Comments(0) Thank you to those UNITY convention participants who attended our panel today on unconscious bias and media coverage featuring panelists Carole Simpson, Eva Paterson, Jack Dovidio and Roosevelt Thomas. Please post comments here with your feedback on the panel, any questions and other thoughts. Read more »
Comments(0) Sen. Barack Obama will speak tomorrow, Sunday, July 27 to attendees of UNITY ‘08, here for the quadrennial convention of UNITY Journalists of Color, Inc.
Obama’s speech will be the final event of a five-day conference that attracted nearly 7,000 journalists from across the country and will be televised live at 11 a.m. (CDT) from the Skyline Ballroom at McCormick Place West convention center. Read more »
Comments(0) Below are some of the articles, blog posts about or mentioning UNITY (not in any chronological order). I’ll keep updating this thread whenever I have net access. Read more »
Comments(0) A great free service from MoFuse allows you to take the RSS of a site and create a slimmed down version for your mobile device. iPhone users see a customized version on their Safari browsers.
Here’s the mobile version of the UNITY News site (you need to enter the URL into your mobile browser):
http://unity08.mofuse.mobi
Comments(0) EJS President Eva Paterson joins a distinguished panel of speakers on a panel during the UNITY ‘08 Convention, the nation’s largest gathering of journalists of color, taking place July 23-27 in Chicago. Nearly 10,000 journalists and media executives will meet to discuss timely issues affecting journalism and the media industry.
Uncovering Unconscious Bias to Improve Coverage of Race
Saturday, July 26, 2008
1:15 PM - 2:45 PM
McCormick Place West W176
Panel Description: Is your news executive aware that unconscious bias can affect political coverage, create faulty editorial decisions on a range of stories and hamper the career development of people of color who work in the newsrooms? Come hear about the theory of unconscious bias, a social science discipline that can help to modernize methods used by news organizations seeking to cover American race relations and related topics, such as: How much does the fate of the Presidential election hang on unconscious bias in the newsroom? Join veteran journalists, social psychologist and social justice experts in a lively discussion of both the theory of unconscious bias, and how reporters and editors can tap into research to inform and improve internal relationships, as well as news coverage.
Comments(0) A workshop and panel discussion on “40 Years After Kerner: Strengthening Diversity and the Mission of Public Service as Journalism Faces An Uncertain Future” will be held on Tuesday, August 5, 2008, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the annual convention of Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) taking place at the Marriott Hotel, 540 N. Michican Ave., Chicago. Four outstanding panelists will discuss and offer recommendations on how news organizations can strengthen diversity and recommit themselves to public service journalism, despite the impact of layoffs, buyoutsm tabloid entertainment journalism and the onslaught of Right-wing criticism. For more information contact Francis Ward of Syracuse University at fward@syr.edu or 315-443-9245.
Comments(0) The nation’s first multilingual poll of Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans has uncovered serious tensions among these ethnic groups, including mistrust and significant stereotyping, but a majority of each group also said they should put aside differences and work together to better their communities.
The poll, which was released yesterday during a news conference at the National Press Club and discussed this morning in San Francisco, was sponsored by New America Media (NAM) and nine ethnic media outlets who are founding members of the organization.
Santa Clara University law professor Margaret Russell, an Equal Justice Society board member, joined Nora Vargas of the Latino Issues Forum and other panelists at the San Francisco briefing to share reactions to the poll. (I’ll post in a few days my analysis of the poll results.)
Comments(0) Roberto Lovato, New York-based contributing Associate Editor with New America Media and a frequent contributor to The Nation Magazine, today wrote about the trend of anti-immigrant humor in mainstream popular culture and our collective lack of attention to this disgusting pattern:
While the immigration debate in Congress ended months ago, the immigrant jokes haven’t. This is not so much because the late night hosts are at the tail end of a political trend, but because they are, in fact, at the front end of a major cultural trend: the mainstreaming of anti-immigrant sentiment.
Immigrant rights activists have concentrated much energy on challenging rightwing radio as well as blatantly racist, formerly fringe video games like “Border Patrol” in which players shoot immigrants for points. But little attention is paid to the more mainstream fare: Top-selling video games in which white good guys kill immigrant bad guys and black and Latino zombies; popular television shows like NBC’s The Office, in which immigrant characters are ridiculed for their accents, nationality, and other traits; movies like the supernatural thriller Constantine or last year’s comic hit Nacho Libre, in which immigrant characters embody evil and stupidity.
The proliferation of anti-immigrant messages in pop culture moved UCLA linguist Otto Santa Ana to study what he calls an “explosion” of anti-immigrant representations in pop culture.
…
Depictions of Latino immigrants do not all fall into the negative category, however. The Emmy award-winning Ugly Betty sitcom treats immigrant and immigration in a funny yet respectful manner. It’s no accident that the show is produced by immigrant Salma Hayek. A new video game, “ICED! I Can End Deportation,” developed by the New York-based nonprofit Breakthrough, turns players into undocumented immigrants as they flee from cruel border patrol agents. The same Spanish-language radio jocks who played definitive roles in last year’s immigrant mobilizations are continuing citizenship and voter registration campaigns. Comedians such as George Lopez draw attention to racial issues in much the same way African American comedians have done for decades. Columnists such as Gustavo Arellano, who writes the popular “Ask a Mexican,” similarly use judo-like methods to deflect and draw attention to an anti-immigrant streak that grows.
Thanks to Prof. Carlos Muñoz, Jr. for sending this out. Read Lovato’s full post here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roberto-lovato/no-laughing-matter-anti_b_74495.html
Comments(0) San Francisco-based photographer and EJS ally Dwayne Newton shares his reactions to A&E TV’s approach towards diversity.
I haven’t had a chance to view A&E Network’s reality TV show entitled “Dog The Bounty Hunter” starring Duane “Dog” Chapman and family, and it looks like I won’t get the chance anytime soon - the show was yanked by A&E after an audio taped phone call was released featuring “Dog” Chapman repeatedly barking the “N” word in reference to his son’s girlfriend. But Chapman’s foaming rhetoric led me to something I felt was equally disturbing.
“Dog the Bounty Hunter” chronicles Chapman’s Hawaii-based and family run Da Kine Bail Bonds, and how he tracks down bail-jumpers while keeping track of some of his dozen children. One of his offspring, 24-year-old Tucker Chapman, happens to have an African-American girlfriend; Daddy Chapman, in an effort to protect his interests and short chain Tucker, unleashes on Tucker during a phone call that, unknown to Daddy Chapman, was being tape recorded…
Duane “Dog” Chapman speaking to his son Tucker Chapman: “I don’t care if she’s a Mexican, a whore or whatever. It’s not because she’s black, it’s because we use the word nigger sometimes here. I’m not gonna take a chance ever in life of losing everything I’ve worked for for 30 years because some f**ing nigger heard us say nigger and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine. Our career is over! I’m not taking that chance at all! Never in life! Never! Never! If Lyssa [Dog’s daughter] was dating a nigger, we would all say ‘f**k you!’ And you know that. If Lyssa brought a black guy home ya da da… it’s not that they’re black, it’s none of that. It’s that we use the word nigger. We don’t mean you f**king scum nigger without a soul. We don’t mean that sh*t. But America would think we mean that. And we’re not taking a chance on losing everything we got over a racial slur because our son goes with a girl like that. I can’t do that Tucker. You can’t expect Gary, Bonnie, Cecily, all them young kids to [garbled] because ‘I’m in love for 7 months’ - f**k that! So, I’ll help you get another job but you can not work here unless you break up with her and she’s out of your life. I can’t handle that sh*t. I got ‘em in the parking lot trying to record us. I got that girl saying she’s gonna wear a recorder…”
Ummmm, Father Knows Best? It’s unsettlingly fascinating how “Dog” Chapman takes the trouble to distinguish the nuances of “niggers,” as if he were utilizing some sort of Dante’s Infernoesque Nine Levels of “Nigger” scale in his rant. He was, but that’s another story. Tucker Chapman’s response: “I don’t even know what to say.” Rather than waste his breath, Tucker handed the tapes over to the National Enquirer for hard cash and the proverbial cat was out of the bag.  “Dog” Chapman issued an apology, but the damage was done; civil rights leaders put heavy pressure on A&E TV Networks to suspend the show, which brings me to the why I’m writing this.
As an African-American male, I was more piqued than outraged - I don’t particularly care what happens to convicted murderers like Duane “Dog” Chapman, nor was I concerned about Chapman’s privacy issues. I was going to blast an email to A&E and I wanted to know just what A&E was going to do about their “N-word” flinging, mullet-sporting cash cow.
So I navigate to www.aetv.com and at the bottom of a busy page, I find faint links directing me to the backlot of A&E TV - “terms of service,” “site maps,” “corporate information,” which I select. Before I write my digital umbrage, let’s just see what’s what.  More links, and one link caught my eye - “diversity.” I clicked, and what I initially saw made me laugh out loud but what I read made me go silent.
http://www.aetn.com/diversity.html
On first glance, I thought that of eight A&E employees pictured, not one was a person of color. But lo! There, third from the top, was an Asian male. And yes, there were three women there. I sat there with mixed feelings. There’s nothing wrong with having a page of images with few if any people of color on it; I’m used to that by now. But this was the “diversity” page dammit and I wanted some color.
Then I read the text. I’d found my answer for the lack of color and I forgot all about “Dog” Chapman’s racist rant…
From A&E Televison Networks website:
“Diversity extends beyond race, color, creed or sexual orientation. Diversity is that combination of traits and characteristics that makes each of us unique individuals and what brings us together toachieve our goals. Diversity is about respect, openness, innovation, and knowledge. It’s what we practice in our business.”
Wow. Apparently A&E has a new definition for diversity. After hearing the term “diversity” almost used as a slur itself (along with it’s cousin “multicultural”) this was a surprise and a sea change for the word itself. And conveniently enough, it almost seemed as if A&E’s Silly Putty version of diversity explained away why they felt they could post a “diversity” page with such a dearth of diversity.
Take a look yourself. I could be wrong, or overly sensitive, I’ve been accused of that. Or maybe the people of color happened to be out, having mint juleps with “Dog” Chapman. Or the photographer was color-blind. Or…
Comments(0) 
Free Press (freepress.net) today announced that three Members of Congress endorsed FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein’s call for an independent, nonpartisan task force to address the disgracefully low levels of media ownership by people of color.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) endorsed the creation of a task force in public statements and letters sent late last week to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. The national, nonpartisan media reform group Free Press is urging the public to contact the FCC in support of the new task force.
At the FCC hearing in Chicago on Sept. 20, Adelstein called for a bipartisan, independent panel to review more than 40 policy recommendations proposed by the FCC’s Diversity Committee and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. “Dozens of diversity enhancement recommendations have been collecting dust at the FCC since as far back as 1992,” Adelstein said. “I believe 15 years is long enough — justice deferred is justice denied.”
At the national level, according to research by Free Press, people of color make up 33 percent of the entire U.S. population yet own 7.2 percent of all full-power radio and TV stations. While women comprise 51 percent of the entire U.S. population, they own less than 6 percent of full-power commercial radio and TV stations.
“It is unacceptable for the FCC to move ahead with plans to allow for more media consolidation without first addressing how to increase minority ownership,” Congressman Conyers, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “I support Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein’s call for the FCC to create an independent task force to examine ways to increase minority ownership.”
The FCC was ordered to address minority ownership issues as part of the landmark 2004 Prometheus v. FCC decision. In August, after nearly a year of inaction on the issue, Chairman Martin asked for public comment on a series of proposals on minority media ownership. However, the public was given just a narrow, two-month window — ending Oct. 1 — to weigh in on the complex proposals.
“We need to deal with the disgraceful state of ownership by women and people of color first,” said Joseph Torres of Free Press, which coordinates the StopBigMedia.com Coalition. “The FCC has ignored these issues for far too long. Unchecked media consolidation makes it nearly impossible for anybody but the largest conglomerates get on the public airwaves. We need an independent, honest and thorough accounting of how FCC policies have impacted women and minority owners before even considering any changes that could make things worse.”
Visit freepress.net for more information on this issue.
