Posted on 08/11/2004 5:56:19 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
WASHINGTON — Speeches by the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates at last week's Unity: Journalists of Color Convention show the importance of the minority vote in this year's election.
It's also why increasing the diversity in newsrooms must occur so stories can be told of the often overlooked but rapidly growing minority segments of our population. The 1994, 1999 and 2004 Unity conventions gave black, Hispanic, Asian-American, American Indian and white journalists an opportunity to identify critical issues and determine how best we can do our jobs as professionals in our multicultural nation.
Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president, had done his homework, and it was reflected in the enthusiastic audience response Thursday from more than 5,000 people. Before delivering his address Friday, President Bush should have talked with Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose speech Thursday on foreign policy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq rang hollow to this tough, questioning audience.
Kerry had a prepared text; Bush didn't, relying on jokes, banter, flat applause lines and bluster. Bush must have confused the minority journalists for what normally is a handpicked crowd of his “true believers” or his often compliant press corps.
He underestimated this group, and it showed in how ill-prepared he was and the merely polite response he got. Bush should have sharpened his skills by speaking to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. But he snubbed the NAACP, becoming the first president to do so since Herbert Hoover.
At Unity, each candidate also fielded questions from a panel of journalists. Studying the issues that concern minorities paid off for Kerry. Bush fumbled as a president for all of the people.
Each spoke about education, immigration, health care, the economy, affirmative action, diversity, terrorism, safety and the wars. Kerry spoke Spanish, which Latinos applauded, and he quoted the 19th century North Star newspaper of black abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Kerry talked of the need for equality, opportunity and the still unfulfilled promise of the 1954 Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court ruling. Kerry addressed Bill Cosby's recent rant against blacks, saying everyone is responsible for lifting Americans out of poverty and despair.
“There is nothing more pessimistic than saying that America can't do better than we are doing today,” Kerry said. “We've got a lot of work to do, and we need to bring everybody to the table in order to do it.”
Bush said he valued diversity but opposed affirmative action. He also seemed clueless about sovereignty for American Indians and how to resolve conflicts between tribes, federal and state governments.
“Tribal sovereignty means that, sovereignty,” Bush said to audience snickers. “You've been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. Therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke with the Trotter Group of black columnists later, saying candidates must do more for minorities' votes. “Many whites want our vote, but they don't want our load,” he said. Part of it traces to slavery, the Civil War, racism and a paralyzing hatred for blacks.
But Jackson said voters of color must not be overlooked. “We have the power to determine the next president, the next Congress” and court appointments, he said.
The challenge is to raise the market value of minorities' votes. Jackson said a black radio talk show host recently asked what if people of color didn't vote.
They could withhold their ballots until prisons no longer are a growth industry in America, until education is equal and accessible to all, until homelessness ends, and until health care and a living wage are guaranteed.
“Our absence is power, and our presence is power,” Jackson said. But both parties don't see that. “Democrats take us for granted; Republicans take us for fools.”
Neither is an attractive option. Unity helped to illuminate minorities' concerns and the differences between the candidates — one who prepared and seemed to care and the other who didn't.
It's why newsrooms need diversity, which was Unity's key demand. Otherwise the issues that concern the growing population of people of color won't get addressed, and that affects us all.
Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star's Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to Ldiuguid@kcstar.com.
Amazing, isn't it?
actually it is exhausting, we live on the KS side, Roberston is our Senator, but I just do not know how the vote will go ....
oops meant Roberts we move so often I tend to forget which goes with which state
What would you say to someone who can't even form a valid premise?
Even if Bush would say "It is all whitey's fault and the government checkbook is wide open," liberal minorities would not vote for him. The real under reported story is how many minorities are very conservative.
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