When being the best is not enough

“Black people are taught, ‘Your bar is higher. You have to answer harder questions. And you’re never really, satisfactorily accepted.’ That’s a good motivator as a kid, it makes you run fast. But at some point, it’s exhausting to carry such historical baggage in your daily life.”

– Baratunde Thurston to AP’s Sonya Ross, “Some American blacks see race in ‘birther’ questions about Obama”

What’s cool about journalism

This item is by a fellow who just left the Post, so you might not expect that it ends up being a kind of love letter to our shared vocation. Maybe Rob himself doesn’t see it that way, yet he touches on a lot of the things that are important, even valuable, about journalism as a career. In the midst of an ever-changing profession, these things don’t change that much.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-27

  • Things seen on vacation: Next door to NH State Safety Rest Area, a State Liquor Store. #livefreeordietrying #
  • Just climbed a fire tower in the VT-NH mountains. Beautiful views from up there, but oh the wind was scary to endure. #
  • Just learned of Larranaga, via @joshbarr. HATE to see him go, and Miami is not an optimal job, but he def earned a shot on a big stage. #
  • MoCo Schools taps young (41) Harvard alum from Stamford CT as new superintendent http://j.mp/h0Ga8X #rkv #
  • Seeing my brave, never-met colleague @leilafadel for the first time right now on CNN, talking about Misurata. #
  • RIP Phoebe Snow, who dropped her music career to care for her daughter & never looked back http://ow.ly/4HzQ9 Video http://ow.ly/4HzQK #
  • Turns out money really DOES grow on trees http://ow.ly/4HFTv #
  • Now that Sabres have blown their chance, pinning hopes on les Habs to knock out Boston. #gocaps #
  • I've seen this movie before #tbd RT @ameetshah915 RT @paidContent: AOL's Patch Will Add Blog Posts From Community Members http://cnt.to/o7W #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-20

  • At my office, Take Your Child to Work Day enrollment filled up in 12 mins. #anewsroomorarockconcert #
  • Feast on Borders' bones: All books at White Flint store are now $2.99. #rkv #
  • Oof! MT @drudge_report: When Houston is worth visiting, maybe then you'll get a space shuttle, says Schumer… http://drudge.tw/g1zefk #
  • Podcasts, like newspapers, can be trivial and ephemeral. But this hour might change your life http://5by5.tv/b2w/3 #
  • Sorry I'm gonna miss #Pulitzer day. Good luck to my WashPost colleagues; I'm crossing fingers that your great work gets recognized. #