Chicano, honor, loyalty, respect, trust, power
Omar Ortega,
Pescadero, CA.
I help; I’m not THE help.
Eric N Peguero,
New York, NY
We, Latinos, may raise your children, do your laundry and clean your floors, but we are not THE HELP. We are people like you perhaps a little less proud of how we earn a living and very willing to earn that living honorably. We deserve respect.
Race does not determine my abilities
Nathalie Barahona,
Kearns, UT.
For many years throughout my middle school and high school years as I was growing I felt as though many of my teachers doubted my abilities or intelligence in some classes that may have been harder such as honor or concurrent courses because of the lack of minority students that actually succeed or enroll in these courses. This idea that skin color & race determine how educated or intelligent you are has been a struggle for many years and is a struggle I am still commonly faced with.
SPJ honors Norris for exceptional service to journalism
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7/23/2014
Contacts:
Chad Hosier, SPJ Awards Coordinator, (317) 920-4791, chosier@spj.org
Taylor Carlier, SPJ Communications Coordinator, (317) 920-4785, tcarlier@spj.org
INDIANAPOLIS – The Society of Professional Journalists is pleased to honor Michele Norris as a Fellow of the Society. It is the highest honor given by the Society and is awarded for extraordinary contribution to the profession.
Norris has held many titles during her career, but currently she is a host and special correspondent for NPR. She also is the creator of the Race Card Project, which is an effort to lead a broader conversation about race – a response to her 2010 published book, The Grace of Silence: A Memoir. Previously, Norris worked for ten years for ABC as a Washington Bureau reporter and also spent time working for other big names in journalism such as The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.
Most notably, Norris has made a lasting impact in the world of journalism because her work targets everyone from important politicians to parents struggling to find childcare — anything applicable to her broad audience of readers.
Her work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Norris has received previous awards and mentions from the National Association of Black Journalists, the University of Minnesota, Essence magazine and Ebony magazine. She also received an Emmy award and Peabody award for her coverage of 9/11 during her time with ABC News.
Her education began at the University of Wisconsin, where she majored in electrical engineering, but was continued at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis where she graduated with a degree in journalism.
Norris will be honored at the Excellence in Journalism 2014 conference in Nashville, Tenn. She will receive a jeweled key and a plaque on Sept. 6 at the President’s Installation Banquet. Click here for a list of previous honorees.
Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information on SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.
http://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=1257
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Invisible white mother feels demographic betrayal
Amy Chai
New Haven, CT
I am “white.” I am not European-American, I do not have permission to honor my heritage with a hyphen. I am simply a member of the melanin challenged group that bears collective blame for something that some British, African, and Arab people did a few hundred years ago. It doesn’t matter that I am Scandinavian, with no British, African, or Arab blood at all.
I am also the mother of “mixed race” (AKA HUMAN) children. My child was sitting in a group of Asian girls, and they told her that she could “pass” and did not have to admit to having white blood. They encouraged her to deny me. I am not the only white mother to feel this type of pain–the pain that comes from knowing that your “whiteness” is something that stains your child’s PC potential in this screwed up society in which we live.
I recall feeling happy because Obama was biracial. I didn’t vote for him, but I couldn’t help liking the fact that he came from a family like mine. That was before the 2010 census came out. In the census, although he had the opportunity to affirm his mixed heritage, he decided to mark, “African-American” only on his form. He got to celebrate, hyphenate, and dance on his mother’s grave. After the moment I heard about Obama’s census, I hated him. I hated him on behalf of his mother, who is dead but even if she were alive she would never have the heart to hate him for his betrayal. She would probably even understand why he did it, and maybe even say that it was the right thing to do. White mothers are supposed to be invisible, and be ashamed.
The definition of racism: Making someone feel ashamed because of who they are on the basis of race. Anyone who feels ashamed of being white is a victim of racism. Never apologize for who you are.
A birthright. Honor, privilege, curse, death
Laurie Sylla
Spokane, WA
Spokane Falls Community College
Mr. Joe White Avenue, Black honored.
Babara Sloan
Wallingford, CT
In Myrtle Beach, SC, Mr. Joe White was a local black man who washed windows of many stores, including that of my father. Town borders put all African-American homes outside the city limits. I remember Mr. White on his adult tricycle. There was no high school for Black teens. Most Blacks were not addressed with honorifics. If you look at the map, you see that he is called Mr., while a former mayor, Robert Grissom (Parkway) has no honorific title. Is this equality or inverse respect? I retain a fondness for Mr. White, a man I knew in the 1950’s.
My friends helped me to see.
Julie Ford
Valdosta, GA
In honor of Nellie Hammond, Mary Wright, Iris Branch, Sylvia Andrews, Deborah Lumpkin, the other Debra, Gwen, Dr. Ed James,and most of all Paul Mitchell (“P”) and my grandchildren: L’il P, Princess Jasmine, and Lakisha DeJohn.
