COVERING DIVERSITY - Emory University



COVERING DIVERSITY

Naomi Ishisaka, editor in chief

ColorsNW Magazine

About ColorsNW magazine

• Independent family magazine founded in 2001 to serve the communities of color in a 25-mile radius of Seattle

• Includes a job portal—

• Covers diversity as ethnicity; does not focus on other kinds of diversity

Issues of diversity and race are subjective—there are no definitive answers.

How ColorsNW magazine approaches diversity:

1. A founding principle—society is impacted by institutional racism at every level

2. People of color are complex, flawed—it’s tempting to portray everything as dichotomy of either hero or villain.

3. The media is needed to present the hard truths—journalists can (and have a duty to) shine light on issues. We must continually ask ourselves if we are doing our part, if we’re being humane

4. Diversity is relevant to every aspect of life.

5. There are experts of color in every discipline.

6. Not all people of color are interesting, but unless we are advocates for people not like us, we won’t move forward as a society. We’ll be isolated; we are responsible for others.

There are many different kinds of stories of diversity other than race stories.

Examples of stories recently covered in ColorsNW:

1. Ethnic weddings—a Vietnamese man and African-American woman pastor; also is a gay marriage question.

2. New Faces of Africa—major article that skipped any reference or inclusion of Oromo people—were able to later include a guest column by an Oromo person.

3. Gulf Coast—son of a Washington family was affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Demographics tell the need for coverage:

[I’ll request a copy of the statistics that Naomi had in her PowerPoint that went by too fast to copy down.]

Growth by Latinos and Asians has skyrocketed. Figures from College Board show that minorities are complex and not homogeneous.

What’s in a name? Cultural sensitivity to language

Racial terminology—Terms for people of color have changed over time and continue to do so:

1. African American—The term negro went out of favor in the 1960s; black is being reclaimed from African American, which began in the ‘80s.

2. People of color—awkward, but there is nothing better; alternatives, such as minority are not better.

3. Asian American, not oriental .

4. Native American vs. American Indian—usually defer to speaker’s choice; ColorsNW prefers native people.

5. GLBT communities—young people like the term queer.

Examples of diversity stories in alumni magazines:

Northwestern U, Spring 05—thorough piece on the African American Studies Dept.

Indiana U—Crisis in the Congo, history of the Congo, but not a clear connection to IU

Columns, U of Washington—Race monument at UW; dispute over a statue

Carleton Voice—story on Katrina evacuees, but the person of color on the cover is not featured prominently in the story, just mentioned.

Magazines need to show comparable interest in the hard issues and unpleasant stories involving diversity. Often, diversity stories are all pleasant, with heroes. You must try to take risks to get these stories.

QUESTION: How can you do a better job of portraying your diversity when the diverse students are only from the last 3-4 decades?

Examples of those who have done it well—

Columns, with a story on Japanese internments; a hard story that confronted issues head on.

QUESTION: How do you deal with not showing diversity where there isn’t any, e.g. at Homecoming, when no people of color attended an event?

One way is to hit the issue head-on—“what’s missing here?” and begin a conversation about how to attract students of color to events.

We all need to diversify our own lives, to get out on campus and to attend cultural events off-campus to learn about issues around color.

cue

--

Betsey Norgard

Editor, Augsburg Now

Augsburg College

2211 Riverside Avenue

Minneapolis, MN 55454

612-330-1181

norgard@augsburg.edu

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