Gary Younge is a renowned, award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster, and now a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester.
In the latest episode of our new Cable Live podcast strand – where we sit down with writers, academics and activists from across the UK, putting the Cable’s work in the national conversation – Gary delivers a fascinating speech reflecting on racism, journalism and power.
Gary takes us back to his working-class childhood in Stevenage, the youngest of three children raised by his Barbadian mother, his path into journalism after winning a bursary from the Guardian, and how his experiences have shaped his work.
“I entered journalism with a healthy contempt, embedded from childhood, for the dominant narrative,” he recalls. “I grew up assuming the official count of everything was at best suspect and most likely a downright lie – in part because I was being lied about constantly, who I was, where I was from, why I was here.”
What then does it mean for the journalism industry that many top jobs are still filled not with people who have grown up with such a “gimlet-eyed” worldview but instead have shared class and educational privilege with those likely to be running the country? How do journalists’ backgrounds influence their perspectives and what is reported on – and what needs to change?
Join Gary Younge for a powerful and personal exploration of these questions and many others, in the most recent recording of the Cable’s ongoing speaker series. This edition of the podcast also contains edited highlights of the Q&A session that followed.
The talk took place at the Station in central Bristol where the Cable also has its office, and was hosted by our events coordinator Gigi El-Halaby.
Subscribe to The Bristol Cable wherever you get your podcasts.
Keep the Lights On
Investigative journalism strengthens democracy – it’s a necessity, not a luxury.
The Cable is Bristol’s independent, investigative newsroom. Owned and steered by more than 2,600 members, we produce award-winning journalism that digs deep into what’s happening in Bristol.
We are on a mission to become sustainable – will you help us get there?
Comments
Related content
Enduring trauma, and a struggle for justice: one year on from the Barton House high-rise evacuation
On 14 November 2023 an east Bristol tower block was evacuated over fears it could collapse, making national news. A year on, residents tell the Cable about the disruption to their lives, the ongoing impact on their wellbeing and their children's – and how a community has been left traumatised.
Listen: The Debrief – what a leaked police report revealed about racial inequalities in stop-and-search
A report leaked to the Cable showed the shocking fact that Black people are 25 times likelier to be strip-searched than white peers. Sean Morrison and Priyanka Raval ask what the findings say about police institutional racism.
‘There’s a price to be paid’: one woman’s mission to highlight historic buildings’ slave trade links
Gloria Daniel has spent years tracing the connections between the UK’s built environment and its colonial trade in humans. An exhibition at Ashton Court and a new memorial in Bristol Cathedral are pushing back on hidden injustice.
