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Nowadays the ethnic news media can use every helping hand possible, and this is one source that shouldn’t be overlooked. It is from the Latino Print Network.
Chicago is Da World
a doorway to ethnic media in the american heartlandArchive for September, 2009
Why I read the Chicago Defender
The afternoon of April 19,1995 an editor at the Chicago Tribune called me over and told me to get on a plane and get to Oklahoma City as soon as possible. There was an explosion. Many were dead. A pseudo expert on cable television had already theorized that it had to be Arabs and since I speak Arabic I was on my way there.
In the next few hours, the anger spread across parts of Oklahoma City and Arabs or anyone who looked like an Arab felt it. The next morning I heard their stories but not long after I wrote another story saying that the police had arrested the bomber and he wasn’t an Arab, but a crazed man who would fit into any crowd walking down most streets in the U.S. It was too late to rescind the pain and stereotyping though.
I thought about this when I came across this column by Lou Ransom. I stopped and read it over. This is good writing, good thinking, good insight to who we are and what we sometimes forget or unconsciously file away as not so important. It is the kind writing that brings a newspaper alive: clear and powerful sentences and a vision that captures you because it is so darn perceptive you swallow up every word because you feel like they have grabbed you by your hand and are leading you to place you want to understand.
His theme was the lack of civility that lurks in some of us who “don’t need a passport” and “won’t get stopped at the border.” The lack of civility that so worries some of us today.
Here is a part of his column that ran on Sept. 16,
Steve
“But the most insidious aspect of McVeigh’s dastardly terrorism (until 9/11 the most terrible terrorist attack on U.S. soil), was that he wasn’t a Muslim, wasn’t an Arab, wasn’t a foreigner, wasn’t a communist, wasn’t part of the radical left, wasn’t a member of the ACLU, wasn’t Jewish, or Black, or Hispanic or Asian. There could be no racial profiling to find people like McVeigh, those who thought that America needed to be taught a lesson by “patriots” like him. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why he could drive a truck filled with homemade explosives right up to the building, get out, and walk away. He didn’t “look” suspicious, because he looked just like all the other white American men walking around in Oklahoma City.
Lou Ransom
Elderly and alone and their numbers growing – elderly immigrants in the U.S.
As the doors to the U.S. have swung open, many families have been re-united, many more immigrants have found a home, and among them, many elderly are searching for calm in their remaining years. We are planning a workshop to talk about how to report on this issue. Look for our list of workshops that will be posted later this week.
In the meantime, here’s an excellent story from the New York Times about what is happening here in Chicago and around the U.S.
Steve
Published: August 30, 2009
FREMONT, Calif. — They gather five days a week at a mall called the Hub, sitting on concrete planters and sipping thermoses of chai. These elderly immigrants from India are members of an all-male group called The 100 Years Living Club. They talk about crime in nearby Oakland, the cheapest flights to Delhi and how to deal with recalcitrant daughters-in-law.
Skip to next paragraph
Multimedia
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
A group of Indian immigrants gathers at a mall in Fremont, Calif.
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Zia Mustafa moved to Fremont from Afghanistan with her son.
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Devendra Singh grew up in an Indian household with 14 family members. He now lives alone.
Together, they fend off the well of loneliness and isolation that so often accompany the move to this country late in life from distant places, some culturally light years away.
“If I don’t come here, I have sealed lips, nobody to talk to,” said Devendra Singh, a 79-year-old widower. Meeting beside the parking lot, the men were oblivious to their fellow mall rats, backpack-carrying teenagers swigging energy drinks.
In this country of twittering youth, Mr. Singh and his friends form a gathering force: the elderly, who now make up America’s fastest-growing immigrant group. Since 1990, the number of foreign-born people over 65 has grown from 2.7 million to 4.3 million — or about 11 percent of the country’s recently arrived immigrants. Their ranks are expected to swell to 16 million by 2050. In California, one in nearly three seniors is now foreign born, according to a 2007 census survey.
click here for the whole story:
A New Place Called Home – How Immigrants View the U.S.
click below for video
They worry about the economy, just like everyone else. They miss the places they came from, but most feel quite at home in their new homes. They worry about discrimination against immigrants, but, ironically, most think the discrimination is aimed at others, not them, not these immigrants.
These are the fascinating findings of a newly issued report on how immigrants in the U.S. view their lives - findings as timely as ever in our ongoing debate about immigration reform. It is a base for so many news stories that can be told and expanded upon in print, on the air, on the Internet. It can also be an example for a local version of the lives of immigrants here in the Chicago area.
Here is the report from Public Agenda:
http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/immigrants
Steve
What do you do in places where you don’t discuss such things?
Not everyone thinks counselor, psychiatrist, mental health clinic when they are distressed. In some immigrant and minority communities these are not options. They are not considered. They are not part of the dialogue. They cannot afford to even think of it. They are not tradition. There are other ways to deal with such problems, or not to deal with them at all.
Reading this story in an LA area newspaper that belongs to a chain of Hispanic owned publications, brought this to mind. The reporter Elizabeth Hsing-Huei Chou, writes:
Estrada, a Rosemead resident who grew up in East Los Angeles and Montebello, hopes her account, which talks about her struggle to go from denial to acceptance of her illness, will help others avoid the mistakes she made.
She also writes about how her family and friends reacted to her illnesses. She says her traditional Mexican-American family did not know what to do with her.
“I was born here, but from my background… people pity people who lose their mind. They think they’re demonically possessed, or they become bums. Their families reject them. So it is very overwhelming for my family,” she says.
Here is the story:
This what the ethnic media can do well: talk to its own community in a voice everyone hears.
If you know of any examples of reporting like this here, I’d gladly point them out. Any suggestions?
Here is a fine story that talks about this and this is the beginning. It is in Spanish, so click on the translator to the right on this page, if you need it.
En Chicago existen agencias que proveen servicios de salud mental para la comunidad latina e inmigrante, y también grupos de apoyo para sus familias
- FABIOLA POMAREDA / La Raza |
- 2009-07-26
Esquizofrenia, trastorno bipolar, depresión crónica, trastorno de pánico y ansiedad son los males más comunes en la comunidad latina -nacidos aquí o inmigrantes-, dicen quienes atienden a estos clientes en agencias y clínicas de Chicago.
Pero sigue siendo difícil convencer a alguien para que busque ayuda, informar sobre los servicios disponibles y ahora también, mantener programas que atienden a esta población, en medio de las dificultades financieras.
SOBRELLEVAR LA CARGA
Como parte del trabajo que realiza en NAMI, Rosas recomienda a los clientes ir a terapia una vez a la semana, ya sea individual o en grupo. Sin embargo, cuando alguien vive en negación, no busca ayuda para su condición, y lo mismo sucede con la familia. “Por ejemplo, hay madres que no le dicen al doctor los síntomas de su hijo, porque el hijo le pidió: “Mamá, no le digas al doctor que yo escuchaba voces”.
Voices Silenced
Not long ago one of the oldest Japanese newspapers in the U.S. shut its offices in California. In Houston, el Dia shut down recently after more than a quarter century. For all their strength and for all the need for them, the press that speaks for the nation’s immigrants and minorities is suffering greatly these days. I wonder if we can calculate the sum of the loss.
Steve
Here’s a video about the closing in Houston.
The Sounds of the Street
I was reading this memory of the Bronx by David Gonzalez, a New York Times photographer who grew up there and now is going back over his memories and his photos and I was struck by this image of a man on the street and the words about Cafe Bustelo steaming up in cold winter days in apartments in the Bronx.
What better way to describe streets that we have known for ever and will know in many tomorrows to come than to talk about the streets we have lived on.
If only we could begin with small stories, small segments, we would have a very rich collection to look over.
Steve
Here is the New York Times story:
What I Learned About the Ethnic News Media
Jessica Rosenberg was one of four interns from Columbia College who worked this summer at ethnic news media in a program set up by the Community Media Workshop.
Here is a brief essay she wrote at the end of her assignment:
It’s not easy being a gringa writing for a Spanish-speaking newspaper. Cultural sensitivity and language skills cannot come close to knowing the Latino immigrant experience. And as Latinos come to be the largest minority group in Chicago – and the United States – this knowing is the very reason ethnic media is so important.
As an outsider, I didn’t know that Latino immigrants tend to be distrusting of banks and as a result, stash their money in their houses. I didn’t know that it was common for Latino immigrants to work 2, and sometimes 3 jobs to make ends meet – recession or not. I didn’t know that out of deep respect for their parents, young Latino gangbangers will go to great lengths to conceal their belonging to a gang.
These facts may have been obvious to Latinos, but to me, it was a newsflash. Confronting these cultural nuances made it difficult for me to differentiate between what was really news and what wasn’t. It was news to me foreclosures were hitting Latino communities harder than white neighborhoods. But to residents of Pilsen and La Villita who already know it’s a problem because they live it everyday, how do you give them information they can use? I figured it out, but it required several instances of not being afraid to look, or sound, stupid.
In the eight weeks I was an ethnic media intern, I learned that the strength of ethnic newspapers lie in their ability to voice the cultural nuance of their community. Latino readers can’t pick up a major newspaper and have their culture and opinions validated like most white people can. And on a larger scale, I truly understood how valuable newspapers – all newspapers, that is – are in reflecting the values and voices of a community, culture and generation.
Success and survival – more notes on the ethnic news media
A last minute handful of cash has kept the Bay State Banner – the major black paper in Boston – alive and here’s some local thought about why that is important.
http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/208314/index.php
And here’s an article from Media Life magazine, Sept 1., which notes that some magazines are facing deep circulation drops but:
Well, I thought the most striking thing I saw is how well a couple ethnic magazines did. Ebony and Essence did pretty well in single copy sales.
