U.S. newsrooms are very white. So are the critics and the journalists that cover them.

Max Tani was, for a brief moment, adrift in tattersall, tartan and gingham.

Standing in a circle of five or six plaid button-downs a few years back, his group gathered for a conference at the Time Warner Center in New York to talk about media reporting. But Tani noticed a problem that was painfully obvious — to him, at least.

“It was just a bunch of white dudes wearing plaid shirts and glasses,” Tani said.

“It was just like … We could probably benefit from having a few different viewpoints...