Why writing about the loss of icons like Toni Morrison is so difficult to get right

Laying out your thoughts succinctly and thoughtfully with very little time after something sad or tragic has happened isn’t just a skill, it’s a huge responsibility

There are some stories that hit us harder than others. Usually driven by our personal connection to a given issue or individual, digesting the news can be an incredibly personal act. Especially when there’s a death involved.

When certain celebrities die, for example, most of us are able to take the day to get used to the bad news; tweet out our shock and sadness in disbelief; let it settle at the pit of our stomachs while we revisit the best of our idols’ works and share stories with loved ones about memories that loosely connect us to the figures who shape our lives.

But when reporting or responding to the news is part of your day job, there’s barely any time for that. Toni Morrison’s death was one such example.

Following lunch and after returning to a desktop full of tweets about the endlessly talented and influential writer, I knew. Right in the midst of the aftermath of mass shootings in America; after Donald Trump’s amped-up hate campaign; once newspapers finally decided to commit to calling out his racism – one of my all-time favourite writers, and one of the few left with the guts to write honestly and critically about race and society, had died. Minutes later, like countless journalists across the globe, I was writing.

Laying out your thoughts succinctly and thoughtfully with very little time after something sad or tragic has happened isn’t just a skill, it’s a huge responsibility. In comment journalism, you have to be able to capture the mood of entire communities at the same time as painting an interesting picture of the lasting implications of that event, or loss. As hard as that is when you’re still struggling to accept the reality of it, the privilege of being able to at least in part add to the chorus of celebrations of a life as fulfilled as Morrison’s more than makes up for it.

Yours,

Kuba Shand-Baptiste

Voices commissioning editor