Prachi Gupta | Senior Reporter at Jezebel

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Can you talk a little bit about what you do at Jezebel?

I am a reporter and typically I cover politics. But I've written about a little bit about South Asian identity on there and I've written a lot about feminism specifically within South Asian identity. But yeah, my role is a senior reporter and primarily I cover politics.

What would you say has been the most memorable experience you've had as a journalist?

My most memorable experience was interviewing Ivanka Trump. In 2016 I covered a presidential election for Cosmopolitan.com, and towards the end of my time there at about six weeks before the election, I had the opportunity to interview Ivanka Trump about her maternity leave plan that she had crafted for the Trump campaign. In that interview I pushed her to name specifics about the plan and challenge her as to why it did not include fathers or adoptive parents. That I think that was the most significant moment in my career, certainly as a journalist. That was the only interview to bring discussion or debate about that policy. It created opportunity for me. Um, and I think also going into the Trump administration, we saw that her policy proposal actually shifted.

I think the media really struggled to find ways in which you could probably the Trump administration and hold them accountable. And I I was very frustrated by seeing journalists who had access to the Trump, not push them hard enough on policy. Being an Indian American woman, especially in a white landscape, the policies affect me in a very personal way. So the racist rhetoric was harmful, and I knew that in that moment I needed to really discuss policy. I think that that definitely influenced the questioning.

How do you think we can best hold people accountable to creating diverse newsrooms?

I think it's really, really, really, really hard to do that when at the top everybody in your organization is mostly white. Um, I think that we're seeing now, with the Trump administration we're seeing is that this is why representation and diversity matters. When you don't have people of color represented, when you don't have their voices being shared there is a huge gap. I am hoping that a lot of newsrooms are taking note of that. I don't really know a great way to hold users accountable aside from calling them out on it and reporting on it. And I mean, I've covered diversity for several years now. It's not like I set out to do that.

I ended up doing that personally because I saw that people were getting it wrong. People did not really understand how to talk about race. I would see a lot of conversations with white commentators talking about issues that they don't have a stake in or that they don't immediately understand. So I decided to speak up and start throwing my voice in there.

I want to see more people of color being encouraged to do that. So in one way, one way reporters can do that in their own work is to always be mindful of that and seek out those voices, even if it's a piece that has nothing to do with race, gender or diversity.

Another thing is that I think we're seeing a move by a lot of media organizations to unionize. And that's great. And I think unions can really help hold management accountable for diverse hiring practices.

There are very few writers of color but even fewer editors of color. You can be a diverse voice, but if you're being edited by people who don't really understand the issues that you're talking about or are particularly sensitive to them, you're still being moderated by a perspective of whiteness. I think we see this a lot with some of the approaches to white supremacy is from the New York Times, for example.

You wrote an essay about watching Trump as a brown person and both even President Trump have criticized the work that you've done. Can you expand a little bit on what it's like as a brown journalist covering Trump's administration?

Donald Trump criticized me after the Ivanka interview. I haven't had any sort of interactions Trump and the Trump administration since then. But I'm paying attention to how whiteness is covered and how we talk about race. What I've been thinking a lot about the election, it's the idea of objectivity and, and how the person in power really controls what is objective. You can present the same set of facts but choose to highlight certain voices or say it in a certain way that can be a very different meaning.

Covering Trump is exhausting. I don't really tweet all that much now. I sort of just watch Twitter. Just the way you can get drowned while consuming it, you can also get drowned while covering it. But it feels like it's really important and you can't really turn away from. It has filled me with a sense of urgency, I feel. Sometimes it may feel like what you're writing and falling into the abyss because it's just an endless onslaught of horrible, depressing news. But sometimes it feels helpful like you're doing something that maybe illuminate something for somebody else or amplify voices in this administration that are being silenced and then that feels good. That's a really positive thing. So it's an emotional roller coaster between those two extreme feelings. I'm constantly combating that to try to do meaningful work.

Do you feel about it, you sense of responsibility?

Yeah, definitely. I don't want to be too self aggrandizing. I'm one person and I am a reporter for Jezebel But it does feel important and it feels productive sometimes. It's something that I do take seriously.

I think it's fair to say that your voice is pretty good apologetic and very much in line with Jezebel’s brand. How did you build up such like confidence?

I actually never went to journalism school and I didn't have any background in journalism. When I graduated college, I went into management consulting and learned I really didn't like it.So when I got into journalism, I had major imposter syndrome. I just thought that I didn't belong belong here. Once I started working in a newsroom, I realized that, you know, I'm not the only one out there who's trying to figure this out. And I just started, you know, vocalizing my opinion more and weighing in on conversations where I knew that I had authority. Like basically I can talk about what it is to be a brown woman.

I certainly didn't seek to write about that. But I saw so many people getting things wrong or somebody debates that I thought were really missing the mark. And I've always been a very vocal and opinionated person. I started writing about those things.

So if for example, you know, us, you know, diversity issues in the past, but that was one of the first reported pieces I did when I was at Salon. I took that on as something that I was just really interested in. And then I became a diversity columnist for IndieWire for a few months. Slowly over time, crafting those arguments and getting positive feedback, especially from people of color, having sources in those communities and having them trust me really built up my confidence.

Also in the background, and I think this is not a unique experience when you're a minority, I've had a lot of incidences in my career where something offensive that happened or basically something racist or sexist happened.

In the background, I really learned how to manage that difficult area. There have been times in my career where I have spoken up or I've taken a stand or like almost quit or I have quit over something like that.

Every time I did that I felt I felt like it was the right thing to do and that instilled in me to keep following that instinct and keep developing that sense of justice. It was definitely scary at times because I took risks.

One time I just, I left a job without having anything lined up. And then a few weeks later Cosmo hired me. But there were a few weeks ago where I was just unemployed and not really sure what I was going to do that, but I left the previous job because I didn't think I was being treated well and it wasn't a good work environment. I knew that I was just, I'd rather go on my own and try to freelance than continue working there.

That also really helps me build confidence to use my voice. I am very aware of the fact that because I'm a brown woman, there are a lot of people who don't want to hear what I have to say. There are people who have opinions of me based on my identity. It's very important to me to not let those people affect my work and my point of view. I'm very proud to work at a place where I can be completely myself and I'm encouraged to be myself.

Do you have any advice for how aspiring journalists, specifically minority journalists can, can advocate for themselves?

Yeah, it's a really tough thing. I didn't always like know how to do this for myself. And I'd still say that it's not exactly easy. But I have a couple of pieces of advice. I did not have like a lot of support getting into journalism. I didn't have really a network and I couldn't afford to go to journalism school. It was something that I did and I could do only because I had worked in management consulting and saved a lot of money from that career. It was because I did that, but I could take to your office day, now I'm going to become a writer.

My financial situation gave me the ability to be independent. And that I knew that worst case scenario is that I have to leave this and I will work in another industry, but I'll have savings and I will be okay. I realized that that bar doesn't exist for some people. I don't want to say that and make an assumption that everyone has that financial standing.

In the Indian American community we grow up, or at least I did, is that we have a lot of belief in status of having a good job. But when we, make the decision to go into the arts or any creative field, our parents are worried about us making a living. But, but if you get out of that mentality for a second, you realize that most of America isn't like "Oh, if I'm not a doctor I'm not successful."

Growing up I didn't have any Indian people doing things other than being a doctor engineer or like running a motel, you know? And it's really just, it was really frustrating. So I think any South Asian person considering going into journalism that is inherently, from our cultural perspective, a risk. It's something that our parents don't really get, most of our parents don't like.

Two, I think that you always have to be doing this analysis of what's going to be better for me. Say your boss says something or does something that's racist.

I guess it depends on how egregious it is and how much it hurts you. But like if you're at a white institution and this is a job that's really going to help make your career, then maybe you do stick it out. Um, but you know, you plan an exit strategy and you start networking, you meet with other people and then you get out of there to go to a place where you can do the work that you really care about.Then sometimes maybe it's confronting your boss in as diplomatic a way as possible. Keep records of things. Have documentation of that sort of stuff.

The other thing is, and this is not something I've been able to necessarily do yet, to unite with other writers of color outside of work. At your workplace, chances are you're the only person of color. But if you make an effort to join, some professional associations, then you can get together and like talk about these issues and problems and maybe come up with solutions or maybe just like build your own network.