Interview: Scoop Jackson Discusses Racism in Writing, Pushback from ESPN.com and Compares Writing to Having Sex

Kiel: Let’s get into some writing tactic questions. How does Scoop Jackson know when an article is done?

Jackson: I have a very inappropriate answer for that question, but it makes sense. As a guy, you know when you’re laying it down or not when you are having sex with a woman . You know when you’ve done it and when you haven’t. You just know, right? It could be three minutes or three hours. There’s no time limit. You just know it. Period.

Kiel: [Laughs] That’s an interesting way to look at it. When it comes to writing an article, especially with a deadline, are specific things you need to get in that ‘space’ of creating content?

Jackson: I’ve learned to write anywhere under any circumstances. It doesn’t make a difference. Penny Hardaway can tell you stories about him seeing me in the middle of Beale Street in Memphis, sitting on a stoop outside of bar and writing articles by hand on a notebook. You don’t have time for routines. Sometimes, you just have to get after it. Stories just come. It’s not designed to have a routine. You always have to be prepared, and be prepared to challenge yourself. The only routine I have is me pushing myself. Now one thing that’s always routine for me is I always surround myself with other levels of creative geniuses. If I’m not being as creative as I should be in a particular moment, I will grab an article that someone wrote – be it a Gary Smith or a Rick Reilly – I’ll read a passage of a book by them. Or I’ll listen to some music – some Miles Davis or Dizzy Gillespie.

I once wrote a whole book, listening to Oscar Peterson play the piano because he’s a genius. I’ll listen to him and gain some type of creativity in writing. I’ll watch Denzel Washington and say, ‘How can I put his genius of acting in writing form?’ I’ll listen to Prince play the guitar. I just like to surround myself with sources of inspirations. Also when I was a kid, we had that “neighborhood” house – always stuff going on. But we always had to get our homework done. Because of that, I was always able to lock in and get stuff done amongst chaos. It’s second nature to me. I don’t know any different. I probably wouldn’t get anything done if it wasn’t that way. I can’t function unless I’m operating in a war zone.

Kiel: How do you balance proofreading with creating content to the best of your ability?

Jackson: I have never missed a deadline in my life. I pride myself on being truly professional in that manner. But with that, comes not having the copy as tight as it should be all of the time. I always look at what a story is saying as opposed to the precision in which it is presented. Maybe that’s because I believe everyone has a job to do, and that’s the reason companies hire editors. An editor’s jobs is to catch those things. So if I do have a misspelled word, or I have written something out of context that I don’t catch in my proofreading  – I’m not saying it’s excusable for me – it’s not inexcusable for the editor to not have caught it because that’s his/her job. I look at it like I have to create special content under a deadline. An editor’s job is more technical. I remember I did a story on Brett Favre and I had the “r” and the “v” in opposite places. I know how to spell it, but I didn’t catch it. The editor got on me, but I was like, ‘It’s your job to catch it.’ It’s funny because when I’m in an editor role, I catch everyone’s stuff easily. That’s why most companies have a CEO and a COO. However, I have learned how to give myself time – depending on the deadline – to step away from the story. If I finish a story at night and the deadline is in the morning, I’ll go to sleep then read it in the morning before turning it in. I catch more stuff that way.

Kiel: Name one deceased person you wish you had the chance to interview, and one person, alive, you’d like to interview.

Jackson: Nelson Mandela, for sure. I think it’s more being in his presence than interviewing him. He, to me, has been the exact model of what all human beings should be. He is the epitome of what we should all strive to be. On the contrary, I’d like to interview Barack Obama now that he’s out of office. I’ve know him for quite some time, and at heart, he’s not an politician. He’s more so an activist. I think he’s gonna do some amazing things now that he’s out of the office. The conversation, I’m picturing, would be what he’s about to do. I think he would be free to speak in a manner – with someone like me – and shed light on what he’s been through. It would be more of a conversation than an interview.

Kiel: Lastly, what’s your advice for aspiring journalist?

Jackson: Faith and patience. You must have supreme faith and patience.  A lot of this game – not just the industry – is set up for us to fail. It’s very rare for an African American to reach a certain level of success where you don’t see a lot of us in. Society gears and steers us to be monolithic in thought about the things we want to do with our career. They want us to only see some sort of gateway to success through sports, acting and music. If you say I want to be a writer, it mirrors the narrative of Cooley High. Everybody knew Cochise was gonna be a star because he played basketball but everyone looked down on Preach because he wanted to be a writer. You have to have faith that this is your calling despite it not being the “cool” thing to do.

Before you even learn how to write, you must have faith in your ability to write and stay in the game. People around you are gonna tell what you should do. Patience-wise, you are not in control of the destiny of your career. You not getting to where you want to be at a certain time of your life may not be how your career is supposed to pan out. What you’re gonna do may not be invented yet. I tell people all the time, the Internet did not exist when I was growing up. I always thought I would be a newspaper writer. Digital writing wasn’t even a thing. What I’ve been able to over the course of 20 years of writing, half of it wasn’t created at the time. But if you have patience, the sh** will happen. I always look to Morgan Freeman. He is the epitome of faith and patience. Morgan started acting at 17 in Mississippi. He didn’t get his first movie role till he was 51 years old. Look at his career now. He’s now getting $18 million per movie. People aren’t built like that now. My point is, again, you must have faith and patience.