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IN THIS ISSUE

Table of Contents

Letter from the President: Connecting the Dots

Notes on the Right: The Enduring Importance of Strategy

EJS December 8 Fundraiser Features Harriet Tubman Jazz Oratorio

Vote Yes on 89: 'Clean Money' Initiative

First California, Now Michigan: Putting Race up for a Vote

Supreme Court to Revisit Brown v. Board in School Cases

EJS, CTA Look at Unconscious Bias in Schools

U.N. Committee Criticizes Racism in U.S.

New Voting Rights Act Under Attack

A First Look at the Roberts Court

Latina/o Law Student Symposium

Foundations Support EJS Efforts to Balance Racial Justice Debate

Farewell from our Irmas Fellow

Staff News and Notes

Newsletter Editors:
Elaine Elinson
Miguel Gavaldón

Email Feedback

Ford, Rosenberg Foundations and Irmas Fellowship Support EJS Efforts to Balance Racial Justice Debate

 
By Miguel Gavaldón and and Shannon Seibert

In a virulent response to the successes of the Civil Rights Movement, the extreme Right has made a conscious effort to reframe the debate over race in the United States. Not only have they largely defined which issues to present, they have also carefully crafted the language used to frame those issues.  Today, in an effort to “put race back on the table” with voices of people of color and those who are committed to furthering, rather than eroding, civil rights,  EJS seeks to analyze  the methods employed by the Right to misconstrue the American public’s understanding and perception of race.  Our soon to be published Katrina Media Scan, produced by EJS Irmas Fellow Shannon Seibert, will be a useful tool for all racial justice activists who want to use media advocacy in their work. 

It is widely acknowledged that the poor and people of color are disproportionately impacted in times of natural and manmade catastrophe. Hurricane Katrina and its disastrous aftermath were unusual only in that the reality of racial and economic disparities were starkly displayed on national media for all to see, whereas those disparities are usually reported upon only by the ethnic media and progressive journals and analysts. These harsh images might have left an indelible impression on American media and public opinion.  But a year later, we see that isn’t so. 

The Katrina Media Scan identified opportunities presented to racially conscious advocates in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Though the scan found that many opportunities to bring race and class to the forefront of the national debate -- and insist that the issues stay at the forefront -- were not fully taken advantage of, awareness of the opportunities presented can help racial justice advocates shape their communications strategies for future disasters in which racial and ethnic minorities suffer disproportionately.

The Katrina Media Scan focused on four newspapers from around the country: The New York Post, The Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Orange County Register.  We chose these four dailies because, despite their ideologically neoconservative underpinnings, they are marketed as newspapers, not opinion journals.  This allows journalists writing for these papers to embed ideological messages into the reporting of hard news while claiming to uphold "journalistic" values (i.e. that of neutral observer) – an approach that is used with varying levels of success.

It is worth noting that each paper adopted a slightly different approach to reporting on Katrina.  The Orange County Register focused almost exclusively on economics – the economics of being an evacuee and the economics of helping an evacuee.  The New York Post all but ignored the issue, with only seven articles mentioning race or class in relation to Katrina.  The Wall Street Journal, with the exception of a few human-interest stories, focused primarily on the political fallout and prospects in the aftermath of Katrina.  The Washington Times dealt most aggressively with the issue, devoting a number of articles to race, class, and government, in a manner that reinforced racist attitudes towards civil rights organizations that tried to draw attention to the gaping racial divide.

Some of the highlights of our findings include:

Conservative journalists and commentators embedded four basic messages in their reporting on or discussion of Hurricane Katrina:

• “Racism could not have played a role because Blacks held positions of leadership”;
• “Any discussion of racism is, at best, counterproductive because it distracts from helping those in need and, at worst, an act of political opportunism”;
• “The outpouring of generosity proves that American people are not racist”;
• “The possibility of racism playing a role in the outcome is simply unfathomable.”

The conservative journalists and commentators furthered their ideological perspective by using the following tactics:

• Lavishing praise on past Civil Rights movements and leaders while denouncing present-day organizations;
• Attacking media organizations that aired/published administration critics or that devoted time/space to analyzing issues of race and class in America;
• Belittling ideas of racial justice by ensuring the ideas are attributed to or supported by someone considered “outside the mainstream”
• Implying critique of United States’ policies and actions is un-American by focusing on international criticism of the U.S. response to Katrina. 

Together, the embedded or implied messages worked to eliminate from the discussion racism’s influential role in American society and, specifically, the strong influence of historical and current structural racism on modern-day communities’ health, personal safety, and opportunity. The right’s tactics also served to distract from progressive communicators’ attempts to focus attention on the pervasive racial and class disparities illuminated on the Gulf Coast.

We look forward to sharing our full report with you in the near future, and we are grateful to the Ford Foundation, Rosenberg Foundation, the University of Southern California’s Irmas Fellowship program, and supporters like you who make this important work possible.

Whether it’s analyzing the impact of ending affirmative action programs, demonstrating that unconscious racial bias continues to undermine equal opportunity, or supporting a native Hawaiian school’s right to an admissions policy giving preference to indigenous students, EJS and our allies need to take on a messaging machine on race that provokes fear and division.  Since its inception, EJS has been committed to forging communications strategies that substantiate public discourse and policies concerning racial justice.

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