Rights, Wrongs and Responsibilities: Covering Race in Today’s America
The College of Media, Communication and Information at the University of Colorado Boulder will unite journalists, media makers and scholars for the one-day conference titled .
The conference, which is free and open to the public, will be held Saturday, March 10 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Eaton Humanities. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m.
On the streets, in newspapers, on television and across social networks, the stark reality of racial tensions in the United States has reached critical mass.
“This conference examines and proposes new approaches for reporting on the landscape in America today: the quest for civil rights, the realities of historical prejudice and the responsibilities we all share,” says conference organizer Mei-Ling McNamara, an assistant professor of journalism at Ƶ Boulder.
The daylong event will bring together a variety of speakers from local and national organizations and news outlets. Journalist and documentarian Lee Fang—who investigates the structure, funding and nuances of alt-right, white nationalist and white supremacist groups as part of his work for The Intercept—will deliver a keynote speech on “Weaponizing Race”.
Guests will also speak on topics in the media including: the intersection of gender and race, counter narratives of representation, the role of identity outsiders and more.
Additional speakers include Terron Moore, senior director of social media for MTV’s Total Request Live and former social media editor at Teen Vogue; Shareef Aleem, Theresa Halsey and Tish Beauford of KGNU radio; Gabrielle Bryant, Emmy Award-winning producer and president of the Colorado Association of Black Journalists; Heraa Hashmi, social media activist; Mary Bowannie of the First Nations Development Institute; journalists from the Colorado Independent and Ƶ Independent; and co-founder of the Mardale Jay Writing Center Dajia Maestas, whose students will perform spoken-word poetry at the event.
Call for Stories
Today brought together voices from as far as New York City and San Francisco, New Mexico and Denver Colorado , and as close to home as on this campus, from veteran journalists to student change-makers. This daylong conference was created on the premise that there is an urgent need in our country today to have the difficult, honest conversations about race and intersectionality in the media.
We’ve started those conversations today, but we haven’t finished them. Now, we’re passing the baton to all of you, and your communities and contacts out there across the United States. We all know as journalists and storytellers that change and understanding happen when we share our humanity through our real experiences. So this is a call to action to continue the work that was started today by sharing your stories about how your intersectional identities shape your life and world, and asking you to recruit others to do the same.
Please share your stories and thoughts there, about today and beyond. We want your personal stories and your personal reflections in 500 words or less. We’re collecting them for a future book project inspired by this conference, and we’ll be sharing with you about tis progress.
Thank you for being a part of a much bigger story.