Five years ago, TIME magazine American edition had 15 journalists of colour working for the publication. Now, they’re all gone, and the last remaining black correspondent, Steven Gray, who joined the magazine in 2007, and works in the Washington bureau, has announced that he too is leaving.

Vice president for communications at TIME Inc., Ali Zelenko, didn’t directly address requests for comment on Friday when staff changes were announced.

No African Americans were included in the changes, but Zelenko insisted, “Diversity remains an important priority.”

Steven Gray wrote to his colleagues about his decision to leave:

The magazine hired me in 2007 to cover an amazing range of topics from Chicago: Midwestern earthquakes, public boarding schools, and the 2008 presidential race.

In 2009, Time Inc. assigned me to open the company’s Detroit Bureau. It was an innovative immersion journalism project — the company bought a six-bedroom house in Detroit — that became living quarters, office, and conference space.

In the last year, as a Washington correspondent for the magazine, I’ve written about emerging Internet privacy policy, why Mississippi is an unlikely leader in criminal justice reform, and what the new food safety law means for the growing share of imported food.

Now, it’s time to try something else.

Earlier this year, the magazine faced further criticism on its representations of colour when it published its “Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience,” feature, which was a commemorative edition dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In it, no identifiable African Americans were pictured in the 64-page feature.

Kerri Chyka, TIME spokeswoman, said then: “TIME is declining to comment at this time.”

The magazine has hired journalists of other ethnicities, and has blacks in non-correspondent positions, so there is “diversity” at the publication, but not in the African American category of scribes it seems.

[Source: TheRoot]