from Richard Prince's Journal-isms
From Washington Post to NAACP
Jabari Asim of "Book World" to Edit the Crisis
Jabari Asim, deputy editor of the Washington Post's Book World section, has been named editor of the NAACP's venerable magazine the Crisis, publisher Roger Wilkins told Journal-isms on Monday.
Asim is author of the recently published book "The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why" and has written children's books as well as a collection of essays, "Not Guilty: 12 Black Men Speak Out on Law Justice and Life."
His low-keyed style stands in marked contrast to that of George E. Curry, the high-profile editor of the late Emerge magazine and former editor of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, which services the black press. Curry turned down an offer to edit the magazine in June after weeks of negotiations.
"The board is very happy," said Wilkins, who chairs the Crisis editorial board, calling Asim "an intelligent young man who has a passion for magazines and a passion for the concerns of black people and the work that the NAACP is doing and has done."
When Asim was promoted to deputy editor of the Post book section in 2005, Book World editor Marie Arana said, "Jabari has been an editor here for almost nine years now. He came to us from the arts pages of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and has built a reputation on this staff as an intrepid editor with a fearsome, green pen. He is more than passing wise about many subjects, ranging from poetry to literature to hard-nosed books on race and cultural issues. He is a thoughtful, always interesting writer, with a number of very good books to his credit."
Asim also wrote occasional columns for the Washington Post Web site.
In "The N Word," published in March, "Asim collects a wide array of facts and significant moments from American history, politics, science, entertainment and literature to marshal his impassioned argument that this word means black folks no good, and never has. Most Americans would agree with that, though few realize the extent to which whites went to keep the social order in place," Erin Aubry Kaplan wrote in the Los Angeles Times.
The Crisis was founded in 1910 by activist-scholar W.E.B. DuBois and is distributed free to NAACP members. Published every two months, it claims a circulation of 250,000.
Victoria L. Valentine announced in December she was stepping down as Crisis editor after six years. Phil W. Petrie has been interim editor. There were as many as 30 candidates to succeed Valentine.
Working at the NAACP is not without its challenges. On June 7, the organization announced it was cutting about 40 percent of the staff positions at its Baltimore headquarters and planned to temporarily close its seven regional offices to cover three years of budget shortfalls, as Kelly Brewington reported in the Baltimore Sun.
NAACP Chairman Julian Bond told Journal-isms in June that the Crisis would continue the "noble tradition" started by DuBois. "We want the magazine to prosper and continue to be the kind of fighting magazine that it is. It's an advocacy magazine, and that's what we want it to be," he said.
The hiring of Asim away from the Post continues a recent trend of black-owned publications selecting editors who have worked in the mainstream press. Bryan Monroe, editorial director of Ebony and Jet magazines, who came from the defunct Knight Ridder Co., is another example. Asim starts Aug. 20.
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