Political correctness

Good question, Stewart, about whether people recalling back to how they felt 50 years ago on a touchy subject like race might edit themselves according to today’s standards of political correctness. It is, of course, even more of an issue when they know that what they say could appear in print.

The short answer is YES, any journalist or author has to factor that in. The way to do that isn’t to make presumptions about what they were really thinking or feeling, or discount what they say, but to ask enough questions — and put the interviewee at sufficient ease — that they will be more likely to be honest. At times you also can let them go off the record.

I don’t want to embarrass my interview subjects or push them further than they are willing to go. I do want to get the full and truthful story.

As I keep saying in these postings, readers now have a long book to decide for themselves whether or not I succeeded.

Larry