The second New England Blacks in Philanthropy conference is this week. I attended today and was happily impressed by the number and quality of the turnout. In the short amount of time that I've been working in the non-profit sector, I've attended more than a few conferences and workshops designed to get funders and recipient-organizations together in the same room. While I'm usually pretty good at working a room, the bigger networking opportunities are sometimes a little unwieldy. As the new kid on the scene, getting access to one bigwig can be difficult. Naturally, trying to gain access to multiple bigwigs at the same venue is exponentially more difficult. That's what made the NEBIP conference such a valuable experience. Since the audience was targeted to a smaller set of people, it was much easier approaching and actually connect with people from both sides of the donor/recipient divide. Additionally, it was wonderful being in a room full of people from the Black community who are dedicated to addressing the community's multiple needs from education, to leadership development, to funding initiatives. I chose a different path by spending my day at the two workshops focused on the role of media in and on the Black community.
The first seminar focused on the media as "image makers" and the role that Black documentary and television producers have in shaping the discourse and presenting images that the entire community can embrace. During the Q&A session, I brought up my observations of a split in how the Black image is presented in time. Often I find that images of the Black experience from the mid-1970s and earlier are ones which the entire community is encouraged to embrace as part of our overcoming adversity. Whether it's slavery, Jim Crow, or the Civil Rights Movement, the entire Black community is encouraged to embrace this history as part of our collective heritage. On the other hand, images of the Black experience from the mid-1970s to the present day are treated with a cool, academic us-versus-them manner. I used the hip hop generation and the activity it/we have generated as an example. The Black media (like mainstream media) has had a hard time adjusting to the growth of hip hop over the past three decades and has never fully embraced it as the outgrowth of the community's struggles. As a result, I feel that hip hop, along with other aspects of the modern Black American experience, is seen as something that the community has to deal with for now rather than something that we should be embracing and learning how to support and develop as a community into a musical and cultural art form as relevant and versatile as jazz was from the 1930s-1960s. One of the panelists agreed that some of the discourse happening now suffers from a lack of greater participation because it's stuck in the public television forum. He believes that it needs to move away from there into a forum more accessible to a wider and younger audience and that use of new media will aid in that wider discourse. The room began discussing the merits of using internet discussions and blogs as a means of reaching new audiences, but then ran out of time.
The afternoon seminar examined how Black youth are impacted by the media. One panelist began by describing her experiences with young writers. She noted that many young writers often entered her program by writing about violence in the city, even though some of them hadn't actually experienced it. Some teens had legitimately been exposed to violence in their neighborhoods, but others wrote about it because, sadly, they had bought into the perception that those are the kind of experiences kids their age are supposed to be experiencing and discussing. It was only after talking to them about their experiences that the truth of their lives was revealed. After that, they were encouraged to write about experiences they actually had. The second panelist took the conversation further by recounting the changes she's seen in teens when she's taught them how to examine the content, intent, power structures behind the images marketed to them. She noted that her students have learned to become more critical of the media and more conscientious of their own behaviors. For example, Black men often being portrayed in the media as being dangerous, promiscuous, or criminal. As a result, many Black teenage boys buy into that image through fashion, language, and music. With the introduction of men like Barack Obama and Deval Patrick into the popular consciousness, she noted that new paradigms with the potential to shift attitudes and perceptions of the modern Black male in the Black community and mainstream society are becoming more relevant and influential in the community.
Unfortunately my participation in the conference ended after that. But, with so many great points brought up, I hope that the conversations this year will be the catalysts for change that the Black community and the philanthropic community will benefit from in years to come.
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