Read the full letter to the editor + authors of this piece on Medium.

The Issue:
The SF Chronicle recently published a piece called "Bart killing: Divergent paths met tragically on Oakland platform."

It is a racially biased article that perpetuates false and limiting stereotypes of BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) communities and individuals, shrouds the truth of this injustice in unnecessary and opinionated flowery language, and adds insult to the injury of attempting to live while black in America.

It includes inaccuracies and claims two "divergent paths" "intersected" in a "vagary of fate" that led to Nia's death, like a poetic tale, when the irrefutable truth is: a white man made the conscious decision to murder a black woman with intention. Their paths didn't somehow intersect: John Cowell targeted Nia and her sister Lahtifa. They were blindsided. Nia was murdered by a man who attacked her from behind. This was no incidental meeting and that is insulting to suggest. This piece is reductionist, with obvious biases, lack of inquiry, and no judicial concern for Nia's life.

Nia Wilson deserved better.

The original headline of this piece was "Two lives taking separate paths clash on BART platform, ending in a death." The Chronicle received a backlash about this headline and changed it. These changes are insufficient. Racial bias aside, motivation of the crime aside, this is a flawed and irresponsible piece of journalism.

Nia Wilson deserved better.

We, as citizens, must demand more from our sources of news. The media is an institution that should be trusted, but it is repeatedly failing to execute its duty to provide accurate, unbiased reporting, which was obvious in this piece from the headline alone. When the media loses its integrity, it, too, loses its function. When we cannot trust media sources like The SF Chronicle to deliver updates to us in a factual way, we all suffer, whether you're 

The ask:
@The SF Chronicle: If you cannot report a murder accurately, intelligently, factually, without opinion, you should stay out of the conversation. Therefore, we are asking you to #takeitdown. Remove it from your site entirely, so that this blatant example of biased journalism ends here, now.

In solidarity. In truth. In integrity.

Read the full letter to the editor + authors of this piece on Medium.

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