On Wednesday, April 30th I had the opportunity to attend the YWCA’s 3rd Annual Day of Commitment to Eliminate Racism Breakfast. The panelists that participated were: Dr. Dionne Bennett, Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University; Nora Vargas, Executive Director, Latino Issues Forum and our very own, Robert Garcia, Publisher of the Long Beach Post, and Director of Media and Public Relations at Long Beach City College.
The theme of the breakfast was: Perception of Race in the Media. It was interesting to hear the panelist discuss the various media outlets, type of stories being covered and who is delivering the news on television. Issues of stereo types, politics and the presidential race were discussed.
Interestingly enough, media was also discussed in the context of youth and their communication devises; such as, social networks, blogging and podcasting. When Garcia asked the audience how many people used any of those communication devices I think three people must have raised their hands out of approximately 30. I’ll admit, I work with college students and it wasn’t until this year that I created a facebook account, started blogging and purchased an iPod nano. I want to be up to speed with younger generations and understand their needs and perceptions of life. In the end, they will be governing when I retire.
As the conversation evolved, we discussed gender in the media, in particular the overwhelming number of white men and one woman as evening news anchors. Out of the list that Robert Garcia read out loud, the one woman was Katie Couric. It’s no secret that she may be leaving CBS and I’m disappointed to know that we are in 2008 and we still have such a huge disparity in gender equality. I’m not even going to mention equality for women of color; we are worse off in that area.
Just to give you a small glimpse at another topic, the Latino vote. Depending on what is popular in a given week, the Latino community is covered and mentioned as a crucial deciding vote in the presidential election. Nora Vargas made a very important point, there was a woman that asked about the Presidential Election and how white churches are being compared to African-American Churches, she was concerned what African-Americans thought of her as a white woman. Nora said, “Be glad the media is talking about you. Latinos were not mentioned as an important voting community until the Presidential election hit Texas, let alone our churches.”
At the end of the day, there is still so much work to be done and it begins with having a discourse about issues of race and gender. It’s often those uncomfortable dialogues that help us grow to become better human beings. The YWCA did a wonderful job three years ago when they founded this breakfast event. I’m very much looking forward to the Fourth Annual Breakfast. Stimulating conversation, good company and great panelist make a great recipe for breakfast. I must admit, I was a little jealous that we didn’t host it here in Long Beach, especially with the existing conflict between Latinos and African Americans in our schools.