Ethnic Media Convene to Talk Racism After AsianWeek Fiasco
Members of the ethnic media in SF convened to talk about how to improve coverage of race relations after the uproar over the AsianWeek column, "Why I Hate Blacks."
New America Media, News Report, Eugenia Chien, Posted: Mar 02, 2007
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Members of the ethnic media in San
Francisco convened today to discuss how to improve
coverage of race relations in the wake of the uproar
over the AsianWeek column, “Why I Hate Blacks.”
“We know that racial and ethnic hatred exist, but the
role of the ethnic media is to not to promote them as
the AsianWeek story did, but to analyze them,
contextualize them, and to find ways to help audiences
to go beyond them,” said Sandy Close, executive director
of New America Media, which organized the event with the
Chinese American Citizen’s Alliance and the Chinese
American Voter Education Committee.
Ted Fang, editor-at-large of AsianWeek, and brother of
James Fang, publisher of the magazine, apologized for
his paper’s decision to publish the column. Fang said
that the decision to publish the column was an
“unacceptable breakdown” in the editorial process. The
newspaper said it has terminated its relationship with
the column’s author, Kenneth Eng of New York and that
the editorial process at the free weekly is under
review.
Panelists from Chinese, Korean, Filipino, African
American, and youth media commented on the ethnic
media’s role in covering race relations.
“There are deep feelings of tension among ethnic groups
that we haven’t addressed,” said Joyce Chen, an editor
at the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily. “We need to put
everything on the table.”
Panelists discussed journalistic responsibilities and
education efforts for improving race relations. Several
panelists acknowledged that the educational system and
the media have not done enough to raise awareness of
civil rights and shared cultural history.
“Let’s deal with institutional racism, not individual
racism,” said Chauncey Bailey of OUR-TV.
“Let’s get real about what we need to do in this
country: we need to understand each other,” said Willie
Ratcliff, editor of the San Francisco Bay View.
Chen of the Sing Tao said that the views in the
AsianWeek column do not represent the sentiments of the
Asian community.
“We have benefited from the civil rights movement led by
African Americans,” said Kaiping Liu, deputy city editor
of the Chinese-language World Journal. “What Kenneth Eng
wrote is unacceptable in any situation,” he said.
“This is a terrible affront to Asians who don’t hold
these views,” said Jon Funabiki, professor of journalism
at the Center for Integration and Improvement of
Journalism at San Francisco State University.
Panelists and the 60 plus attendees at the meeting made
suggestions ranging from hosting essay contests posing a
question related to the column, to ensuring the
inclusion of perspectives from other communities in
ethnic media. Joyce Chen at the Sing Tao Daily suggested
that AsianWeek purchase advertisements in ethnic media
to apologize. Raj Jayadev, an editor of the Silicon
Valley De-Bug in San Jose, suggested a youth column to
discuss what young people from different ethnic groups
wish others knew about their communities. Panelists
agreed that editors must look at underlying issues of
race relations, avoid sensationalism, and address
cultural history in news coverage.
“What was remarkable was that, instead of
finger-pointing, the ethnic media owned the issue of
race relations and the challenge of improving their
reporting,” said Close. “While critical of AsianWeek,
they were also willing to forgive.”
“This is not the end of the conversation,” said Close.
“This is a call to action."
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