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MLK Day Thoughts

by jaywalk1 on January 18, 2010 in Featured, Thoughts with No comments

I sit here writing to you in the last hour of what we recognize as MLK Day. Nina Simone is playing in the background too, so get ready…

2010 has been a rollercoaster already on several levels, filled with some “good” and a whole lot of “different.” On this MLK day, I decided to really reflect on the meaning of the day to me.

To understand where I’m coming from with this, we need to go way back to a place called Brooklyn, NY…East New York specifically. That’s where I spent a decade of my life…in an all-Black, Baptist school.

Why do I specify all-Black and Baptist?

I want to make special note of this because it was central to nearly everything I knew for the first ten years of my education. People encouraged us by calling us African Kings and Queens. We said the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, the christian flag AND the bible!

Our assemblies took place every week and were more like church than anything else. We had morning devotion, sang the Negro National Anthem regularly and usually followed it up with “Oh Master, Let Me Walk With Thee.”

Though we knew about Black History month, we learned about Black History basically every day. The walls were lined with images of famous Black Americans…almost as if it were our own Mount Rushmore.

Though we emphasized service around MLK day, the importance of service was stressed everyday. The day itself was never special to us in that aspect.

I completed days of service in college mainly to fit in with crowd and the idea of it being “a day ON” and not “a day OFF.” Martin Luther King’s birthday and the day the country designates as a holiday has always been more powerful for me as a day of reflection.

This MLK day, I thought of where I came from, where I currently am and where I could possibly be going. In the eyes of many, we, as a people, have overcome. Looking at where we were in the day’s of Dr. King, it is easy to see a great improvement made in the direction of equality. Some would say my job, my degree, my comfortable life (in comparison to those times…) serve as proof that we have overcome.

I look at my job, my degree and my life as a whole and feel like one of the people hanging high in the classroom in Brooklyn. I’m notable enough to be on the wall, and maybe one day, they’ll have to get a new image for our Mount Rushmore and include me. However, as things stand, I’m just one of a few. There are so many out there who haven’t yet overcome.

I’m still on a journey… a collective one, I’d like to think. One leading to the day when we can all say FREE at last…SUCCESSFUL at last…AT PEACE at last…DREAM FULFILLED at last.

I mentioned her earlier, so I’ll leave you with a few of my favorites from the talented Nina Simone.

“Young, Gifted and Black”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBU80TF3oMQ]

“Mississippi Goddamn”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAYVaHEMK0I]

This Just In: Newsrooms Have Been Diversified

by jaywalk1 on January 6, 2010 in Diversity, Featured, Journalism with No comments

Not sure why, but I was sitting at my desk today and suddenly got a weird feeling. Much like how older folks claim that a certain pain in their shoulders, hands or knees alerts them to the fact that rain is coming, I could feel that someone, somewhere had put a bad message out into the universe.

I felt the urge to check-in on Richard Prince’s “Journal-isms,” and there, four stories down, was my confirmation: “Editorial Writers Pull Out of Ida B. Wells Award.” According to Prince:

“The National Conference of Editorial Writers, a partner in administering the Ida B. Wells Award, which annually honors a media executive who has helped diversify the nation’s newsrooms and improve coverage of people and communities of color, has decided to end its involvement.

In a letter to the other co-sponsors, the National Association of Black Journalists and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, NCEW President Tom Waseleski, editorial page editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, gave three reasons for the NCEW Foundation’s Dec. 5 decision:

“One is the expense to the foundation of hosting award recipients when the presentation is made at the NCEW convention. Another is the time spent by the foundation and NCEW members in maintaining our dealings with the award — at a time when our membership and revenues are down and when we need to focus more attention on the health of our organization. A third factor, which is certainly debatable, is the feeling among some that the true pioneers in diversifying America’s newsrooms have by now been honored.”

Ok, let’s review this reasoning for no longer supporting the award:

- Costs to host recipients….hard times. I can swallow this one.

- Time spent on award dealings when membership needs more focus….priorities. I can accept this too.

-  Many feel the true pioneers in diversifying America’s newsrooms have by now been honored.    Hmm…not sure what to do with this one.

In their minds, are there no other pioneers currently diversifying America’s newsrooms? Or has the mission been accomplished? No more awards necessary because the newsrooms have been diversified?

I’m not so sure.

I’ve shared some of my thoughts on Diversity in PR in the past, but this issue is present here in the field of Journalism and also in the tech sector, just in different forms.

What is most disturbing here is the mindset. In a time when some people are smartly focusing on the “Now Generation,” the NCEW is choosing to either forget about or purposely ignore the efforts of those currently coming up in the industry. What about these pioneers? What about the pioneers in training?

The work done by the pioneers honored has served as a strong foundation, but there is still a long way to go for the leaders of today and tomorrow. Thankfully, the other co-sponsors are now even more committed to ensuring that these groups receive the recognition they deserve.