How 'Decolonized Journalism' Fits Into My Mission Statement of Elevating Voices
Words with Arturo Dominguez from Decolonized Journalism
Hello Everyone!
Today, I’d like you all to meet
. Arturo is a social justice writer on Medium and here on Substack, he has a newsletter called .When I sat down to think about it, I can’t exactly remember where I first saw Arturo’s name. As far as I’m concerned, he’s been on Medium for as long as I have.
I was drawn to Arturo’s work because my wife is from Peru, and I’ve been seeing the deplorable way immigrants are treated in the United States for a long time. In some ways, I’m embarrassed about my background. Like most white men, I was pretty much blind to my privilege until I moved to Peru in 2001. Americans are simply not trained to have an appreciation for other cultures or diverse perspectives… they’re just not.
I moved to Peru because I was generally fed up with America. That was during the “W” era shortly after 9/11. Already I was starting to get a sick feeling in my stomach whenever I saw militant people start bashing little kids over the head for not reciting the pledge of allegiance with enough enthusiasm.
My wife and I were happy in Peru, but we decided to come back to the US in 2009 for a variety of reasons. The way my wife tells it, that’s when she learned she was no longer just a “woman” and had now become a “brown” woman.
Unfortunately, that was just the beginning…
After 15 years I feel that I’ve at least made enough progress in my own humanitarian perspective to not be an embarrassment. I can attribute a large part of my progress to reading the work of writers like Arturo along with Allison Wiltz on Medium.
So, without further ado, I’d like to give Arturo the opportunity to introduce himself and tell you about his writing/Medium/Substack journey:
Arturo’s background and how he got into journalism
“I've always loved to write. My journey as a full-time writer and journalist began after I suffered a stroke in late 2014. At that point, my life as a government contractor was over. As a contractor our focus was infrastructure. Much of it in the disaster repair and recovery world. It was physically demanding and that was something my body wouldn’t tolerate anymore.
“In 2015, I began auditing courses through Open Courseware beginning at MIT online. I then discovered many major universities across the country supported similar programs. The goal was to improve my writing skills and I inevitably fell into taking several journalism classes. From there, I began writing op-ed pieces analyzing racial justice in America and how laws are used to bolster a system of oppression toward poor and marginalized groups.
“After years of learning the ropes working with great journalists at outlets like Unicorn Riot and the now-shuttered Latino Rebels (among others), I find myself doing real meaningful work in bringing ideas and solutions to the table. This is why I started the Decolonized Journalism newsletter. The perspective I provide as a Cuban American with deep ties to our culture and the island allows me to sift through the propaganda from both the U.S. and Cuban sides of the issue.
“It makes picking apart things seen in news media much easier allowing me to provide the full context to a story which often leads to the actual truth.”—Arturo Dominguez
Chasing Medium’s Boost with Arturo
I have nothing but respect for Arturo’s writing, but I noticed that his work wasn’t particularly well optimized for Medium. I’d nominated one or two of his stories but they hadn’t been accepted.
Last week, I sent Arturo a message asking if he wanted to work with me to get a story Boosted. He said he was open to the idea and we got to work. The way I envisioned it was as follows:
Send me a couple pitches so I could pick the idea I was most interested in
Write a draft and send it to me on Google docs
Do a round of edits on Google docs
Transfer the draft to Medium and submit it to Cultured
But of course as always happens in the digital age, I sent all these messages via my telephone or my stupid watch (also known as a “smart” watch), and I wasn’t all that clear.
The result was that Arturo over-delivered and sent me a draft right away. Fortunately, the topic was absolutely perfect for Boost.
I prefer to have people send me their drafts via Google docs rather than submit them to Cultured because the publication has more than one editor. If you submit a draft and one of the other editors publishes it before I get a chance to revise it, that can ruin your opportunity to get a Boost.
Stories are only reviewed for a Boost once, and there are internal editors, so once anything goes live there’s a chance it will get evaluated. It’s okay if a story gets Boosted that I didn’t nominate, but I don’t want a story rejected before I have an opportunity to fix the small problems that can get it disqualified.
My disclaimer on editing
Once I got a draft from Arturo, I sent him my “disclaimer” on editing:
Let me give you my editing spiel—I'm going to make a lot of suggestions, but you don't have to take all of them. You retain ownership of the work. Sometimes I might suggest a rephrasing, and you should feel free to decline my rephrasing and use one of your own if you prefer. I like using suggestions because I think they make my intent clearer. I expect to do a lot of work on your first draft, and then much less on your subsequent drafts as it becomes clearer what Medium is looking for. In many ways, boost is all about format. Even with all this, I can only nominate stories, I can't boost them. If we commit to going through this process on 3 stories (spread out over as long as you want), I'm pretty confident we'll get at least one of them through. I just tell you all that so you're not overwhelmed by all my comments and suggestions. I think you're a brilliant writer, and the more suggestions I make, the more impressed I am with your work. I've got nothing to say about work that isn't good—end of disclaimer.
Arturo is a pro and it was really easy to work with him. Here’s how he felt about the process:
“I found the editing process fun. I typically enjoy my work being scrutinized because it allows me to see errors I would otherwise overlook. Most see the editing process as daunting and I can understand why. But how we did it was familiar because it’s the same process we use when I work with Unicorn Riot and a few other outlets. That familiarity made it so much easier.”—Arturo Dominguez
The time commitment
Looking back, I reached out to Arturo on Substack on Tuesday, May 14th at 9:03AM.
I received the notification that his story had been boosted on Thursday, May 16th at 10:29AM.
I’d be curious to hear whether readers think that’s an exhaustive process or if it seems relatively efficient.
Going forward, I hope to get more submissions from Arturo that I can nominate with fewer revisions on my part.
This is a case of a writer who has established himself and established a nice professional relationship with me over years. When I talk about “writers supporting each other” this is what I mean.
Boost doesn’t guarantee success
I also want to temper writer expectations with this piece of advice:
Boost is a big part of it, but it's not the only part of it. I might feel an article is set up to do well, but it's always just a best guess and you never know until you see how it performs. That's what makes it hard to give writing advice. Even if everybody does everything perfectly, you only see great results about 30% of the time. So people often listen to me once and then don't come back.
Here are Arturo’s final thoughts:
“The article was well received and did get boosted. I also saw a big boost in readership. It was certainly a positive and welcome moment that renewed my faith in Medium. I have been on the platform since 2018 and this has been one of my better months by far.
“I intend to mimic what we accomplished as much as possible moving forward while still maintaining my overall style and voice. Because, regardless of the changes you make to get boosted and grow your readership, your voice is the most valuable asset you have. It makes you as unique as your experiences do.
“We may not all get millions of readers, but there’s a community for each and every one of us. It is there that you’ll build the foundations of your so-called “tribe” and eventually build a substantial fan base. There are no easy ways to go about it. All of it will take work and commitment to your visions.”—Arturo Dominguez
Building relationships is key
My newsletter is called “Empowering Progressive Writers” because I feel the media landscape is completely flooded with right-wing, conservative propaganda. I feel that rational, educated people with opinions based on experience and fact are often censored.
I like to work to change that.
Medium’s boost program is one of the best ways to get a lot of eyes on an important story. Substack is an excellent tool for building up a reader base over time, and Medium’s Boost is a way to give your portfolio a jolt of visibility.
Thanks to Arturo for writing a great article! Go check out his work, and keep me in mind if you stumble upon a story that the world NEEDS to read!
Here’s the article:
Why the Plight of Immigrants Is a Humanitarian Issue We Can’t Afford to Ignore
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