“Latino” vs. “Hispanic”: NAHJ President’s View
A “somewhat hidden but contentious debate” is going on over how a certain linguistic group should identify itself — “as Hispanics or Latinos,” the Washington Post reported this week. But Juan Gonzalez, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, says that “I am in the camp that [believes] a needless amount of time has been spent by Latino intellectuals debating this question. Neither term is scientifically correct, though both are acceptable in my view.”
Gonzalez, a columnist for the New York Daily News, told Journal-isms that, “Each time I use the term Latino in the Daily News, I get an angry call from the head of the Latino Association of America, who is Italian and who insists the only real ‘Latinos’ are Italians, original home of the Latin language. Do Latinos, for instance, include people from Latin America who are originally from Belize, Guyana, Haiti, Martinique and Guadalupe as well?
“As for the millions of indigenous people of Latin America, many look upon Latino as being a colonizer term of the Spanish and Portuguese as well, which does not include them.
“Hispanic has its weaknesses, as well,” Gonzalez continues. “What happens to Brazilians who speak Portuguese? That said, I use both terms interchangeably.
“A more precise term would be Latin Americans in the United States, but that’s more than a sound bite. I prefer to use Latino more often, and even more I prefer to use the particular nationality of the Hispanic/Latino I am describing.
“As for NAHJ, while we are called the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, our Latino Resource Guide recommends ‘Latino’ as the preferred usage. So go figure.
“Latinos refers more to people who come from Latin America, with the particular caveats mentioned above. Hispanics refer to what is really a linguistic minority within the U.S. bound together by a common language and common cultural bonds (mostly from Latin America but also including those who were originally born in Spain, Portugal, and even the Philippines).
“Just as blacks passed from being called Colored to Negroes to Blacks to African Americans, Latinos are going through their own process of group self-definition, only our process is still in its infancy and still being refined. The important thing is not to get fixated on labels [or] names, but to clearly understand the process.”
He also notes that the question is discussed briefly in his 1999 book, “Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America.”
Black-Press Storyteller Frank Bolden Dies at 90
Frank E. Bolden, a legendary reporter for the Pittsburgh Courier whose stories stretched from the nightclubs of Pittsburgh’s Wylie Avenue to the ballfields of the National Negro League to the black soldiers of World War II, died yesterday at age 90, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Three weeks ago, Bolden was awarded the National Association of Black Journalists 2003 Legacy Award at the NABJ convention in Dallas, though he could not be present, and he was featured in the Spring 2003 NABJ Journal. A year ago, he was honored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association as it celebrated the 175th anniversary of the black press.
“A street reporter in the Hill District heyday during the 1930s and ’40s, Mr. Bolden shunned officialdom and instead interviewed Wylie Avenue’s musicians, barbers, bartenders, gamblers and the ‘sisterhood of the nocturnal order’ — a Bolden-ism for prostitutes,” the Post-Gazette reported.
“He earned a national reputation by becoming one of the first two accredited black war correspondents during World War II. In the sweltering, bug-infested jungles of Burma, Mr. Bolden wrote stories about the black engineering troops who died working on the Burma Road. He also covered the black soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy, debunking the claim that blacks would flee from combat.
“Mr. Bolden was a house guest of the Indian leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who found a parallel between their struggle for independence from Britain and the civil rights struggles of blacks in America.”
“His three fingers would fly over the manual typewriter as he banged out such expressions as ‘from the pot liquor flats to the scotch-and-soda highlands’ — references to the Lower Hill and the more affluent Upper Hill. His nickname for small music joints was ‘upholstered sewers,'” the story continued.
Journal-isms last saw Mr. Bolden at the NNPA anniversary luncheon last year, when he told reporters that the black press “needs to tell the positive, to inform, educate and give inspiration to our people. I don’t expect the white press to give me inspiration,” he said. “I also expect the black press to tell us when we’re wrong.”
Chicago News Director Vickie Burns Moving to D.C.
Vickie Burns, one of the more prominent, and one of the few, African- American women in a news management role at a major television station, is leaving her news director post at [Chicago’s] WMAQ-Ch. 5 for a bigger job at the NBC-owned station in Washington, D.C.,” Jim Kirk reports in the Chicago Tribune.
“The Chicago native, who until now has spent her whole TV career in Chicago, takes the vice president of news reins at WRC-Ch. 4 in Washington, an aggressive news town not unlike Chicago.
“Her tearful announcement to the station’s anchors, reporters and producers came during one of the busiest local TV news days in weeks, as reporters and camera crews converged on the South Side to cover a deadly shooting rampage,” Kirk said.
“Burns is taking over a news operation that ranks first in nearly every newscast but has shown signs of vulnerability lately,” added John Maynard in the Washington Post.
The latest diversity survey from the Radio-Television News Directors Association showed that 0.9 percent of broadcast news directors were African American, down from 2.0 percent.
Burns replaces Bob Long, a white male who left earlier this month after a four-year stint to become news chief at KNBC in Los Angeles. There, he replaced Kimberly Godwin, vice president and news director, who is African American. She left the station last month “to focus on her family and pursue other opportunities,” NBC executives said then.
In Washington, Burns will join such other African American news executives as Michael Jack, who will be her boss as president and general manager of NBC-owned WRC-TV, and Jamie Foster, who recently became news director of WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate. Jack is also director of diversity for the NBC network.
When Players Speak Spanish, Reporters English
“Spanish-speaking players often are reluctant to speak to the media, fearful that their relatively limited English skills will make them look foolish. They’re afraid of being laughed at by reporters, fans, even their American teammates,” writes Steven Krasner in a Providence Journal-Bulletin series called, “A whole new ballgame — The changing culture of baseball.”
“It’s very difficult if you’re not able to express in a clear sentence what you want to say,” says ace Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, “a native of the Dominican Republic who speaks English as if he’s lived in the United States all his life,” in the piece.
“Sometimes, knowing as much as I know and understanding as much as I understand, with as much experience as I have, I am afraid of the media,” added Martinez. “It’s not a coincidence that they call the media the fourth power of the world.”
Martinez prevailed upon the Players Association to put pressure on Major League Baseball to have interpreters at the ready for all Latin players, Krasner explains.
He acted after the Associated Press quoted Sammy Sosa after the June incident in which umpires found cork in his shattered bat: “But when you make a mistake like that, you got to stood up and be there for it.” The AP eventually apologized, and the subject of quoting those for whom Spanish is the native language was discussed at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention in June.
“It’s wrong to quote Sosa or any immigrant’s grammatical mistakes when you know he’s articulate in his native language. Some prominent players from Latin America rightly felt offended,” wrote Joe Rodriguez in the San Jose-Mercury News. He quoted Martinez as saying,“We may be Latin, but we’re not dumb.”
More Black Commentary on March Anniversary
- Betty Baye, Louisville Courier-Journal:
“I was 17 and cannot rightly claim to have had a high political consciousness back then. . . . I had neither the experience nor the knowledge to articulate my pain that day in the ways that Dr. King, John Lewis and others did so eloquently at the March on Washington.
“But four decades later, I think about how glad I am that they had the courage to speak up for me and that so many thousands of decent Americans found the courage to stand in that hot sun and to listen.”
- Gregory Kane, BlackAmericaWeb.com:
“Today, August 28, 2003, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of what, for lack of better words, we?ll have to call ‘the chumping.’
“It may have been the greatest mass ‘chumping’ in history.
“. . . For white liberals sympathetic to the civil rights, [SNCC’s John] Lewis?s harsh words went over like an interracial couple at a Ku Klux Klan rally. They demanded he tone it down. Lewis was persuaded to comply. The ‘chumping’ was on.
“. . . Whenever liberal blacks use the ‘black conservatives parrot white conservatives’ line, we need to ask them who were the victims of the greatest mass ‘chumping’ of all time.”
- Roland S. Martin, Creators Syndicate:
“Some of you may say affirmative action was payback. Quotas were payback. It’s time to move on. But to minimize the longstanding inequality in this country is to fully deny the dark days of our past. Ending slavery, injustice and bigotry was one thing. Passing laws was a part of the solution. Economic parity is the other.”
- Courtland Milloy, Washington Post:
“In his book, ‘Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement,’ Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) makes clear his belief that prayer is the affirmation that leads to correct and courageous action.
“‘There is an old African proverb: “When you pray, move your feet,” ‘ Lewis writes. That’s what it took to overcome in 1963, he says. And who’s to say it won’t work just as well today?”
- Acel Moore, Philadelphia Inquirer:
“The reality is that King’s ‘dream’ has not been fulfilled and the ‘promissory note’ he referenced in his speech has not been paid. It is still clear, in the 21st century, that the content of one’s character does not determine one’s inclusion.”
- Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune:
“The fight for ‘color-blindedness’ should not make us blind to reality.
“In California, for example, the same ballot that famously offers a recall of the governor also offers an initiative that would outlaw the collection of racial data by the state. Its main sponsor, Ward Connerly, a state university regent and anti-affirmative action crusader, says the initiative actually will help achieve King’s dream by making the state colorblind. Ah, if only it were that easy.
“In fact, King believed Americans would have to be quite color-conscious in order to achieve his dream. Otherwise, we would have no way to measure our progress.
“Yes, I know. Measuring our racial progress through racial bean counting annoys some people. But it is better than waiting for a riot.”
- Brenda Payton, Oakland Tribune:
“A. [Philip] Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Bayard Rustin, the march organizer, saw it as the beginning of an attack on poverty. In his speech, Randolph included poor white people when he talked about the crippling effects of unemployment and poverty.
“If the civil rights movement had continued along those lines, rather than pursuing more explicit racial goals, it might have taken us in some interesting directions. Some strategists think focusing on the elimination of poverty would have eradicated much of racial inequity. If the movement had included poor white people, it would have avoided the dilemma of and the backlash against affirmative action.”
- Stan Simpson, Hartford Courant:
“MLK III gives it a shot today. The dreamer’s namesake, who heads the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is a middle-aged man.
“Sadly, his dad’s old speech is as relevant as ever.”
- Adrienne Washington, Washington Times:
“If there is one valid criticism of the civil rights movement, it’s that it did not groom the next generation or pass the torch sooner. That’s one reason it’s hard to rally new recruits to work on unfinished business.
“Witness the huge crowds who rallied at the Supreme Court on what they called ‘Black Tuesday’ in April to show their support for affirmative action, which is relevant to their current concerns. ‘Young people are doing things and more young people would do more things if we support them,’ said [Malika] Sanders” of the 21st Century Leadership Movement in Alabama.
“Anniversaries and memories are a wondrous gift, but we must take care not to live in the past. For the past should be remembered primarily to push us forward to a more productive future.
“History has proven that often it’s fired-up young folks who can lead the way.”
Black Caucus to Air Weekly Radio Message
The American Urban Radio Networks has agreed to air a weekly “Message to America” from the Congressional Black Caucus, chairman Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., announces. The first “Message” is to air Labor Day, Sept. 1, at 8 p.m. EST with a half-hour address via AURN’s affiliate radio stations. Cummings and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., plan to discuss the economy and education.
With more than 25 million listeners each week and over 450 affiliate stations, AURN is the largest network reaching urban America, a news release says.
2nd from Final Call Resigns, Apologizes
The staff reporter for the Final Call who co-authored the Nation of Islam weekly’s now-retracted story saying that the Rev. Jesse Jackson was “complicit” in the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has joined the paper’s editor, James Muhammad, in resigning, and says he is undertaking a series of appearances to apologize in person.
Eric Ture Muhammad, son of the late Kwame Ture, once known as Stokely Carmichael of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, told the National Association of Black Journalists e-mail list that he hoped to appear before the Atlanta chapter’s Sept. 6 meeting and had “spent the last week frequenting the circles that have been most immediately affected by the error in my reporting.”
He said he began with the Final Call offices and Nation of Islam community in Chicago, and then in Atlanta, and also met with members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference there.
Afro Newspapers to Digitize Archives
The Afro-American Newspapers of Baltimore plans to digitize its 110 years of archives in a deal with Cold North Wind of Ottawa, Canada, Editor & Publisher reports.
“Founded in 1892 by former slave John Henry Murphy Sr., the Afro-American Newspaper today prints Baltimore and Washington, D.C., editions,” E&P says.
“The archived, full-page images will be available online at PaperofRecord.com.
“Publisher John Oliver Jr. said the archives’ stories, columns, cartoons, and advertisements provide a unique look at African-American history.”
75 J-Groups Voice Concern to Tom Ridge
Unity: Journalists of Color has joined 75 organizations representing journalists, scientists, librarians, environmental groups, privacy advocates, and others in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge calling on the Department of Homeland Security to allow public input on procedures for “safeguarding” and sharing a vaguely defined set of information between firefighters, police officers, public health researchers and federal, state, and local governments, a news release says.
“The letter expresses concern that the procedures may cut a broad swath of information out of the public domain, that the procedures would subject millions inside and outside of government to nondisclosure agreements and criminal penalties for disclosing information improperly, and cut out the ability of journalists, community groups, and others to inform the public of activities of federal, state and local governments,” a news release says.
Birmingham News Aids 20 at UNCF Schools
“Twenty students at four historically black colleges have been awarded $38,500 in scholarships from The Birmingham News,” the paper reports.
“The scholarships were awarded through the United Negro College Fund, which raises money for the nation’s historically black colleges and universities.
“The scholarships are funded through a $2.6 million endowment from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, named for the founder of one of the nation’s larger media groups. The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans award scholarships through the Newhouse fund.”
The schools involved are Miles College, Stillman College, Talladega College and Tuskegee University.
AFTRA Honors Soap, Radio Series for Diversity
The soap opera “The Young and the Restless” and a radio profile of 10 African Americans who pioneered in politics, sports, broadcasting, law enforcement and entertainment were among the winners of “American Scene Awards” from the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
The awards are administered by the union?s Equal Employment Opportunities Committee “to recognize television, radio and recording industry producers who portray the country?s diversity in a positive, balanced and realistic manner.”
AFTRA presented Crystal Award honors to CBS for its diversity efforts. “Through Diversity Talent Showcases, coordinated with AFTRA, thousands of AFTRAns have had the opportunity to audition for television network casting personnel,” the union said.
“The Young and the Restless,” now in its 30th year, “has been one of the leaders in developing characters who represent America?s diversity — rich and poor, young and old, African-American, Latino Hispanic and Asian Pacific Islander ? with dignity and strength,” the union said.
The “African American Pioneers” series on KCBS Radio San Francisco was produced and hosted by Bob Butler, a national board member.
Profiled were: Odell Sylvester, the first black deputy chief of the Oakland Police department; Billy Reid, retired youth baseball coach who worked with such men as Dwight Gooden, Gary Sheffield and Floyd Yeomans; Walt Frazier of the New York Knicks; Melba Beals of the Little Rock Nine; Belva Davis, veteran broadcaster and the first woman of color to work as a television reporter, as she puts it, “west of the Mississippi” in the 1960’s; and Willie Brown, current San Francisco mayor and the first black and longest-tenured speaker of the California Assembly.
“Belva was instrumental in creating the American Scene Awards. They’re handed out each time at the bi-annual convention. In previous years, we had to go off in a corner at lunch to hand out the awards. This year it was done before the full convention,” Butler told Journal-isms.
