Diversity Blog

Why We Can't Wait

Many of you will recognize this headline as the title of Martin Luther's King's 1964 book. It was a forcefully written piece, as was all of Dr. King's writing, but few recall that it proposed a radical idea. Many of us think of Dr. King as a "liberal"; in truth, he was, in my view, as radical if not more so than Malcolm X.

King's book essentially urged the U.S. to put aside $50 billion over 10 years to compensate disadvantaged groups for the years of free labor gained under slavery. This is what we know as today's "reparations movement," one that has been marginalized as being too radical. King's reasoning, to cite a passage from the book, was that this money would have enormous benefit because there would be "a spectacular decline in school dropouts, family breakups, crime rates, illegitimacy, swollen relief rolls, rioting and other social ills."

We are struggling today, 44 years later, with many of these issues.

I thought of Dr. King's book as I read the latest diversity survey released Sunday by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The percentage of minorities in newsrooms nudged up from 13.42% the previous year to 13.52% last year. The total headcount of minority journalists dropped. The only reason the percentage of minority journalists increased is that everyone, of all ethnicities, is getting bought out, laid-off or fed-up, with the newspaper biz and leaving the newsroom.

Therefore, effectively, nothing has changed. In truth, it has gotten worse.

Now, a host of social ills will not be the result of poor diversity numbers in newsrooms. At least, that will not be a direct result.

Let's not forget why we even care about diversity in the first place. We care because the Kerner Commission in the 1960s said that one of the contributing factors to urban rioting was that we had created two worlds in this country: One white, one black. The Commission said the news media had been an active agent in the creation of these separate, unequal worlds.

Today, we have more than two worlds, for sure. The Hispanic population is rising and has been a force for some time. Ditto with the Asian American community. And the folks who have suffered most of all in this land of theirs, not ours, is the native American community. They still lack the respect they're due.

When I visit cities and newsrooms, as a longtime diversity buff, I do several things. I don't read the newspaper initially, I just drive around the town. I try to hit all areas -- black, white, Latino. What I am looking for is what the young folks are doing: How are they dressed? Who do they hang out with?

Then I quietly either follow the paper's continuing news coverage online or walk into their newsroom. If I see an all-white newsroom, as I have, and a poor black population, I know there is a major disconnect. I know that young minority men are most likely seen and heard only when being arrested. I know that they are horribly misunderstood and under-reported.

Last year, in a Southern newspaper, there was a front-page feature about how people coming to a black college football game came to show off their cars, decorated with commercial messages such as Hershey's chocolate and the like. Hmm.

Well, I had been seeing young black guys (and girls) in the same cars for two years before that and dropped hints to all who would listen that this looks like an urban cultural story. But the story that came out two years later was not only horribly wrong -- I had seen the guy depicted by the paper several times -- but it was also insulting. This was a college football game. The man depicted in the coverage was not a student at either college. In short, he was not representative of what was really going on.

Would an urban-educated reporter or editor handled that story differently? I'd hope so. I'd hope they would have written it two years before and certainly I hope they would not link it to a college football game.

Two worlds: One white, one black.

So that article reinforced the fears of white parents. Why don't more white parents send their children to state-supported black colleges and universities, which have been struggling since desegregation? The tuition is reasonable. The state supports it, so this is taxpaper money.

The answer, of course, is that they are afraid that someone will harm their child. Linking urban tendencies -- fancy cars -- with black college life reinforces that. In truth, if you haven't already figured it out, many black colleges are like colleges anywhere else. Yes, it helps to be in the majority so you can feel wanted and identify with a broad group of people. But, no, if you are white, you will not be mugged, raped or shot if you attend a black college. You will, like everyone else, get a good education if you apply yourself.

This is why diversity matters in newsrooms.

 

Have you ever wondered....

..Why so few reporters at national, regional or local news outlets are specifically assigned to the diversity beat or the race beat?

Tell me if you agree (or disagree) and why.

 

 

 

Speaking of diversity in journalism education leadership...

...Did you notice that Lorraine Branham, an African-American woman, will become the new dean of the communications school at Syracuse.

Not many people of color who are deans of journalism schools. Quite a few lead journalism departments, but THe Big Job is rarely held by a minority. (Lorraine was head, her title was director, of the School of Journalism at the University of Texas-Austin, before accepting the Syracuse Post.

Before that, she held several high-level editing jobs. She was the first black editor of The Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat. That's significant because a couple of editors before her was a gentleman named Malcolm Johnson, who ruled the paper. Under his tenure, blacks in Tallahassee refereed to The Democrat as The Dixiecrat because of Johnson's longtime support for segregation.   

Diversity loses a dean and gains a college president

Tom Kunkel, dean of the journalism school at the University of Maryland, is moving on. Some of you already know: He will soon take the reins as president of St. Norbert College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Green Bay Packers country.

Tom is a longtime friend of diversity. Specifically, he has been working with national journalism groups to promote more minorities to leadership positions in journalism education.

Good luck in your new role, Tom!

Meet AAJA's newest governing board members

They were all elected at the Asian American Journalists Association Advisory Board meeting March 7 in San Francisco:

Abe Kwok, Arizona chapter

Cheryl Tan, New York chapter

Matt Dunn, San Fransciso Bay Area chapter

Sharon Chan, Seattle chapter

Ameet Sachdev, Chicago chapter

They'll serve a two-year term. What do they do? According to a news release from AAJA: "The Governing Board ensures that the organization fulfills its mission, meets the needs of its constituencies, and operates legally, effectively, and efficiently. The other members of the Governing Board are the elected National Officers: Jeanne Mariani-Belding, president; Janet Cho, Vice President for Print; Jam Sardar, Vice President for Broadcast; Cynthia Wang, Treasurer; and Doris Truong, Secretary."

Impressive.

 

 

Spend some time with King today

On Martin Luther King’s birthday, I assign myself to read one of his speeches or letters. I got the idea from friends at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Minority Caucus, who would commemorate the day by sending around King quotes and thoughts about him on the interoffice computer system.

I have continued this tradition for myself, years after leaving the paper, because I wanted to make sure to keep and expand on my own accurate intellectual memory of King. I was half way to 10 when he was killed. My memories of him include standing with my family as King spoke in a baking hot park on the South Side of Chicago. Dr. Strickland, who lived down the street, had a big black umbrella, which I found fascinating. I remember my mother, stunned and still in front of our little black and white TV when the news of King’s assassination was announced. I remember my sister staying at home for days because of riots throughout the city and because of the unrest at her predominantly white North Side high school.

These little freeze frame memories are precious to me, but I know that I have to build on my memory of King, to illuminate it with King’s own words and as much reliable information as possible. I’ve made a promise to myself not to let anyone else – not Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama – define King for me. This is especially important today and it’s especially important for those of us who call ourselves journalists or truth tellers.

Last year in this space, I wrote my thoughts about King’s speech from New York’s Riverside Church, where he shaped and molded his anti-Vietnam stance before an overflowing crowd of more than 3,000 people. That speech was given exactly one year before King was assassinated in Memphis. Reviewing the speech was especially timely last year because of the debate over the Iraq war. King’s comments seemed prescient even from the grave, but yet we still are there in that war. Some politicians are now debating on how best to slowly tiptoe out backwards; others want to stay.

Last night, I read King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” He started the letter in the margins of newspaper and on scraps of paper from a black trusty when he was jailed for integrating lunch counters and non-violently protesting Jim Crow conditions in Birmingham.  King and Ralph Abernathy were arrested on Good Friday, 1963, and were held for eight days. Hundreds of others also had been arrested during the campaign. In “Why We Can’t Wait,” King talks about the days leading up to his arrest. He worries about how funds for producing bond were dwindling and about the wavering morale among his comrades. King also had come under attack from local clergy, which led him to write his letter from the Birmingham jail.

King wrote the Birmingham Jail letter in response to eight clergymen who, in a published letter, had urged him to butt out of the city’s business. I first remember being introduced to King’s Birmingham letter in college by an English teacher who extolled the letter for its organization, narrative and phrasing. I remember it for its lasting phrases.

“I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned

 about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere

 is a threat to justice everywhere.”

 He talked about waiting and what that meant to black people.

                        “For years now I have heard the word “Wait.” It rings

                        in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This

                        “Wait,” has almost always meant “Never.”

 
And he talked about the pain of telling his children about the realities of his country in the 1960s – of not being able to tell his six-year-old daughter that she couldn’t go to the amusement park she saw advertised on TV. He talked about watching his Negro brothers “smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society,” a haunting image that still hasn’t been erased from our view today.

 It still amazing to me how eloquent and powerful King is in his writing, like an orchestra. My fear though is that people will take lines from his music without listening to his whole song, either because they don’t have the time or because it’s not convenient for their cause. That’s why I cringe when I hear most politicians use his words. After reading “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” or the entire “Why We Can’t Wait,” the politician’s goal of getting elected to higher office comes off flat.

So, if you haven’t already done so, spend some time with King today. Learn the history yourself and pass it on to someone else.

Curtis Lawrence is a journalism professor at Columbia College Chicago.

clawrence@colum.edu

 

 

 

Election 2008: Remote in hand

Like many of you, I spent last Tuesday night with remote in hand switching back and forth between cable stations trying to keep up with results from the New Hampshire primary. After leaving the rush of daily journalism, covering elections is one of the assignments I really miss. But during this election cycle, I have been disgusted with the coverage more than I have been longing to rejoin my colleagues.

We often talk about diversity on this site. I have long thought that we would get to truly diverse coverage much faster if we just stuck to one of the tenets many of us learned in journalism schools or at our first jobs: report factually as much as possible and interview with a wide net. But so far in this election, there have been many cases where we haven’t done that. Here are five of the most glaring examples I’ve seen.

• As the results from Iowa came in nearly two weeks ago, I listened as cable anchors and their guests talked of the impact of Barack Obama winning in a mostly white state. Some spoke of how far race relations had evolved. I’m not arguing that there has not been evolvement on the race front, but let’s keep our feet on the planet Earth when reporting about it. Obama won 38 percent of the delegate vote; Edwards won 30 percent; Clinton, Richardson and Biden, combined, won 32 percent. That’s a plurality for Obama, not a majority. That means that most of the delegate votes in this mostly white state did not go to Obama. They went to a white man or a white woman. But none of the anchors or pundits I watched on the night of Iowa’s primary was able to detach themselves from the group hug long enough to point this out.

• I’ve cringed over the references to Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. (I’ll have much more to say about this in my Tuesday blog, which falls on King’s birthday.)  For now, I’ll suffice it to say that whenever any politician attaches himself/herself to King, compares himself/herself to King or mentions himself/herself in the same sentence as King we should be wary. Outside of reporting about what candidates say, journalists should be very careful about making comparisons between a mission that involved people fighting hoses, dogs and nooses daily, and a political campaign.

• I heard or read several reporters mention Hillary’s tears, but I didn’t see a tear. Many journalists later cleaned it up a bit, saying she became emotional, but that was long after she became known as a crier. Some (including headline writers) went ahead with the crying label because it sounded good, even though it wasn’t accurate.

• Much has already been written about the problems with the polling before the New Hampshire primary. But the important thing for journalists to remember is to not get caught up in the polling no matter which way it’s going. We want to be careful not to call elections weeks before the actual elections are held.

• On a similar subject, we as journalists must be careful to remember to go to the people we are covering not the pundits. It’s sometimes hard to get the pundits out of our heads, but we’ve got to remember to listen to the folks on the corners, in the bars and at the grocery stores. What are they thinking? Do they see and hear the same things that Pat Buchanan, Tim Russert or Clarence Page see and hear?

 These are some of my thoughts on elections and fair reporting. Please share yours.

Curtis Lawrence is a journalism professor at Columbia College Chicago.
clawrence@colum.edu

Neglected Diversity Stories

This week a report was released revealing that a large number of impoverished Americans are suffering from some of the same parasitic infections that affect those in underdeveloped countries, such as Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In the report, “Neglected Diseases and Poverty in ‘The Other America’: The Greatest Health Disparity in the United States,” published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, illustrated that those affected by these parasitic infections were underrepresented minority populations living in inner cities and poor rural areas.

These so-called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) included a parasitic infection, called toxocariasis, which causes lung disease and is striking inner city African-American and Hispanic children. Another NTD is toxoplasmosis, which causes congenital birth defects among African-Americans and Mexican-Americans.

Author Peter Hotez, a professor at George Washington University and president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, said in his report: “Because these parasitic infections only occur among impoverished people and mostly underrepresented minorities in the U.S., I believe that there has been a lack of political will to study the problem. It is easier to allow these diseases of poverty to simply remain neglected."

Hotez made a good point. While there may indeed be a lack of political will to investigate the dilemma, there also seems to be a lack of media attention to the problem as well. Is it because it affects underrepresented minorities only? This raises the underlying question: why?

When I searched to see if this report had been written about in the mainstream media, it was few and far between. There’s a wealth of diversity stories out there, including this one, which shouldn’t be neglected just as these tropical diseases are.

 

 Gwendolyn Mariano

Diversity Without Borders

 

Recently, I read a story on diversity in Japan.

 

To be specific, it was a series about the population growth in Japan and focused on whether migrant workers who were coming from Latin America, particularly Brazil, had an impact on solving the labor shortage.

 

The lead started with a young Brazilian woman who was told as a child by her primary school teacher, “You'll never speak Japanese like the Japanese, and you can't keep up. Why don't you go to a Brazilian school? Or back to Brazil?" Essentially, the teacher told her she had no future in Japan.

 

Fast forward eight years later...

 

To the teacher’s surprise, that young Brazilian was accepted to one of the top universities in Japan.

 

The story went on to describe how that young woman was among many others who migrated to Japan after the government began to allow some immigrants into the country as part of an effort to solve the country’s labor crisis. Now, Brazilians are the third largest group of foreign residents in Japan (followed behind Koreans and Chinese), and have become a big part of the country’s labor workforce. Almost 19,000 Brazilians have settled in Hamamatsu City, south of Tokyo. Signposts and billboards are written in Portuguese as well as Brazilian DVDs are found in shops.

 

What’s intriguing about this diversity story? It was published by the BBC, a media company based in the U.K. The BBC illustrated how it went beyond its own borders to write about diversity in another country.

 

It would seem quite rare for the U.S. media to write a similar story about diversity in France, Australia, China, or any other country. But perhaps, this BBC story could serve as a rich example on the kind of stories we can write here in the United States. After all, isn’t the United States just as diverse as Japan?

                                           

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7097929.stm

 

 Gwendolyn Mariano

 

Diversity is also a major issue in the Middle East

Journalists do not immediately associate "diversity" with the Middle East media but it is a major topic among Middle East journalists. Usually, journalists in the West only think narrowly about the issue of women's rights in the Middle East and Islamic World. It does go beyond that.

This week, the issue came up in a keynote speech by Wadah Khanfar at the Arabian Business Media and Marketing Conference in -- I know this is considered profanity in American but I am going to say it anyway -- DUBAI.

Most Americans wouldn't know who Khanfar is because of the Demonization of Arabs that takes place in this country, a form of discrimination that is one step worse than racism. But Khanfar is one of the most influential media personalities in the Middle East, and director general of -- get ready, I am going to say another bad word in the American lexicon, AL-JAZEERA.

Khafar slammed the 24-hour media frenzy as being concerned with headlines rather than substance. He told the packed crowd in Dubai that the media needs to "slow down" sometimes to get the story right, (rather than the FOX Cable News system of report whatever and slowly get it right, with an emphasis on "right" being a political not journalistic term).

But, Khanfar also said that the media must focus on diversity, too. According to ArabianBusiness.com, one of the leading media and business resources in the Middle East, Khafar said,

"Diversity is also key. Before Al Jazeera was launched in 1996 the majority of voices in the region were Western. The concept of diversity is one of the key secrets to success. We have Muslims and Christians, we have men and women and we have a huge age and experience range with people who have 35 years experience at the BBC and others who have only known Al Jazeera," he added.

"We should always try to embrace diversity and distance ourselves away from one colour and one religion."

Khanfar then said something most Western media pretend isn't a problem right here in the United States. Be independent.

Khanfar also urged "those who finance media" and who want to make an instant return on their investment to "distance themselves from the newsroom".

"The Qatari government understood this from the beginning and more than any other government in the region. Journalism should be left alone from governments."

Now, the idea of al-Jazeera not being independent is a fabrication created by the bosses who own the American media. Comcast Cable refused to allow Al-Jazeera (English) to be offered to its American subscribers (as a choice) mainly out of prejudice and fear that adding the Middle East new voice to the lineup would give AT&T a weapon to use it the campaign it was drafting to challenge Comcast Cable TV market share.

I can just imagine AT&T Cable's marketing message in appealing to people to switch: "We don't broadcast the terrorist news network. Comcast Cable TV, does."

God forbid that Americans might be able to hear something and use their own brains to figure out what is truth and what is not truth on their own, without being manipulated by the mass media in this country.

Yet the reality is that the American public and the mass media is being slowly pushed aside by a media presence based in the Middle East that is growing in influence and pushing the American media to the side. One day, the center of the Media Universe won't be in the United States where only approved news is reported and race and political opinion are factors in deciding who works in the news media. It will be in the Middle East which is providing more news to the rest of the world than ever before.

You can read this and other stories from the Media and Marketing Conference that took place in Dubai at ArabianBussines.com:

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/media_marketing_2007

Ray Hanania

www.NAAJA-US.com

 

LA Police plan to "Map Muslims": Diversity exploited for the wrong reasons

There was a time when Arab Americans were begging the American government to include them as a formal designation on the US Census Forms, rather than as an after thought.

When they ask for your ethnicity on Census forms, they include African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians and a few more. But not Arabs. When you are formally identified as a "minority" group, you suddenly qualify for special government funding support from federal programs created to help minority groups.

But because Arab Americans were always excluded from the category of being a "minority group," in the eyes of the Federal Government, we never qualify for, say, special contract awards like minority set-asides.

I think the reason had a lot to do with anti-Arab sentiment and the fundamental lack of knowledge by Americans which presumes, wrongly, that all Arabs are Muslims, and Christianity and Islam have a problem dating back to the Crusades, yadda, yadda, yadda ...

Being an American born Arab who was targeted by the FBI in the 1970s (immediately after serving two years during the Vietnam War (and subsequently 10 years in the Illinois Air National Guard), I am a little sensitive. I mean, when they do an FBI report on you and it begins they suspect that I am engaged in terrorist activity (although they never said "boo" when I was in the military with security clearances up the wazoo), and then 45 pages later and two years of wasted taxpayer money, they conclude that Ray Hanania is just an Arab American concerned about helping better his community.

Imagine, if they had treated Arab American properly back in the 1970s and 1980s when we were begging to be classified as a "minority," and begging to be recognized formally on the census.

Now, the Los Angeles Police -- an organization that many minorities compare to a domestic version of Blackwater -- wants to "Map Muslims."

Targeting someone on the basis of religion in this country is outrageous and violates the American Constitution. But, as we have seen over the past few years, the American Constitution is merely wrapping paper for Christmas presents and other "American recognized" holidays and groups.

The LA Police are not saying they want to Map Muslims because they hope to serve them better. They are saying that they want to map Muslims in order to better identify potential terrorism activity.

Nice.

I understand the logic. Most -- not all -- of the violence in the world is by people from the Middle East who are Muslims. Well, to be precise, most of the response to failed American foreign policies in the Middle East involves Arabs angry with seeing their relatives and friends and families and lifestyles murdered, destroyed and oppressed. And even more perturbed that Americans act as if they don't know that their policies have disrupted and destroyed so many lives in the Middle East over the years, or that American foreign policies have served to create situations of injustice in the Middle East, just so that Americans can buy gasoline at low prices. (Well, now it's just about making sure that gasoline stays in the "high price range" and doesn't skyrocket to the "I can't get elected" excessively outrageously priced gasoline, which is how gasoline is priced in Europe.)

But if the logic is that "Hey, Middle East terrorism is committed by Muslims," then we could apply that logic to Chicago where the Cook County Jail is filled up with mostly African Americans charged with criminal acts. Maybe the Chicago Police might "Map Black People" and place Black people under special watch since, according to this absurd logic, they are involved in most of the crimes in Chicago. (We can't look at the causes of Middle East terrorism, but we do look at the causes of crime in Chicago -- it's not about being Black, but about being poor, abused, disenfranchised, inadequate economic programs to help the homeless, poor, to fight rising street gangs and drug dealers.)

That "fear" of racially driven crime extends into the racist suburbs of Chicago. I live in Orland Park where minorities make up maybe 5 percent of the population. I see police there stopping "potential criminals" all the time, pulling them over on the side of the road. It's amazing how those police have such "luck" when it comes to pulling people over, that almost always, they drivers are African American. (Profiling at its most effective ineffectiveness.)

I think the LA Police want to "Map Muslims" because simply being professional crime fighters is too difficult. It's so much easier when you can profile a criminal as being "Black" or "Muslim" because it makes the public feel comfortable. It doesn't do anything to protect people, but making the public feel comfortable is a great way to keep the public off your back and strengthen political goals.

The real way to fight Middle East terrorism is to look at it as a crime, and fight it the same way we fight domestic crime. We investigate based on cause involving evidence, not a person's race or religion.

That means that agencies start treating Arabs and Muslims like we are equal citizens, instead of always figuring out ways to deny us. (Deny us jobs. Deny us government funding. Deny us support. Discriminate against us in politics and representation and service.) Embrace us, because some of us "Ay-rabs" are more "Amer-kin" than Americans. We serve this country in the military. Pay our taxes. Are as afraid of crime and terrorism as anyone else. And if we were treated with respect and dignity, instead of being criminals -- this behaviour on the part of American society to single us out and discriminate us didn't begin after Sept. 11, 2001 but has been going on for years before -- we would be more focused on helping instead of worrying about defending ourselves against government civil rights violations.

The LA Police wouldn't have to "Map Muslims." Muslims and Arabs would be front and center, as we always have been, serving this country and helping educate the uneducated American about the reality and the truth of the Middle East.

Treat us like human beings and we will do everything we can to help this country, as we always do. Treat us like animals, like outsiders, like non-Americans, and we respond with a disdain. And even a few of us, the real extremists, find themselves crossing the line and doing misdeeds and criminal acts they otherwise might not do.

People are not born criminals. They are not born terrorists. They are not born bad. In some cases, people are pushed to extremes. They are so excluded, abused, disrespected that they develop wrong attitudes and respond in the wrong way.

One of the places where we can start correcting this is to force the mainstream news media to set the example and be fair. Stop excluding us. Stop ignoring us. Stop pretending youare fair and unbiased when you are biased, unfair and, more importantly, unprofessional.

I know many journalists hate my "whining." I get it in emails. Usually odd yahoo addresses that disappear quickly.

But I don't care. You're not going to shut me up just because you don't agree with me. That's not a chip on my shoulder. That's a determine to right a wrong and make this country (and this news media) to be the better country (and news media) that it can be.

Thanks for being annoyed with me :)

Ray Hanania

Diversity needs a broader definition and commitment

I did something interesting today. I typed the word "diversity" along with another word representing different races to see what the world is talking about when it comes to diversity.

The word diversity, alone, came up with about 90 million references. Wow. "Diversity" is a popular word.

Then I paired Diversity with other words and found: 18.2 million references to "Diversity" and "Black" (1.83 million if you use "Diversity" and "African American"); 1.8 million references to "Diversity" and "Hispanic"; 1.95 million references to "Diversity" and "Arab"; and 3.37 million references to "Diversity" and "Asian."

There were 2 million hits exactly for the phrase "cultural diversity," and 50 million hits for the words "cultural" and "diversity" used separately in the same document.

Searching through Google News, I found 646 references to Diversity and "African American" and 10 for Diversity and "Black"; 779 for Diversity and "Hispanic"; 858 for Diversity and "Asian"; and, 230 for Diversity and "Arab."

On Google News, there were 637 hits on articles that used "cultural diversity" as a phrase, and almost 3,000 hits for the two words used separately int he same document.

The word "diversity" alone will bring up 21,478 hits, which means that there are a lot of people writing things about diversity that are indexed on Google News that don't even mention Blacks, Hispanics, Asians or Arabs.

So what do all these statistics mean? Nothing, really. A search engine reflects the people using it and I think that the availability of computers to everyone is often skewered by societal parameters. The haves have and the havenots, well, have not.

But it did occur to me that maybe people like to discuss the topic of diversity without definining it. "Oh, we need diversity." Sounds good to hear it, but without the racial or ethnic partnership, maybe it's just meaningless.

As I looked more closely to the usage of the word diversity, I found that most of what is referenced has nothing to do with racial or ethnic diversity at all. (What? Did I expect the word "diversity" to be the domain only of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Arabs?) Yes, there are lots of discussions about geographic diversity in terms of "products" and "services."

In 2004, a study was released by UNITY: Journalists of Color, which is not very diverse itself (as it excludes journalists of color who are not Black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American -- just ask them. I did.) Despite UNITY's failings as an organization, the study showed that only "one in 10 of the journalists covering the nation's capital for major newspapers and news groups are minorities."

Last week, Variety reported that the major television networks were becoming more diverse. Latinos have a higher representation in the television medium, although images of Asian and American Indians are "lagging behind." I know Saturday morning is filled with Hispanic themed cartoons for my kid, and George Lopez has his own comedy sitcom.

Our diversity as journalists is not diverse enough, apparently. And, clearly, we talk about diversity a lot.

But when it comes down to practicing diversity, well, that's another story, I guess.

So I shouldn't hold my breath that one day we'll have a TV sitcom featuring Arabs, nor will we have many newspapers that published columns by Arab Americans. God forbid a newspaper would be so unpatriotic.

Okay. I'll get off my "falafel box" (soapbox in Arabic) for the moment. But not long. :)

Ray Hanania
www.ArabWritersGroup.com

Look overseas for some local story ideas

            Looking for a story idea? Looking for a story?

            Why not choose one that makes the world just a little smaller for your readers and viewers?

            That’s where Global Voices Online comes in. The website was founded by Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Here what it is:

            The site features the work of bloggers from all around the world. The bloggers’ material has been summarized (and in many cases, translated as well). Many of the bloggers communicate ideas not covered by their country’s mainstream press.

So what you are really getting are the “un-heard” voices of a particular country. That might give you a good idea of how to make those global stories local, such as looking for an immigrant community in your town and writing about what’s on their mind. The work of the bloggers in their home country gives you a good start.

Go to: http//www.globalvoicesonline.org/about/

 

Dedicated to Mal Johnson, NABJ founder

I was a 25-year-old reporter for The Associated Press when I first heard about the National Association of Black Journalists. I was based in Tallahassee, Florida, as the state's chief political writer and correspondent for the AP, so I got invited to a number of journalism-related social events. One of them was a dinner with Bob McGruder, the late executive editor of The Detroit Free Press. He had just finished a speaking engagement at Florida A&M University's journalism school.

"Are you going to the convention," Bob asked me as I took a seat across from him in an Italian restaurant.

"Convention?"

"The NABJ convention. Don't tell me you're not a member."

"Never heard of it," I said.

"Well, now you have," Bob replied.

So my wife, who was in graduate school studying mass communication at the time, and I drove to New Orleans, site of the 1984 convention. I had never been to New Orleans -- yes, I was too "square" to go to Madri Gras when I was in college -- and was looking forward to the city's magic. It was one of the country's "Chocolate Cities," with a majority-black population, a black mayor, a powerful black political class, two black colleges and a large black middle class.

I pulled up to the front of the hotel. A short man, also black, looked at me with disdain as I got out of the car and handed him the keys.

"What the hell you want me to do with these," he said, handing the keys back to me.

He had on a shirt that indicated he worked for the hotel. And he was standing by a sign that said "Valet parking."

"Aren't you the valet?"

"You don't have money for a tip. Park across the street in the lot."

Whoa! That was pretty rude. Glenda, my wife, calmed me down and said let's just park the car and don't cuss that man out, Mike. I parked, walked into the hotel and found the NABJ registration desk. I was excited about going to my first convention. I was still pretty green as a journalist, even though I had been promoted often and early, and the only famous black journalist I knew up to that point had been Reg Stuart, then the Southern correspondent for The New York Times.

Another of those famous journalists was in front of me at the registration desk. I knew that Mal Johnson was a pioneering reporter in Washington, D.C. I didn't know at that moment that she was among the founders; heck,  I barely knew the current officers (I didn't know at that moment that Mal was treasurer) let alone the founders.

I had mailed the registration fees for me and Glenda to the required address about two weeks earlier.

"McQueen," I announced. "Michael and Glenda McQueen."

Mal didn't bother to search the file. "Why are you telling me your name?" she asked.

"I thought you needed that to look up my registration material," I said.

"No need to. You're not registered. I know everyone who is and you're not. Now, when you're tired of playing games with me and want to pay your rightful money for you and your lady friend.."

"That's my wife!" I interrupted.

"..your little friend there, let me know. Otherwise, move aside while I handle the paying customers."

Then she turned her attention to someone else. I was fuming. I knew that I had sent the materials in. I walked toward a pay phone, although I had no idea who I could call, and then I came back to the registration desk.

"Look. I'm registered," I said, slowly. "Look through your list for my name."

"No," Mal said.

"No?"

"Yes, no. I know your name. It was on your check. The check bounced. As if you didn't know that. So we don't have any money from you. Now, I was trying not to call you out in front of all these people."

Mal said I would have to pay on the spot. I thought she was rude as hell and, combined with the reception I had received from the valet, I began to think that maybe I didn't belong in NABJ.

I found out that Mal Johnson was rough on everyone. She held NABJ together during his formative years by dealing sternly with threats to its revenue base. My returned check represented a threat to NABJ's revenue base. So as far as Mal was concerned, I was the enemy.

Mal was treasurer for eight years. Sadly, my first year with NABJ was Mal's last as treasurer. Members, perhaps a little fed-up with Mal's heavy-handed style, elected Tom Morgan of The New York Times for that position. Tom, an eloquent speaker with movie-star looks, promised  member customer service and transparency. Mal promised to ward off all threats to NABJ's revenue base and reminded members -- many of whom were like me, young with no ties to the Old Guard -- that if it were not for her, there would not be an NABJ. The scoundrels that you people elected to office -- she said, no doubt shaking her head from side-to-side -- would have long since led this organization into bankruptcy.

Again, I had no attachment to the Old Guard. Tom was closer to our age and he represented the future. Mal slowly tapered off her activities with NABJ and by the time I joined the NABJ board of directors three years later as director for the Southeast, I had stopped seeing Mal. Maybe she was at the conventions, but I was too busy fronting as a big-shot to notice.

As many of you know, Mal died last week in Fairfax County, Virginia. She was suffering from diabetes. She was 85.

There are a lot of NABJ members who have far more star appeal than Mal. She was a worker, a field hand, if you will permit me to use that term in the context of a fellow African-American. She made the operation work. She knew that she would be unpopular, that some might even hate her. But she knew she had a larger obligation to ensure the future of the enterprise and to make sure young black journalists -- so many of whom, like me in 1984, needed to wrap ourselves in the warmth and love of fellow black journalists so that we could endure the travails of working in nearly all-white newsrooms -- had a place each year to call home, to say that hundreds, and now thousands, of fellow black journalists were "family."

Yes, I had a rude introduction to NABJ. But that lasted only an hour or so. Since then, I and thousands of other black journalists, have received so many blessings from NABJ. I personally received two job offers at conventions, following through on one. Many of us will never be able to repay our debt to the organization. I can go into any large city in this country, pick up the phone and call a fellow NABJ member. They won't make excuses about being too busy for a meal or a drink or just a quick visit to their office. We're family. NABJ family.

This is what Mal helped protect. And it is the legacy of Mal Johnson -- putting NABJ before self -- that continues to fuel the organization.

Rest in peace, Sister Mal.   

Words we Shouldn't Use

Semantics (study of word meaning) is extremely important to minority communities. The words we use in stories to describe people can have a positive – or devastating - effect on them.

Latinos

Perhaps the one ethnic community that is hurt the most by the words that journalists use is Latinos.

HISPANIC:  Here’s a government-invented word that is considered a “white word” by many Chicanos.

Historically, it became popularized decades ago by the Census Bureau on its forms to categorize Latinos because it – the bureau – didn’t want to separately list all the many nations in Latin America. It is almost universally disliked by those Latinos who have not become totally Americanized, and still are proud of their cultural heritage.

Even in a border city like San Diego, the white-dominated TV newsrooms unfortunately use the word Hispanic regularly.

ILLEGAL ALIENS: Here is an ugly phrase used consistently by the anti-Latino, Minutemen vigilantes; conservative politicians and many in the news media.

As a kid, an alien in my mind was some little green weirdo with three eyes who came from another planet. My Webster’s dictionary says the word refers to someone who is so different that they are “incompatible.”

Add “illegal” to that incompatibility and you have someone who is really, really bad. Yet, I find that phrase in many newspapers and news magazines in referring to Latinos.

The phrase preferred by many Chicanos is “undocumented immigrant,” but you rarely see it used in news stories or by politicans.


Gays

The word “homosexual” is still being used in news stories even though it is very, very outdated.  Back in the 50’s, the popular word to describe Gays was “homophile.”  It was a scientific term and, because homosexuality was then universally unlawful in most states, the only way to write about that lifestyle was to put the story into the format of a scientific article.

In the 60’s, the word homophile gave way to the word “homosexual,” in both the alternative press and the mainstream media.

After the Gay Liberation movement took hold in the 70’s, the word Gay became the preferred term. The phrase “Gay Community” referred to both Gays and Lesbians. The word homosexual was, and still is, disliked by gay leaders because of its emphasis on sex, which is really a very small part of the gay experience.

In the 80’s, as Lesbians became more vocal and outspoken, they insisted that separate identity was necessary and the phrase “Gay and Lesbian” became popular. Still uncomfortable with their so-called, second-place position in that phrase, Lesbians gradually insisted that the community be called the Lesbian and Gay Community. That placed Lesbians in the forefront, even though they are numerically a minority in the Gay Community.

There is still today a huge controversy over the prominence of the word Lesbian in identifying that minority community.  While many Lesbian-dominated, community organizations are now called LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) groups, gay males are almost universally unhappy with that designation.

To use the word homosexual in a news story is as improper and out-of-date as referring to an African-American as a “negro.”


Asian-Americans

When writing a story about someone from Japan, Viet Nam, Thailand or another country in the Far East, how does a journalist refer to them, generically?

I asked that questions of a Chinese friend of mine.  Should I write the word “oriental,” for example?

He responded firmly that it is more proper to say “Asian-American.”

Indeed, in San Diego, we have a solid organization called the Asian-American Journalists Association.