to come here and listen to her talk about her experiences.”

Bruce-Amanquah especially liked Ryan’s comments on fake news.

“I feel like there’s so much information, and it’s hard to discern what is accurate or not,” she said. “I think I’m definitely going to pay more attention to when she comes on TV, and pay more attention to the sources that I read.”

Sophomore Caroline West felt that the talk was particularly enlightening because it gave her an inside look into what is going in the White House.

“I’ve watched snippets of press briefings, but it’s always so difficult to know what’s actually going on,” she said. “It’s really interesting to have that sort of an insider perspective. It’s also comforting to know that there is someone like her in the White House [press pool].”