California Black Media

Opinion: California Ethnic Media Celebrates Its Purpose — And People

Are ethnic media outlets like the Oakland Post simply providing information? Or do they represent a de facto social justice movement in California? Those were the existential questions posed when hundreds of ethnic media journalists and publishers from around the state gathered last week in Sacramento. At the very least, we all need help.

Published

2 years ago

September 11, 2024

Oakland Post

(Left to Right) This column’s author, Emil Guillermo; Sandy Close, founder of Ethnic Media Services; Regina Brown Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media; and Pamela Anchang, Editor of Chief of Immigrant Magazine at the Ethnic Media Awards in Sacramento. Photo Courtesy of EMS.

By Emil Guillermo

At the very least, we all need help.

To that end, Regina Brown Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media (CBM), the event’s co-sponsor, closed out the Ethnic Media Expo and Awards with reassurances.

“We’re working and fighting to make sure you have the resources you need,” Brown Wilson said to member organizations including the Oakland Post.

The conference provided access to state leaders like Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and State Treasurer Fiona Ma.

Still, the conference was about more than access, said co-producer Sandy Close of Ethnic Media News services, who stood next to Brown Wilson. Close’s group brought in attendees from Asian, Latino, LGBTQ, Native American media.

“We will support each other,” Close said. “We may have conflicts, but we’ll never be able to call ourselves a coalition without events like this conference.”

It’s not easy. I’ve known Close since the 1990s’ when she asked me to host the first awards program recognizing the best in California’s ethnic media.

More than 30 years later, even the White ethnic media is having problems staying profitable and relevant. That makes coalition-building among the mom-and-pop ethnic new media outlets more than a strategy, but a matter of survival.

If there’s a way to leverage our audiences into a real “movement” it may be in fighting hate.

One conference session discussed the “StopAAPIHate” campaign, how it was funded with more than $250 million for three years, but how its funding runs out in 2026. After the pandemic, the instances of Asian hate have decreased. From a peak in 2021, case numbers decreased by 43% in 2022.

NO JUSTICE?

In California, home to the largest AAPI population in the nation, 1,970 hate crimes were reported in 2023. Only 5 went to trial, according to data from the California Attorney General’s office. In 2021, at the peak of the crimes against Asian, just one case went to trial, according to a story by Ethnic Media Services.

We can do one thing right: make people aware through ethnic media and community services. But now with no permanent funding even that’s endangered, including the hotline available with care coordinators in 200 languages at 833.8NO.HATE, or 833.866.4283.

Andy Wong of Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco, a leader in organizing and gathering the funding for “StopAAPIHate, mentioned during a panel that Blacks are the No. 1 group victimized by hate. That fact almost stopped everyone cold.

“We know that the African American community is subject to more hate than any other community,” said Wong. “Why are we not animating and mobilizing and bringing folks together to champion that?”

One Black publisher, Wallace J. Allen IV, of the West Side Story newspaper in San Bernadino agreed.

“We need to do it together,” said Allen.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See him on YouTube.com/@emilamok1 Contact: www.amok.com