Bankole Thompson speaks on his role at WDET and on NPR in general:
http://michronicleonline.com/2015/02...-public-radio/

excerpt:
I also realize that journalists like myself in the Black press and other Black oriented media outlets would not be here had it not been for the weight of history. The history of Blacks being projected in cruel and negative ways in the mainstream press gave rise to Black oriented media organs.

The history of denying Blacks principled and meaningful voices in mainstream media to discuss the plight of African Americans is what triggered giant men and women like W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Ida B Wells and others to establish platforms that would champions causes of their people.
Today, we can say we are much better off since the days of Douglass, Du Bois and Wells. But the double standards still exist in terms of the kind of treatment and prominence that is given to legitimate Black issues in mainstream media, when compared to non-Black issues. I get calls, like the one last week where I met with some prominent Blacks in the city concerned about African American participation in Detroit’s comeback.
However, there are mainstream media outlets that know all too well that their relevance in the Black community and other communities of color is tied to opening their platforms to unusual and non-traditional voices.
Outlets like public radio have a responsibility to serve the public good. That responsibility is even greater in light of a recent report about how White National Public Radio has become.
NPR, in an astonishing way and a display of race guilt, began a national conversation on its Whiteness by airing a bold commentary, “Challenging the Whiteness of Public Radio,” on its signature program “All Things Considered.”
The piercing commentary by an African American professor of communication, Chenjerai Kumanyika, hit a nerve. It has caught fire all over the Internet.
“Without being directly told, people like me learn that our way of speaking isn’t professional. And you start to imitate the standard or even hide the distinctive features of your own voice. This is one of the reasons that some of my Black and Brown friends refuse to listen to some of my favorite radio shows despite my most passionate efforts,” Kumanyika said.