Washington Post joins other news outlets in laying off race-based journalists

Among the high-profile layoffs at The Washington Post this week was its race-based journalist.

Emmanuel Felton, who's X profile now describes himself as the "first and last race and ethnicity reporter" at the Post, revealed he was among the hundreds of staffers who were cut from the "Democracy Dies in Darkness" paper, though he claims his specific ouster "wasn't a financial decision."

"This comes six months after hearing in a national meeting that race coverage drives subscriptions," Felton posted Wednesday. "This wasn't a financial decision, it was an ideological one."

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Felton, who is Black, joined the Post in June 2021 after working as an investigative reporter at the inequality desk for BuzzFeed News, according to his LinkedIn and Post author pages.

"The other reporter on my team covering race was also laid off as well as the editor in charge of race coverage across national. The team covering America beyond DC is now 90% [W]hite," Felton added.

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Neither Felton nor The Washington Post responded to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.

Several legacy media organizations leaned into race-based news coverage following the 2020 protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd.

Since then, particularly in the wake of Donald Trump's political comeback, news outlets like the Post have rolled back and eliminated such coverage.

In October, NBC News cut roughly 7-8% of its news staff, or about 100–150 employees. Among NBC News staffers to lose their jobs were those who were part of "diversity verticals," a network insider told Fox News Digital at the time.

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NBC News has had cultural subsections on its news site, including, NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino and NBC Out.

NBC BLK's landing page, for example, says it provides "stories, issues and opinions from the African American perspective" while NBC Out says it "showcases feature stories, original videos and other unique content about, and of interest to, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community." 

Around the same time, CBS News dismantled its Race & Culture Unit as part of widespread layoffs across its parent company Paramount.

"The Race and Culture Unit will serve as both an incubator and a facilitator," the unit's executive producer Alvin Patrick said in July 2020 after its launch. "So that means that on a daily basis, we are serving, just like CBS Standards and Practices, as an extra pair of fresh eyes on stories that may need guidance on context, tone and intention for every show and platform in the division."

"The goal is really to create a level of consistency as we report on race and culture, in a timely, accurate, informative and dynamic way," he added.

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After eliminating its Race & Culture Unit, the network moved Patrick to be executive producer of its Head of Content Business Development, according to his LinkedIn page. Trey Sherman, a former CBS News associate producer who also worked for the CBS Race & Culture Unit, took to TikTok to accuse the network of making race-based layoffs, saying he and his other Black colleagues were dismissed while White staffers remained employed.

Notably, the Race & Culture Unit was the vertical CBS News star Tony Dokoupil was forced to report to after a group of employees complained about his tense grilling of anti-Israel author and far-left darling Ta-Nehisi Coates.

In 2024, The Los Angeles Times had a brutal round of layoffs, impacting roughly 23% of staff. Among those impacted was the paper's Latino-centric vertical De Los. According to a report from Nieman Lab, the Times laid off at least three reporters, an editor and a columnist from that team.

Last March, The Philadelphia Inquirer cut its Communities and Engagement Desk dedicated towards extensive coverage of Philadelphia's marginalized communities in a round of layoffs, according to Axios. The desk was part of the paper's DEI initiatives it boasted in 2023. While its DEI page is still live, mention of the Communities and Engagement Desk has since been scrubbed.

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"The Philadelphia Inquirer is committed to becoming a diverse, inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist organization by evolving how it operates through its culture, coverage of the news, and service to the community," the Inquirer wrote at the time. "We are building an inclusive culture, grounded in anti-racism and equity, that fosters a sense of belonging for all at The Inquirer... We are working to ensure equity is centered in how The Inquirer approaches journalism. We seek to consistently address systemic racism and other forms of oppression through inclusive, actively anti-racist coverage that reflects, serves, and is informed by all communities."

In September, Politico suspended its newsletter "The Recast," which focused on "How race and identity are shaping politics, policy and power" after a four-year run. Bloomberg similarly halted its "Equality" newsletter last year, though its reporting vertical remains.

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.