Shaya Tayefe Mohajer
Columbia Journalism Review
Los Angeles, CA, United States
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Past articles by Shaya:
Unearthing the Black newspaper that sold the California dream to freed slaves
Standing on Slauson Avenue last month, Arianne Edmonds joined Angelenos who gathered along the 25-mile route of rapper Nipsey Hussle’s funeral procession. Thousands of fans thronged sidewalks to raise a fist or a camera toward his hearse as it passed through mostly Black and Latino neighborhoods in South Los Angeles. Even in mourning, they celebrated […] → Read More
Baghdad on the border
A San Diego suburb is the unlikely seat of the country’s Iraqi immigrant population—and a study in assimilation. → Read More
theLAnd: From #BoycottLAWeekly to earnest purveyors of culture and cool
Inside a Mid-City home not far from some of LA’s more distinctive and delightful cultural offerings—a Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles, the beloved skating palace World on Wheels—a group of Angelenos recently sat around a table strewn with puzzle pieces and glowing laptops. The curtains were drawn against the mid-afternoon sun, and there were […] → Read More
Life after tronc: Norman Pearlstine’s plans for the LA Times
On the day I interviewed Norman Pearlstine at the Los Angeles Times, tourists kept wandering into the cool, marbled lobby to inquire about taking the building tour. The security guard politely told them—on four separate occasions in a span of 30 minutes—that there are no more guided walks through the imposing Art Deco building that […] → Read More
A step toward fairness at the LA Times
Journalism has never been known for its lucrative salaries, but there are a couple ways reporters can hope to improve pay. Deliver the sort of groundbreaking work that earns a major prize—say, a Pulitzer—and you can typically expect a bump (and some well-deserved job security). Produce a record of quality work so solidly enviable that […] → Read More
Despite Its Recent Postmortem, the New York Times Obituaries Desk Is Still Overlooking Women and People of Color
The paper will not update its process for choosing obit subjects, making it hard to see how anything will change. → Read More
The LA Times flirts with unionization, defying its history
The successful formation of a union at the Los Angeles Times would have been largely unimaginable in the last century. From 1960 to 1980, the Times was a totem of West Coast journalism that had been built up into a journalistic force by the aspirations of Otis Chandler, the golden boy heir to the one […] → Read More
Unearthing the photos of La Raza, unsung chronicler of Chicano stories in LA
By any journalistic standard, it was a good get. The black-and-white photograph taken by La Raza Editor in Chief Raul Ruiz captured the pivotal moment when a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy stood on an East Los Angeles sidewalk and aimed his tear-gas launcher into the Silver Dollar Café on August 29, 1970. A tear gas […] → Read More
It is time to stop using the term ‘alt right’
In the age of social media—when cowardly trolls and bigoted bots tend to hurl insults from the safety of anonymous online profiles—the white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and racist demonstrators in Charlottesville did not bother to hide their identities. They crossed the University of Virginia campus to demand attention with their heads held high, a horde of […] → Read More
Q&A: Hannah Allam on covering Muslim life in America for BuzzFeed
Fewer than half of Americans say they personally know a Muslim person—which means many draw their opinions of Muslims from news coverage that is overwhelmingly negative. A recent Harvard analysis of major newscasts of CBS, Fox, and NBC from 2015 to 2017 found that war and terrorism account for 75 percent of the coverage of […] → Read More
A push for diversity encounters resistance at The Wall Street Journal
When it comes to news coverage of diversity in the workplace, The Wall Street Journal’s sterling reputation is frequently on display through the work of its reporters. A recent byline from Georgia Wells dove into Google’s labor dispute over lack of opportunity and unequal treatment of women and minorities. Harriet Torry’s recent dispatch from Washington […] → Read More
‘The most personal condemnation of slavery we may ever see from a slave owner’
While reporting on poverty in Appalachia for the Associated Press some years ago, I was walking a country road to the site of a grisly crime alongside two other reporters, a man from The Washington Post and a woman from a local broadcast station in West Virginia. As we bantered, the woman sighed and said […] → Read More
Tucker Carlson failed upward into a chance to do real journalism. Will he take it?
Tucker Carlson’s ascent to the top of Fox News could be a real opportunity for him to become the respected gentleman journalist his famed bowtie always wanted him to be. Though he long ago shelved the signature neckwear, the newly launched Tucker Carlson Tonight puts him in a position to change the tenor and approach […] → Read More
Crime victims like Timothy Caughman deserve more respect from reporters
A terror attack unfolded in New York City last week, according to charges brought by prosecutors on Monday. A Baltimore man—white, a veteran, wildly racist—told police he’d traveled to New York City to hunt black men, an act he believed would convince white women to stop having interracial relationships. Like so many visitors, he wandered […] → Read More
Why journalists should be able to join the Women’s March
This week, countless American journalists have been weighing the costs of joining the Women’s March in Washington, DC, or one of the many sister demonstrations being held on January 21. Staffers coast to coast, from The San Francisco Chronicle to The New York Times, have received specific edicts against attending. Others likely know the tried-and-true […] → Read More
Shaya Tayefe Mohajer Profile and Activity
Curbed is all things home, from interior design and architecture to home tech, renovations, tiny houses, prefab, and real estate. → Read More
Hounded Out of Iran, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Continues Fight For Human Rights
Refusing to be silenced, new book "Until We Are Free" details Shirin Ebadi's fight for her country. → Read More
A Whopping $12 Billion is Needed to Upgrade National Parks
From sea to shining sea, America's bountiful national parks need a lot of help. → Read More
Zika Virus Expected to Spread Through the Americas
With no cure and no vaccine, scientists are scrambling to stop the mosquito-borne virus. → Read More
One Year in American Junk Mail
It arrives in the mailbox and often goes straight to the garbage. Here’s why it’s worth stopping the endless cycle. → Read More