On Being Heard

Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Communication Law Eddith Dashiell has been a change agent throughout her career in media. She was the first African American reporter hired at WGNS-AM in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and was a radio and part-time television producer before she joined the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism faculty in 1992.

You’ve published myriad papers on many topics. Which one reflects your proudest achievement? Why?
My fourth grade Halloween spelling paper. Each week we had a list of spelling words and a spelling test. My fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Palmer said that we should write a story using all of the spelling words from the list. So, I wrote a story. I don’t remember what I wrote about, but Mrs. Palmer told me that I wrote very well...and that’s when I decided that I wanted to be a reporter.

If you could be anyone else for just one day, who would it be?I would like to spend one day, just a 24-hour period, being a member of the Klan, so I can try to understand how they live and what they’re faced with that would justify their bigoted beliefs.

What trait do you like most about yourself?I can stay calm in the tensest situations. I can try to think rationally through a crisis and stay low-key and think through answers in my head before I open my mouth. My goal isn’t to hurt anybody’s feelings, but I do want to be heard.

If you could eat only three foods for the rest of your life, what would they be?Rice, shrimp, and broccoli.

Who would you want to play you in a movie of your life?
Taraji P. Henson. She played [mathematician Katherine Johnson] in the movie Hidden Figures .

What living person, aside from any family members, do you most admire?Barack Obama. I never would have believed in my lifetime that the United States would elect an African American as the president. I had heard about him when he was a U.S. senator and when he announced his candidacy, I didn’t believe it would happen. I didn’t think the U.S. was ready for it, and as today’s political climate indicates, the U.S. wasn’t ready for it.

I remember when he was elected the first time, that was the first time in my life that I actually felt like an American, not an African American, but an American. And it was just for that night, because the next day, folks were being critical of him. That’s when things got nasty. People would say such vile, hateful things about Obama that they never would have said about another president.

So, I would like to spend a couple of days with his family, and I hope history will vindicate him. I think a number of us understand the sacrifice he went through in getting elected as president of the United States. Because racism was alive and well, and that was no small feat.

If you could be anywhere else right now, where would it be?Today, if I could be anywhere else I would be in Tennessee with my mom, hanging out for the day. My second choice would be at a beach. A quiet beach.