New America Media, an influential ethnic-media organization, has an Earl Ofari Hutchinson column that warns not to call Barack Obama the nation’s “black president”:
The instant Barack Obama tossed his hat in the presidential ring nearly two years ago, the twin mantra was that he could be the first black president, and if that happened, America would finally have kicked its race syndrome.
I often hear editors say that they can use some cold, hard numbers to help them argue the need to get support to more deliberately pursue diversity in hiring, coverage and newsrooms culture. Here is a random list of “evidence” I’ve used in diversity talks, starting with a bit of a “duh” statement from Keith Woods of Poynter, one of my favorite media-diversity evangelists:
“[I]f most of the country’s traditional news outlets have a prayer of maintaining their relevance over the coming decades, they will need to make drastic strides in understanding and reflecting the country’s emerging ethnic and racial diversity.”
— Keith Woods, Poynter Institute Read more…
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