Jelani Cobb on Race, Media and Democracy

One Detroit contributor Bryce Huffman talks with dean of Columbia Journalism School and staff writer for The New Yorker Jelani Cobb about the state of democracy, transparency in journalism, and diversity in the newsroom.

Cobb recently visited the University of Michigan’s Wallace House for Journalists to participate in a conversation with Ford School dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, as part of the continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.” This conversation was presented in partnership with One Detroit and PBS Books.

About Jelani Cobb:

Jelani Cobb is the dean of Columbia Journalism School and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he writes about race, politics, history and culture. He received a Peabody Award for his 2020 PBS Frontline film “Whose Vote Counts” and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary in 2018. He has also been a political analyst for MSNBC since 2019.

He is the author of “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress” and “To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic.” He is the editor or co-editor of several volumes, including “The Matter of Black Lives,” a collection of The New Yorker’s writings on race, and “The Essential Kerner Commission Report.” He is the producer or co-producer on a number of documentaries, including “Lincoln’s Dilemma,” “Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union” and “Policing the Police.”

Dr. Cobb was educated at Jamaica High School in Queens, New York; Howard University, where he earned a B.A. in English; and Rutgers University, where he completed his M.A. and doctorate in American history in 2003. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.