African American and Gay Rights groups may be creating the opposites of inclusion, understanding

Martin Luther King preached inclusion

The impetus for civil rights in the 1960's came from protests about segregation and lack of equal opportunity, including voting rights, for African Americans.  Protests for gay rights have the same interest to promote equality and inclusion; but these objectives may not be met as groups, once identified as having dignity and worth, develop exclusive" clubs" of their own that reject others tacitly or obviously.

The first African American Miss America was crowned in 1984.  Although Vanessa Williams was to lose her crown because of photos taken in what was claimed as compromising positions with some nudity and with another woman, she was the first to be voted as America's most beautiful that year.  Since then other African American women have earned the crown, yet there remains Miss Black America that is exclusive to African American women.

Fraternities and sororities long ago were compelled to embrace students of all races and ethnic groups, yet on college campuses there remain quite separate fraternal groups and the designations that reflect them.

Media outlets also embrace that lack of inclusion in some arenas too.  There are "black" newspapers like The Root and The Grio and numerous local newspapers and magazines reflecting "black" themes.  The types of articles and orientation again make the pronouncement that these topics are exclusive and rendered primarily for a certain ethnic group.  What does it say when a media outlet pronounces its content as "Black News, History and Culture"  How many Caucasian writers have been embraced by most of them? The reasons given for this exclusivity is often that "white people" don't understand black people.  But do black people truly understand white people and does this exclusivity contribute to inclusion and understanding, which were the principal components of human rights issues stressed by civil rights protests.

The same issues have arisen with gay rights groups.  Gay rights parades decorate floats and signs maintain the value of the group as a cohesive one with integrity.  But there are organizations, special travel sites, choruses and all sorts of ventures that may superficially maintain they are for everyone, but the nature of the groups and their advertisements do not offer inclusion of anyone who is not gay.

So while society wrestles with its general problem of bad judgments, prejudgments and errors in human rights, perhaps some introspection needs to take place on the part of civil rights and gay rights groups that they not follow the same thinking they have declared they want to avoid---and that's exclusion that build prejudices of their own.

Laws on equality have not brought folks closer together

[caption id="attachment_22304" align="alignleft" width="400"] D. L. Hughley, comic and former host of Black Entertainment Network[/caption]

Laws against discrimination have allowed many people opportunities they might not have had, but in some ways they have not brought folks closer together.  In fact those separate but equal groups and factions remain part of the American fabric.  Lawsuits also reflect the controversy as well as the concerns over discrimination, and how in the reverse it can be just as much a problem.

A straight person is now suing a gay supervisor for discrimination.  The plaintiff in New York maintains his supervisor treats him differently because he is a man with children.  He claims the supervisor in question, an athletic director, offers preferential treatment to single, female teachers.

While the issues involved in the gay vs straight community continue to abound, focusing upon the most high profile of those issues, gay marriage, in ethnic communities it becomes even more obvious that there is a trend for people to make racial and ethnic definitions that become barriers for members of one group to join another.

For example, in the media, Dr. Henry Gates, of the fairly recent fame of having tried to break into his own house, which alerted police and caused him to be questioned by a police man, while he claimed harassment based on color, owns an online news outlet called The Root.  On one occasion a writer of the publication rewrote an article by a white journalist that had been on another publication about integration and whether it had been a good or bad idea.  Based upon the evidence that the material was thought positive enough to be cited so diligently, the publication was contacted for conversation about inclusion of another article, or incidental writing by the white journalist.  There was, however, no answer from anyone.

The selectivity of staff, however, may or may not be part of the Gates view that black writing should be reviewed through the prism of its own culture.

There are black news programs, beauty contests, sororities and fraternities, social groups, meet-ups, dating services and television outlets, many of whom offer no other colors than shades of brown.  Yet there would be significant protest if another race did likewise.  It has been explained variously as related to lack of opportunity for African Americans in these various areas, or discrimination; however it remains a prominent feature of American life that drives home the point that integration among adult groups has not arrived.  Furthermore, much the same is true in the Hispanic communities where Hispanic channels, stores and organizations tend to reflect an ethnic group in some ways excluding others, often in fact or by nuance.  In fact, one could say, in some ways there has been a rollback of interaction among the various ethnic groups in America.

Are we a nation of equality and harmony?  The facts reveal we have a hard road to travel on the matter of race, with much of it interrupted by those who ask questions with the accusation of racism for asking the question. To solve a problem means knowing a problem exists, so to resolve the matter of equality and inclusion means looking at how we treat others, in either black or white or all color shades, if we are to live up to America's dreams.

 

Racial diversity in the media a one-way street

Professor Henry Gates on the left

[caption id="attachment_17997" align="alignleft" width="800"] Professor Henry Gates, left, founder of The Root[/caption]

Carol Forsloff — The Root headlines that CNN's new hires are all white. But in the world of journalism, while African Americans seek opportunities within the mainstream media, asking for inclusion in such high-profile outlets as CNN, African American media appears to retain an all-black reporting staff, making diversity in the media a one-way street, as The Root itself hires predominantly, if not exclusively, African Americans.

Not long ago this reporter noted The Root had restated an article I had  written about whether integration had helped or hurt African American children. The article was based on an extensive interview with an African American woman in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The restated article had minor commentary on the content of the article, but the bulk of The Root's offering was predominantly a rewrite of the original. This is often done in the media, especially when the article in question is on a citizen journal site, like Digital Journal.

The original article, however, was written by this professional journalist, who at the time was supervising interns in journalism and who had previously been an instructor in the journalism department at the university in Natchitoches. Since The Root had favored the article sufficiently to include its thesis in another article by an African American reporter, it seemed reasonable that the quality of the writing and ideas from this reporter might be of interest to The Root. So I wrote to the management of The Root and asked about the possibility of writing articles for it, mentioning at the same time the original article I had written on integration and African American youth.

I received no answer, despite several inquiries. In reviewing both The Root and The Grio, both African American publications, in neither have I seen Caucasian writers included as ordinary staff writers.

So has integration brought more inclusion across racial lines? In many areas, the problem of separation remains, but whereas white groups that reject people of color are publicly chastised, it is common for African American groups not to include whites, whether that is in the media or the local beauty contest.

Racial diversity within an organization may be the goal for the African American journalist, as The Root maintains; however, that one-way street is evidence that the foundation of integration remains unstable. So while the conversation at the Supreme Court is on voting rights, and African Americans seek to maintain racial diversity, perhaps the "street divisions" when it comes to race, within the African American community,  need to be revisited as well.