Good afternoon, MAC members,
It appears the article written by Berea Willingham that I sent everybody
last week and the subsequent discussion about a teaching panel on this topic
has really ignited a healthy discussion over the past few days. Thatıs
great!
Anyway, one of our members, Lillian Dunlap, of Poynter Institute, sent the
following related information today and asked me to share it with MAC
Members. Below are excerpts from her note to me in which she announces the
annual Poynter Divesity Across the Curriculum Seminar.
Thanks again, Lillian!
-- Lillie M. Fears, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Journalism
Arkansas State University
& Head, Minorities & Communications Division of AEJMC
POB 2733
State University, AR 72467
870.972.3210
870.972-3321 (FAX)
------ Forwarded Message
From: Lillian Dunlap <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2006 14:10:48 -0400
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Lillian Dunlap calling
Lillie,
When I saw your name attached to the essay at the bottom of the page, I had
to write and tell you the rest of the story. ........
Breea Willingham, the author of the essay, says that she based the essay on
one she submitted to Poynter for the Diversity Across the Curriculum Seminar
this summer. The seminar is scheduled again for May 20-25, 2007. Iıll again
be one of the seminar leaders along with Keith Woods and others. Iıd like
you to consider applying as a participant and encouraging others in MAC
Division to think about spending the week in St Petersburg. I would love to
see you here. Hereıs the seminar description
http://poynter.org/seminar/seminar_view.asp?int_seminarID=4073 :
Seminar Description:
If tomorrowıs journalists are to report and write about a dynamic,
increasingly diverse society, theyıll need guidance in the classroom.
Whatever the course, thereıs a place for teaching diversity across the
journalism curriculum.
You'll learn:
* How to define diversity so that students see the ways it connects to
journalismıs core values
* To teach diversity modules that reinforce the universal skills journalists
need to succeed
* Strategic ways to include elements of diversity in the syllabus throughout
the course
* New ways of framing journalismıs approach to matters of race, ethnicity,
gender, sexual orientation and other diversity concerns
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
Dear MAC Member:
My university diversity officer sent me the article below. I thought some of
you might be interested in reading it. --- Lillie Fears
Current News
Perspectives: Improving Race Relations One Journalism Class At A Time By
Breea C. Willingham Sep 28, 2006, 06:56
I was standing in line in the Dollar Tree store recently when a
blonde-haired little girl who looked to be about 5 years old flashed a
toothless smile at me. 3Hello,2 she said. 3You have a black face. How did
you get that black face?2
I9m usually quick with a comeback, but the girl caught me off guard. After
pausing for a few minutes I simply replied, 3I was born with it just like
you were born with your white face.2
3Oh,2 the little girl said, and went about her business.
Imagine that little girl in my classroom 13 years from now. I recognize that
little girl in a few of my students.
I9m an African-American faculty member on a predominantly White campus in a
town where less than 5 percent of the population is minority.
Many of my students are from White suburban communities or small towns,
where diversity is not an issue because there is none. For many of them,
their first experiences with minorities and discussions about race happen in
my classroom.
Getting my students to talk about race is challenging, at best, on most
days.
And on the days when my students write papers where they call Black people
3coloreds2 or say the majority of crimes in the United States are committed
by Black men, that goal seems more frustrating than attainable.
The biggest challenge for me is figuring out how to use those frustrations
as learning tools and examples of precisely why diversity is needed across
the curriculum. Just as newsrooms across the nation celebrate Time Out for
Diversity and Accuracy once a year, journalism educators need to be reminded
why they have to bring these issues to the classroom.
I9ve always been passionate about issues dealing with race, ethnicity and
diversity, and how they relate to the media. I covered these matters as a
reporter for the Times Union in Albany, and I work hard to incorporate them
into my courses.
For instance, during an exercise in my 3Women, Minorities and the Media2
class I drew four columns on the blackboard and labeled each one
African-American, Asian American, American Indian or Hispanic. I then asked
the students to call out stereotypes for each group.
The students had no problem calling out stereotypes such as 3lazy,2 3like to
eat fried chicken2 and 3can9t speak English well.2 But when I drew a fifth
column for White people and asked for the stereotypes, the students were
hard pressed to find any. I repeated the exercise asking for positive
attributes for each group; the lists for the minorities were considerably
shorter.
At the end I asked my students why it was so easy for them to point out the
negatives and not the positives. They all blamed the media for portraying
negative images of minorities.
I try to teach my students that before they can even begin to report on and
write about race-related issues, they have to be willing to talk about them
first and confront their prejudices.
Teaching that lesson isn9t always easy, and I even became discouraged when I
read course evaluations from last fall semester where some students
criticized me for talking about diversity too much in class.
But then I read one student9s paper in the spring semester. 3Because of this
class I feel better prepared to deal with many social issues and situations,
especially race, on a day-to-day basis,2 the student wrote. I felt an
overwhelming sense of satisfaction knowing I at least reached one.
My efforts so far have taught me that adding diversity to the curriculum is
more than just adding a new course to the roster, and simply having a
3Women, Minorities and the Media2 course is not enough.
I9m learning it9s more about changing the way students think about and look
at diversity issues, and challenging their biases. Professors also need to
learn before they can deal with these issues as an educator; they need to
acknowledge and challenge their own biases.
Although I have my moments when I feel like I want to give up trying to
teach diversity to the next generation of journalists, my passion for the
issue won9t let me.
And on the days when I feel my efforts are in vain, I remember the advice a
colleague recently gave me: 3You9re the only education some of these
students will ever get on race issues. I don9t know if that9s more
frustrating than consoling, but I see it as a legitimate chance for you to
make a difference in some of their lives and in the world around you. Yeah,
it seems small-scale, but if the world9s gonna change, it9s going to be one
person at a time. At least you9re doing some good things to try to initiate
that change. Keep at it.2
And so I do.
Breea C. Willingham spent 10 years as a reporter for papers in the Carolinas
and New York State. She is now a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure
University in Allegany, N.Y.
) Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
All the best,
Lillian
Lillian R Dunlap, Ph.D.
Vice President
Stinsights, Inc.
727-432-1602
[log in to unmask]
www.stinsights.com
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