Is This Unity?
by Emil Guillermo

Was it a bad omen or just my Asian superstition? In Seattle for the Unity convention, the huge confab of minority journalists that takes place every five years, I checked into my hotel and was given Room 209.

209! Do you get the psychic coincidence? Proposition 209, California’s anti-affirmative action ballot measure. Room 209 -- a smallish, claustrophobic room in a renovated cheap hotel that I suppose would have been bad for anyone, no matter what color.

But still, 209? Weird.

Differences among all the different groups on the issue of affirmative action nearly kept the gathering from happening. African Americans from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), incensed by Washington state’s passage of a Prop. 209 clone -- Initiative 200 -- wanted the convention moved.

In other words, the basic seminal race issue of our times was threatening to break up Unity ’99 before it got off the ground. Members of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) reportedly felt that not coming to Seattle would be akin to “breaking a treaty.”

Some members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) didn’t seem to think the issue mattered.

Whom are they kidding?

While there were some people who boycotted the event, one Seattle resident, in defense of her city, told me that I-200 did get voted down in Seattle proper. It was the rest of the state that had a problem.

So let me just say at the outset: I’m glad I went to Seattle. I had a good time. I met some nice people. And there were a lot of them -- almost 7,000. Some said it may have been the largest gathering of journalists ever, all of them looking for the perfect latte before 8 a.m.

But I wish I came away feeling better about the substance of Unity ’99.

First of all, this was really a convention about the white mainstream. It wasn’t really about ethnic minority journalists. They were there. But it was dictated by the money and presence of recruiters and corporate types. The job fair and expo were better attended than any panel or plenary session.

And the need for jobs is definitely there. Forty percent of newspapers don’t have any nonwhites on their staff. Of the rest, nonwhites are 11.5 percent of newspaper staffs; just 20 percent of television newsroom staffs. Oh, and by the way, when was the last time you saw an Asian American male anchorman?

This was an event for the corporate ethnics. By now, everyone should know the growing ethnic presence in the media -- the real ethnic journalists -- are in foreign-language ethnic media serving new communities of color that exploded out of the immigration boom.

But real ethnic media outlets were basically second-class citizens at this confab. Even though the ethnic communities are 60 percent immigrant and are growing at such a rate that they have bigger ratings in markets like Los Angeles, Unity ’99 was primarily focused on the white corporate media.

It’s for this reason I agreed to be part of a panel called “Talk Radio.” It was one of the few times radio was even addressed. But I considered it very significant because commercial talk radio is one of the few areas in media where de facto segregation and racism are considered an accepted practice.

Radio in general has become so segmented by race that no one bothers to get mad about the “ghettoization” of broadcasting that makes it possible for the biggest mainstream stations to be all-white and proud about it. Just ask yourself how many Asian American hosts -- or ethnic hosts period -- work full-time in major time slots on big commercial stations in America?

To the best of my knowledge I was the first and last in a Top-10 market when I worked at KSFO-AM, owned by ABC in San Francisco. When the so-called Gingrich Revolution took over Congress, some bright programmers felt compelled to follow the electoral pulse. I got fired, and right-wing hate radio was born.

Since I was “Gingriched” in 1994, Newt Gingrich has gotten his due. But while radio has modified its hate tone a tad, you still don’t see many ethnic hosts or perspectives on the air. This is a disgrace to the media industry.

I made my case on the panel that talk radio shouldn’t be allowed to get away with such blatant racism. And that the large, growing ethnic audience should demand changes as listeners, lest they relinquish an entire format to right-wing conservatives.

But of course there was a counterposition. And in this case, it was held by a Latino talk radio host. While comparing commercial radio and public radio is like comparing apples to oranges, the man’s show is national and reaches a wide audience. He acknowledged he had zero talk radio experience before he had his job, implying that he got his job because he was primarily a Latino newsperson. But even with that acknowledgment, he said he didn’t feel compelled to talk about race or ethnicity on his shows. According to the host, he didn’t want to be pigeonholed.

Nor responsible, for that matter.

Later, he said to me, “There you are with the burden of 10 million Asian Americans on your shoulders.”

The simple remark made me realize he’s a prime example of a guy who simply doesn’t understand that issues of race and diversity in the media are about employment and coverage issues. The two are linked.

But increasingly, people in visible positions never see beyond their own microphones. They see what’s on their plate, and that’s all.

It’s the kind of attitude that could kill Unity if the minority journalism groups choose to ignore the main issue. When the token slots don’t expand for the diversity of new demographics, it’s every man for himself. In the post-affirmative action media world, Darwin rules. And there ain’t much Unity in that.