A new report, “The Status of Women of Color in the U.S. News Media 2018,” details women of color are underrepresented in American newsrooms.

President of the Women's Media Center, Julie Burton said, “women are more than half the U.S. population, and people of color nearly 40 percent." Yet, when it comes to the newsroom, many women of color can't catch a break. Poynter first reported women of color represent just 7.95 percent of U.S. print newsroom staff, 12.6 percent of local TV news staff and 6.2 percent of local radio staff, according to industry research that based on news organizations’ replies to professional association queries.

Women's Media Center co-founder Gloria Steinem said, “Missing women of color in the newsrooms of this country is an injustice in itself, and an injustice to every American reader and viewer who is deprived of great stories and a full range of facts. Inclusiveness in the newsroom means inclusiveness in the news. Racism and sexism put blinders on everyone.”

The numbers are staggering, and this report comes amid a world shift. By 2050, the U.S. Census projects that blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders and those who are multi-racial will become the population's majority. Watching and reading news media, you wouldn't be aware that women of color comprise this level of representation in this country. 

Sure, there are a few faces on some of our favorite news outlets: Angela Rye and Symone Sanders on CNN and Joy Reid on MSNBC, for example. Many women journalists of color are lending their voices and experiences to affect change.

Soledad O'Brien was a prominent CNN figure who covered race relations and equality for the network.“There are so many micro-aggressions that come with being a journalist and female and not white,” according to O’Brien, founder and CEO of Starfish Media Group. “If you spend too much time seeing yourself — in terms of how they see you — as only those things, you will lose your mind. Because there are just a lot of slights.”