I took an entire course on how news media shape history. It was literally called, “How News Media Shape History.” News coverage of historical events like the Civil Rights Movement and the Spanish-American War was transformational because it heavily affected society.

NBC’s extensive coverage of the Civil Rights Movement brought the revolution and the horrors of the March on Washington to the homes of thousands of Americans who wouldn’t have known how brutal policemen were to African Americans during the protests. This pressured former president John F. Kennedy to take federal action.

Granted, yellow journalism dominated during the years surrounding the Spanish-American War— which fueled public support for the war. Another shortcoming of journalism was in the years leading up to the Iraq War. New York Times’s Judith Miller, who covered terrorism for 10 years, reported Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration employed such information to sell the war to the American people because we weren’t buying it.

To put it simply, journalism is influential. If people of color aren’t in it, then how can we influence it? In almost 95 percent of all the journalism classes I took at American University, I’ve been the only person of color. Granted, I attend a predominately white university. However, most people of color I know aren’t studying journalism. I am from North Jersey, an area known to be one of the most diverse places in the United States. I have yet to meet someone who’s pursuing a career in journalism. They would rather do science, business, or finance, and this is a real issue.

It’s an issue because a 36-year-old Muslim woman was set on fire while standing in midtown Manhattan in September, and only one reliable news source reported it in a somewhat timely manner—two whole days after it happened.

I am a news savvy. I knew when President Barack Obama canceled his trip to Miami, Florida to meet with FEMA officials to discuss Hurricane Matthew because at least five news outlets reported it timely.

But the attempted burning of a human being wasn’t even covered until days after it happened. In fact, The New York Times ran a 165-word-story that cited twice a 253-word-story in the New York Daily News three days after the assault. In other words, no one in the NYT bothered to get off their lazy behinds and do some actual digging in a story that didn’t get the coverage it deserved.

And it didn’t because people of color aren’t writing the news. They’re not making editorial decisions in American newsrooms.

While journalism institutions try their best to be objective, implicit bias exists in this field. To be more specific, there is power in choosing what gains coverage. Editors or long-time reporters make such decisions. And choosing not to cover something is a form of bias. I call it bias by omission. Because choosing not to cover an event shows where a news organization stands on the subject.

And it is for that reason people of color should enter the field of journalism: so important issues people of color face get coverage, visibility, and attention. News media have enormous power and ability to shape public opinion regarding certain issues. If people of color aren’t creators of mass media, then their voices and identities miss out on being represented in an institution that is supposed to tell their stories truthfully and fairly. Besides, who can tell our stories better than we can?

Therefore, the lack of people of color in news media eliminates them from history altogether. It erases our stories, our newsworthiness, our chance to influence and shape society through the fourth estate.