Young Journalist Responds to Darren Walker's NY Times Op-Ed on Unpaid Internships
"Internships," the headline in the New York Times’s opinion section read, "Are Not a Privilege."
The op-ed was by Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation, and it discussed what he called "America’s internship-industrial complex" — the way unpaid internships effectually lock out diverse, talented young workers who cannot possibly afford to work for free.
It got media types talking about journalism’s unpaid internship economy and why it’s insidious.
I figured it’s a good opportunity to tell you a little bit about my experience with unpaid internships, because I am, improbably, a member of "the media," and I'm kind of tired about only ever seeing white colleagues sound off about this nonsense whenever a fellow person of color addresses it on a platform as big and white as the New York Times...