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Today in Focus

Gary Younge on being pigeonholed as a black journalist

Today in Focus

The Guardian

Daily News, News

4.65.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Former Guardian columnist Gary Younge reflects on the pressures faced by minority journalists to focus on certain types of stories, and how they can break free of ‘the pigeonhole'. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is The Guardian.

0:09.0

Today, how not to get pigeonholed.

0:15.9

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0:23.7

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0:26.4

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0:46.5

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0:48.9

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0:50.2

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1:02.4

There's a place no one wants to end up.

1:03.7

The Pigeonhole.

1:11.9

No one wants to be the token black person, the only senior woman, the wheelchair user who ends up front and centre in the company picture,

1:14.1

but can't seem to catch a promotion.

1:17.1

Gary Young knows that feeling all too well.

1:24.1

As one of the few black columnists in Britain, he's carried what he calls the burden of representation for more than 30 years,

1:27.1

including almost 27 spent at The Guardian. He's now a sociology professor at the

1:30.6

University of Manchester, but many of you, and definitely I, remember him as one of the paper's

1:36.3

most thoughtful and interesting opinion writers. Earlier this month, he delivered a fascinating

...

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