But too often, the mainstream media:

· Reproduces narratives that reinforce the status quo of racial inequity and injustice.

· Bends to the authoritarian will of its moneyed owners.

· Undermines antiracist journalists rather than nurturing their courageous truth-telling.

· Uses terms and acronyms fashioned by racist political operatives, like “race neutral” and “wokeism” and “race-blind” and “DEI” and “CRT.”

· Slanders and stereotypes peoples of color and antiracist voices and organizations—when they cover them at all.

· Functions as if racist lies must be legitimized and platformed in order to provide balanced, impartial, and objective coverage.

· Values clicks, ratings, and profits over accuracy, nuance, and context.

· Downplays the spread of racism through downplaying its coverage of racism.

At a time when racism is resurgent and killing democracy, the mainstream media has largely failed to meet the urgency of the age.

We’ve been down this road before.

Two centuries ago, slavery was resurgent. Enslavers were trading a growing enslaved population into southern and western lands newly taken from Native peoples. At the time, publishers and editors were incentivized to produce propaganda that didn’t challenge the status quo of slavery. 

Many southern and northern newspapers bent to the will of moneyed enslavers and their financiers, and circulated their pro-slavery ideas. The mainstream press slandered and stereotyped enslaved people, abolitionists, and Native warriors fighting for their ancestral land—when they covered them at all. The largest newspapers were fiercely loyal to specific political factions rather than to accuracy and nuance. This partisan press downplayed the horror of slavery through downplaying their coverage of slavery’s horrors.

When 19th century newspapers failed to expose the horrors of slavery, a new abolitionist press stepped up to be the journalism of the age. The first, our namesake, The Emancipator (est. 1820). Through a steady drumbeat of stories, narratives, research, and commentary, these antislavery publications powered a moral and intellectual awakening that swept the world and helped abolish chattel slavery outside of prisons.

But the child of slavery—racism—lived on in the United States.

 In our time, slavery is racism. This history led Ibram X. Kendi, our co-founder, to ponder a simple question that would have a profound impact: If 19th-century journalists could shine an undeniable light on the plunder and brutality of slavery and chart an abolitionist path forward, why can’t journalists do the same for racism in the 21st century? 

With that, The Emancipator was (re)born in 2022 and later relaunched in 2026. We are an antislavery print newspaper resurrected as an antiracist digital newsroom, connecting the antislavery movement to antiracist struggles today.

We believe the job of the free press (First Amendment) is to protect the liberty of all (13th Amendment), the antiracist policy that benefits all (14th Amendment), and the democracy that empowers all (15th Amendment).

We welcome you into The Emancipator community and hope you find our content and events to be inspiring, galvanizing, and a force for change. 

To Emancipation!