I shouldn’t be here.

I should not be in this profession and I should not be in this position.

Allow me to explain.

My understanding of what a journalist was, like that of many, informed by the likes of Sex and The City, The Devil Wears Prada and the eight o’clock news. In short, journalism had nothing to do with a Black woman in her early twenties. Like many Social Science graduates before me, I was often chastised by condescending relatives about my near-pathological need to explain, analyse or justify. My opinions had no place at family gatherings, especially if they were deemed too abrasive or impassioned. Throughout my schooling I was taught that journalists do not taint the news with their positionality. In fact, outside of when they are megaphones for opinions, that may or may not be their own, they must erase themselves completely.

The very notion of “neutrality” is a word, a concept, that I continue to struggle with. Now that I have an assured foothold in the world of reporting, I value the acknowledgement of one’s positionality even more than I used to. Pretending that our respective educations and individual journeys do not shape the lens through which we see truth, remains an absurdity to me and the real barrier to honest information. We must acknowledge our bias. The first journalist I saw that looked like me and owned her positionality was Rokhaya Diallo. To refer to her as only a journalist is, frankly, not a sufficient acknowledgement of the breadth of her talents. A seasoned writer, editor, director, filmmaker, podcast host and public speaker, her career has spanned the last two decades in countries such as France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Familiarising myself with her work and watching her often, unfortunately controversial, apparitions on French television, proved to me that there was a place for people like me in the media.

I am the first non-White Editor-in-Chief of my college’s newspaper, The University Observer. The paper, founded in 1994, like the college, and by extension Ireland itself, has a diversity issue that my appointment only fixes in the short-term. Since I first stepped into my office, I have been asking myself what I can do to ensure that the paper actually upholds principles of diversity, inclusion and equality and, in doing so, adequately represents the multicultural institution in which it was founded.

At the end of this year and for the years to come, I want to be able to look at an editorial team that reflects the values that University College Dublin claims to promote: diversity, equality and inclusion. During the Progressive Era, members of the National Association of Coloured Women, a group for the advancement of the rights of Black women in the United States, coined the term: “Lifting as we Climb”. The expression has become a common adage in African American culture and a praxis I greatly value and apply in my own job.

While I know I was not hired to fill a quota, what good is my appointment if, when I leave, all the voices that could have been amplified, cease to be?

There is no exact rulebook on how to foster a truly inclusive environment.  However, I would say, amplify the voices that are already undoubtedly around you. Look and listen closely. The fact is that people from minoritised communities do not need to be given voices, but their voices do need to be held above the crowd, as they tend to be overshadowed due to systemic barriers. This October, the Observer’s issue was a special edition dedicated to Black History Month and highlighted Black-owned business, Black culture and Black students. I am extremely proud of the issue and of the community it created. With a readership that spread far beyond the halls of UCD, it successfully spotlighted Black talent and, hopefully, set a precedent for the years to come.

While moderating a panel on the racial liminality that comes from being Black in Ireland, I asked legal executive, journalist and activist Christine Ní Mathúna for ideas on how to dismantle the remaining resistant stereotypes on Blackness found in the zeitgeist. She replied: “Education, that’s the backbone. You need to expose people to things they do not know and have them actually do the work through anti-racism training, for example”. That is what I have been aiming to do in my time as Editor and that is the legacy I hope to see carried forward when I depart.

This article was written for The Diversity Trust by Tessa Ndjonkou, the Editor of the University Observer, one of Ireland’s largest student publications.