On Sept. 18, a New York Times reporter wrote a review called “Wrought in Rhimes’s Image,” a review on Shonda Rhimes’s and her characters in many of her TV shows. In the review, the author pushes the racial limits in some of the ways she illustrates Rhimes, her characters and African-American women.

In the beginning of the review, the author begins by saying “Shonda Rhimes’s autobiography should be called ‘How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman.’” The author goes on to explain how Rhimes’s characters break the traditional African-American female role as “the sidekick” or “the housewife” on modern TV shows.

Other problems facing the review included the definition of what is beautiful. The author says “chose a performer who is older, darker-skinned and less classically beautiful than [a previous, younger character Rhimes played].” The problem that arose was many people read that paragraph as what defined beautiful was lighter-skinned, young women.

While the review is no longer timely and the Times has defused the situation, for the most part, a deeper discussion of diversity has surfaced in newsrooms across the country, as well as the Iowa State Daily.

The Times did a number of responses to the community, explaining the author’s views, how she was not a racist and how the overall topic of the review was to champion Rhimes on her transformation of the female, African-American role on television. In one of the replies, the Times brought to light the fact that of the 20 cultural critics, it only has two persons of color, neither of which are African-American.

The Daily’s editorial board found this statistic to be shocking, but made us reevaluate our diversity not only at the opinion section, but the organization as a whole. While the Daily does employ many ethnicities and backgrounds, we are actively searching for more diversity within our newsroom.

The fact the Times only has two persons of color among 20 cultural critics does not allow them to accurately report and review for their audience. The Daily’s mission is to report complete, fair and accurate news for ISU students, Ames residents and anyone else who reads our product.

If you are Latino/Latina, African-American, Caucasian, Asian or any race, we’d love to have you working for the Iowa State Daily. Unfortunately, the diversity problem in organizations is always addressed after the fact. Here at the Daily, we’re being proactive about the situation and reaching out to you, the readers. You can apply online or pick up an application at 108 Hamilton Hall. If you ever have a response to a diversity issue, please write us at [email protected]

It’s time we have an active conversation to embrace diversity not only at the Daily and the Times and every news organization in the country, but as well as businesses and the governments in every state.