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.

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.