“Articulate” Isn’t the Only “Compliment”

What About, “You Don’t Sound — or Look — (Blank)”?

Back in February, Sen. Joseph Biden’s characterization of Sen. Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy” landed him in hot water, and the New York Times’ Lynette Clemetson won plaudits for her explanation of why blacks cringe when being called “articulate.”

On Friday, DiversityInc. said that one of its top stories of the last week was one that asked readers what “compliment” they found most offensive. “Articulate was the winner,” Diversity Inc. said, but there were other nominations. A few:

• “Here in the Midwest, the common stereotype of a Mexican is the poor, barely-speaking-English, darker-skinned, mustached guy who works in a restaurant kitchen. Outside of my company, few people know any Mexican (or Latino) professionals, particularly the ones that don’t fit in their physical stereotype. And therefore, the usual comment I get is ‘you don’t look like a Mexican,’ which leaves me struggling with what I should answer.” — Jorge Noyola
• “I am an African-American female. It really offends me when white people ‘compliment’ me by telling me how articulate I am. It offends me just as much when black people tell [me] that I talk like a white person.” —Pauline Daniels
• “At the time I was in a biracial relationship and was in a court proceeding concerning one of my children. Every time my lawyer introduced me, he would say and she WORKS at such and such. When questioning him on why he felt he need[ed] to say that. He told me because he felt it was important that the court knew that even though I was with a black man, I have a job.” —Gail Wright
• “I called the ACLU to report a case of racial profiling, [and] reaching an intake counselor, she asked what the basis of my complaint was. I told her I was black. Her reply: ‘You don’t sound like it.’ I just hung up.” —Rob Grant
• “Least favorite compliment: From a straight man to me, a lesbian, when he finds out I am lesbian: ‘How can you be? I find you very attractive’ or ‘You are so attractive, I never would have guessed you are a lesbian.'” —H. Wishik
• “A lot of times I will receive the ‘compliment’ that ‘you’re not really white’ or ‘you don’t act white, you’re OK.’ In addition, I receive reactions of surprise or shock when I am the only white person at a gathering or event. I am not offended by the fact that people say that to me or react that way but I do get offended because a lot of times white people get lumped into one group that is seen as ignorant and racist. Not all white people think or act the same way, just as with any other group. Just because I have friends of all races, am not afraid to walk alone in ‘the ghetto,’ have a black fiancée and do not feel that anyone is inferior to me does not mean I am not white (and yes, I do have more than one black friend). A lot of times I am quite ashamed that I am white because some people perceive all whites to think and act the same way and other people that are white are an embarrassment to the entire race. Every race has members that may think or act in a way that is not representative of the whole group. . . .” —J. Oliveira
• “In a career of nearly 30 years, I’ve heard them all. I am both African American and Hispanic, so I get it from both sides, on top of being a female. In trying to recall the worst, I’d have to nominate this one as the worst. It is the unguarded question ‘YOU went to CORNELL? WOW!’ The implication is that in their mind, someone like me isn’t automatically worthy of such an accomplishment. I never express my annoyance.” —Beatriz Mallory
• “As an assistant professor at the Wharton School some years ago (now an endowed chair holder), I was invited to speak to a business group attending an investment symposium on campus. During the cocktail reception before dinner that evening (it usually happens after a few drinks), a middle-aged executive came up to me and asked ‘Where did you learn to speak? I really learned a lot from your presentation.’ I didn’t know whether to return the insult, or to express some clever response. I simply told him that he would benefit from more exposure to black professionals and I hoped his company would hire them. He was taken aback and apologized for his remark. But he didn’t say he would change the hiring policy.”
  —Bernard E. Anderson

Have you had a similar experience? Send to Richard Prince or post a comment on the message board.

AP Report Disputes Charges by U.S. Military

“A series of accusations raised by the U.S. military against an Associated Press photographer detained for 19 months in Iraq are false or meaningless, according to an intensive AP investigation of the case made public Wednesday,” the AP’s David Crary reported.

“Evidence and testimony collected by the AP shows no support for allegations that Bilal Hussein took part in insurgent activities or bomb-making, and few of the images he provided dealt directly with Iraqi insurgents.

“The report, along with copious exhibits and other findings, were provided to U.S. and Iraqi officials last August but have never been publicly released by the AP.”

In an op-ed piece Saturday in the Washington Post, Tom Curley, president and chief executive of the AP, said, “We believe Bilal’s crime was taking photographs the U.S. government did not want its citizens to see. . . . . This affair makes a mockery of the democratic principles of justice and the rule of law that the United States says it is trying to help Iraq establish.” [Updated Nov. 24]

• Patrick Evans of WVUE-TV New Orleans blogs from deployment in Baghdad.

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Thousands Dead, but They’re in Bangladesh

“You can be forgiven if you missed the story of a major humanitarian crisis unfolding in Asia,” Jeff Fecke wrote on Tuesday for the Minnesota Monitor. “After all, our news media has been focused on really important stories over the past few days. Like Barry Bonds‘ indictment — that’s pretty important. There was the 749th Democratic Presidential Debate last Thursday, and that required a lot of time for the pundits to decide if they liked Hillary Clinton that day or not. (They did.) And did you know that a lot of people are going to be traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday? Well, probably, since they always do, but still, they are, and it’s important you know it. Certainly more important than that you hear about what’s happening in Bangladesh.

“What’s happening in Bangladesh? Glad you asked. More than 3,000 people are dead, and the death toll could well climb; the Bangladeshi Red Crescent thinks that the toll will ultimately fall between 5,000 and 10,000. They died in the wake of Cyclone Sidr, a Category 4 storm that blasted the low-lying country with a 25-foot storm surge. The immediate human cost of Sidr is not the end, either. On top of the obvious infrastructure destruction that the cyclone wrought was the obliteration of Bangladesh’s rice harvest for this year — leading to the prospect of famine without immediate assistance to the country.”

The Al Jazeera English network explored the relative lack of coverage in its “Listening Post” program on Friday. “Post cyclone flooding has resulted in the deaths of over 10,000 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands more. The story has received remarkably little air-time in the Western media especially compared to less serious natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina,” it said.

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Edwards, Michelle Obama Cancel Out on “The View”

The writers strike has cost ABC-TV’s “The View” appearances by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and by Michelle Obama, wife of presidential candidate Barack Obama, according to Brian Stelter’s TV Decoder column in the New York Times.

Stelter wrote that Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, said that they had canceled their scheduled appearance next week to “honor the members of the Writers Guild of America.”

Later in the day, Michelle Obama said she had canceled her scheduled Dec. 5 co-hosting of the program. “‘When the strike ends she looks forward to appearing,’ the Obama campaign said in a statement.”

Meanwhile, New America Media writes, “The Hollywood writers’ strike has brought writers out from behind the scenes of television and movies, only to confirm that the vast majority of them are white in an industry where the camera is focused on a white society.”

The statement introduces a commentary by Al Carlos Hernandez in La Prensa-San Diego, who writes, “I have noticed that there are very few people of color on those picket lines or very few over 40. There is no surprise that most of network TV is written by sliver-spoon-fed 30-something’s.

“One could make the case that I’m a ‘player hater,’ that I’ve written several screenplays and TV pilots that have never gone anywhere (I’m told I’m either ahead of the curve or the way I think is ‘whack’). They could be right: my stories come from real life adventures, not a Harvard think-tank.”

Separately, Beth Fouhy reported Wednesday for the Associated Press, “A potential strike by CBS News writers imperils a debate among Democratic presidential contenders in California. In a statement Wednesday, Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would not cross a picket line to participate in the debate, scheduled Dec. 10 in Los Angeles. Most of the other candidates quickly followed.

“CBS is to broadcast the debate, which is co-sponsored by the Democratic National Committee.”

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Natives Debate Whether to Celebrate or Mourn

Native Americans disagreed over whether Thanksgiving was a day to celebrate or to mourn. “White liberals are shocked to learn that an Indian could celebrate a holiday that is essentially a funeral for them — ‘You’re commemorating your own cultural death?'” Mark Anthony Rolo, a member of the Bad River Band of Ojibwe in Wisconsin, wrote for the Progressive Media Project. “White conservatives like to use the holiday to make mention that ‘Indians are the ones who should be thankful for all we’ve done to civilize them.'”

On Washington’s WPFW-FM, a Pacifica station, host Jay Winter Nightwolf, a Cherokee, held a series of conversations in which all agreed it was a day of mourning.

But in the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, columnist Dorreen Yellow Bird chided Rolo.

“Remembering ‘genocide, land stealing and smallpox’ isn’t what this holiday is about,” she wrote. “It’s about thanking the Creator for the gifts given to us and remembering how fortunate we are. You don’t sprinkle hate and anger onto that kind of feast.

“Most Indian people in the Plains states believe the Thanksgiving holiday is a time for ‘Giving Thanks.’ And that’s not a new concept among Indian people; the only thing new is giving thanks on a specific date in November.”

Meanwhile, on her Latina Lista blog, Marisa Treviño wrote, “In 1965, historian Michael Gannon revealed that 56 years before the Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock, there was one held at St. Augustine, Florida between a group of Spanish conquistadores and the Timucua Indians.

“At that true first Thanksgiving, it wasn’t turkey that was main dish of the meal but something near and dear in all Latino diets — frijoles! Actually, bean soup to be more exact.”

• Esther Wu, Dallas Morning News: Key Asian-Americans deserve thanks

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New AOL Black Voices Leader Wants More Analysis

Tariq Muhammad, the former director of interactive media for BlackEnterprise.com who last month became director of AOL Black Voices, “hopes to beef up Black Voices’ content, making it an even better source of online news and information for African-Americans,” Amanda Fung wrote Nov. 14 for Crain’s New York Business.

“Ideally, he says, Black Voices will be so comprehensive that users will no longer have to go to sites like CNN.com for news. But he acknowledges that the company has work to do.

“‘We do really well in entertainment coverage,’ he says. To enhance the site, ‘we could emphasize news— not breaking stories, but giving people analysis of the story and how it affects them as African-Americans.'”

“Muhammad, a former journalist . . . has his eye on the 20 million African-American Internet users in the United States. AOL Black Voices attracts only a fraction of those nationwide users. Nevertheless, the site, which had just 2.5 million unique visitors in September, is edging out its major rivals. BlackPlanet.com, a social networking site for African-Americans, had 2.2 million, and BET.com, the entertainment and news Web site operated by Viacom’s BET Network, had 2.3 million, according to comScore Media Metrix.”

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Chief Sees Bias in Coverage of Missing Student

“Why does one missing woman get all the attention while another woman’s story becomes a buried headline?” David Schoetz wrote Wednesday for ABC News.

“Jackson, Miss., Police Chief Malcolm McMillin, who has been heading a search over the past eight days for 20-year-old Latasha Norman, thinks he knows one reason why.

“‘As far as the interest by the national media in the story, I think race probably had an impact,’ the police chief said.

“Norman, who is an honors student at Jackson State University, is black.

“‘It’s a small college in the South. It’s the daughter of simple people who maybe are not important outside of their circle, and maybe we don’t attach the same importance to them that we do for other people,’ said McMillin, who is white.”

• Disappearance ‘tough’ on kin (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)

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Vietnamese Sportswriter Recalls His Black Mentors

“In the summer of 1990, Art Thompson III, a sports writer for the Orange County Register, was looking for a male African American journalism student to mentor. Unfortunately, there weren’t any at my school,” Ky-Phong Tran wrote on Nov. 17 for Nguoi Viet, the oldest and largest Vietnamese-language newspaper in the United States.

“He could have gone back to his busy job covering the Los Angeles Raiders at the time, but when my journalism teacher suggested that he mentor an overenthusiastic, Vietnamese sports writer with a penchant for hyperbole, he did,” Tran continued in his commentary.

“That same summer, Art took me to the Raiders summer training camp, an opportunity most sports fans would die for.

“I interviewed then-head coach Art Shell. I met running back Marcus Allen, a legend in those days and now a member of the football Hall of Fame. I must have stood out because I remember Marcus razzing Art about the Asian kid following him around. I didn’t care. Marcus Allen was acknowledging my existence.

“What I remember about Art was his professionalism. I was not allowed to ask for autographs, for one. But I also vividly recall how prepared he was for his interviews. He had his questions and notes ready before interviews, a bunch of sharpened pencils, his note pad and a tape recorder.

“It’s a testament to his journalistic integrity and respectful attitude that the players and coaches opened up to him and joked with him, even when part of his job was to critique them publicly.

“As a writer now, I still apply the lessons I learned from him.

“. . . Within Vietnamese America and popular media, there can often be negative stereotypes about African Americans, especially African American men. I’ve always had a hard time rectifying what I’ve been told and what I have lived.

“In the past, Vietnamese and African America were most intricately connected through the lens of war. (Suggested reading: Yusef Komunyakaa‘s poem ‘Tu Do Street’ and the collection Dien Cai Dau).

“But for me, it’s been through friendship and mentorship. That is how we come together.”

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Wil LaVeist Editing Multicultural Magazine in Va.

Wil LaVeist, who has worked in online and print media, most recently as a columnist for the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., and director of Web development for Johnson Publishing Co., has returned to the Hampton Roads, Va., area as editor-in-chief of MIX magazine, a publication of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. MIX is described as “a multicultural publication covering the personalities, issues, trends and happenings among the Hampton Roads area’s minority communities — African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans.

“Hampton Roads was recently recognized by a University of Wisconsin study as the nation’s most diverse region. MIX magazine aims to highlight the area’s diversity,” a news release said before its August launch.

“I’m also writing a column for Port Folio Weekly, an alternative news weekly,” LaVeist told Journal-isms.

“I’m having a good time. Besides being a columnist, I used to be a copy editor, reporter, online editor, Web executive producer and director, so I’m actually using all of those skills simultaneously. We just wrapped up the fourth issue (Dec.) which is about to drop after Thanksgiving. The current issue has Missy Elliott on the cover. She’s from Portsmouth, VA. I had to fly up to NYC to get to her and talk my way into the photo and interview, but she actually appreciated that a hometown publication wanted to make a big deal out of her getting some awards. Our warehouse ran out of the issue in just over a week. NABJ President Barbara Ciara writes a regular column that’s very popular. It gives a glimpse into her more personal side. I edit her column. She’s good and seems to be having fun with it.”

LaVeist had also been executive producer of BlackVoices.com. He is a graduate of the Maynard Institute editing program and its inaugural cross-media journalism program.

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Short Takes

• Cynthia Tucker, syndicated columnist and editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Gina McCauley, whose blog whataboutourdaughters.com led the protest against Black Entertainment Television’s “Hot Ghetto Mess,” are among Essence magazine’s “25 distinguished African-Americans who have made a difference” in 2007, chosen by Essence senior editors. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., received the most votes in an online poll on essence.com, becoming the “Readersâ?? Choice” as the yearâ??s most influential African American. “It means a great deal to me to have the support of my fellow Essence readers,” Obama said in a statement.
• Black Entertainment Television is presenting a half-hour special, “Life and Death in Darfur: Jeff Johnson Reports,” on Sunday at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time. “Viewers will hear stories firsthand from the Darfurian people, representatives and sympathizers of the Sudanese government, members of the humanitarian organizations who have been on the ground since the conflict began and Darfurian expats,” the network said. Actor Don Cheadle discusses his efforts to raise awareness and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir addresses the government’s accountability in this war, BET said.
• Al Jazeera English will launch on an American network within the next six months, according to its London bureau chief, Colin Crummy reported Monday for Britain’s Press Gazette. “Sue Phillips said the channel — which is currently only available online in the US through link-ups including a deal with YouTube — is overcoming misinterpretations about its agenda that earned it ‘the terrorist channel’ label.” The network is also available online.
• “Executive Editor Armando Correa has been named managing editor of People en Español, Time Inc. Group editor Martha Nelson announced,” Marketing y Medios reported on Monday. “Correa, a founding editor of the magazine, succeeds Peter Castro, who rejoins People as deputy managing editor. Both men are scheduled to assume their new roles on Dec. 3, according to a press statement.”

• “The good news is that I have been offered and accepted a job at CNN in Atlanta as Senior Assignment Coordinator for CNN Newsource. The bad news is that I have to leave the Marvelous Region V and give up my role as Regional Director,” Bernadette Brown, planning editor at KRIV-TV in Houston, wrote this week to colleagues in the National Association of Black Journalists. “The CNN opportunity came fast and it was something I could not pass up.”
• Columnists Lolis Eric Elie and Jarvis DeBerry of the New Orleans Times-Picayune took to task the Commission on Presidential Debates for choosing Oxford, Miss., over New Orleans as a site for the 2008 general-election debates. “The people of New Orleans and all of hurricane-ravaged Louisiana have been denied another opportunity to have our enduring crisis again put on a prominent stage before a national audience,” Elie wrote on Wednesday.
• Evrod Cassimy, who moved to Madison, Wis., in July to take a reporting job at WMTV-TV, the NBC affiliate, was the subject of a story by Samara Kalk Derby in that city’s Capital Times. “He has a demo CD of all original music called ‘Everything Evrod.’ A clip from the upbeat dance song ‘Hypnotiq’ automatically plays on the home page of his Web site, www.everythingevrod.com.”
• Most Bostonians know Liz Walker from her two decades as a broadcast journalist anchoring the evening news on WBZ-TV, Johnny Diaz wrote Tuesday in the Boston Globe. “What they may not know is that she gave all that up to pursue a higher calling— ministry. She earned a master’s degree in divinity from Harvard in 2005 and uses that religious training in her work as a youth minister. To the tweeners in Jamaica Plain, Walker isn’t a television news celebrity but simply ‘Rev. Liz,’ the light-hearted minister who leads them in prayer, patiently listens to their concerns, and uses the Bible to teach them critical-thinking skills.”
• “The Committee to Protect Journalists honored five journalists with its 2007 International Press Freedom Awards in a ceremony Tuesday night that highlighted the fight for justice in journalist murders, and an increase in the targeting of journalists in reprisal for their work,” the committee reported. “More than 900 people attended the benefit dinner, which raised more than $1.4 million, a fund-raising record for the event. . . .Award winner Gao Qinrong, who completed an eight-year prison sentence in China on trumped-up charges, was not able to attend because the Chinese authorities would not issue him a passport.”

• “On any given morning, NBC ‘Today’ show anchor Natalie Morales might deliver the day’s top news, report from a disaster site or cook up dinner with celebrity chefs. As the self-proclaimed ‘utility player’ on the top-rated morning news show, Morales takes on any assignment that is thrown her way. Such versatility is making the 35-year-old Morales, the youngest anchor at ‘Today,’ one of NBC News’ fastest-rising stars,” Allison Romano wrote Monday for Broadcasting & Cable.
• “As the debate over immigration reform festers in Congress, one message is clear: Americans think people from other countries who live in the United States ought to speak English,” S. Lynne Walker reported for Copley News Service. Now, in January, TV Azteca, Mexico’s second-largest network, plans to launch a 60-hour series of English classes on 60 affiliates in the United States, from Chattanooga, Tenn., to San Diego,” Walker wrote.
• “WXTV New York reporter Jean-Paul Davila will relocate to his native Ecuador next month to be a foreign correspondent for the Univision station,” Michael Malone wrote Tuesday for Broadcasting & Cable. “Davila will also anchor a newsmagazine program that will be based in Ecuador[‘s] capital Quito. A seven-year Univision veteran, he’s expected to begin in Ecuador Dec. 5. . . The station also has correspondents in Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Mexico.”
• Syndicated radio host Tom Joyner pleaded for more attention to the lack of black men in college in an op-ed piece Monday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The problem of black male enrollment in college starts with the lack of black males in high school and junior high,” Joyner wrote. “Whatever the reasons, I’m not getting caught up in the studies, but I’m taking action — and others have to step it up if we’re going to reverse the trend.”
• Cynthia Wang has been promoted to assistant editor of People magazine, where she was an associate bureau chief for the publication’s LA office, according to the Asian American Journalists Association. Wang is AAJA national treasurer and is a graduate of AAJA’s Executive Leadership Program Class of 1998.
• “Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has expressed concern that a leading Haitian journalist, Joseph Guyler C. Delva, had to leave the country on 9 November 2007, after getting repeated death threats since 25 October and then being followed,” the organization said on Wednesday. “Delva has had to go into self-imposed exile three months after being put in charge of a commission that is meant to combat impunity in cases of murders of journalists.”
• “It’s ironic. The worse Mogadishu gets, the bigger news it is, and the fewer journalists are willing to go. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” David Axe wrote on his blog from the Somalia war zone. Paul McLeary wrote about the veteran Africa hand on Tuesday for the Columbia Journalism Review.