From Victor Merina: The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and its devastating
aftermath have rekindled a debate over media coverage of race and class.
What did we learn from Hurricane Katrina about race and
justice in America? How can these lessons strengthen journalism about justice
and injustice? What do journalists need to know to report accurately and
authoritatively about race and poverty? What questions should reporters and
editors be asking to help the public understand and care about the complexities
and consequences of class-based racism in a new world?
For some journalists, those questions have never strayed far from their minds nor have the issues of race, ethnicity or
class been overlooked in their stories.
This week, a dozen of those journalists – the 2005 Racial
Justice Fellows with the USC Annenberg’s Institute for Justice and Journalism –
will be among the participants at a conference on “Covering News of Race in a
New World.”
The conference at the Harvard University’s Lippmann House is
co-sponsored by IJJ and the Nieman
Foundation for Journalism.
The IJJ fellows will join other visiting journalists and
Nieman fellows in examining issues of race, ethnicity and class and exploring
ways to cover those stories with more insight, context and depth.
The fellows will focus on how race and class can affect such
areas as health care, education, community development and public policy.
Among those who speaking to the
journalists this week will be:
- Lani
Guinier, a legal scholar and former civil rights attorney, who now teaches
at the Harvard Law School. - Ichiro
Kawachi, director of the Harvard Center for Society and Health, and an
expert on racial disparities in health care. - Evelynn
Hammonds, professor of the
History of Science and of African and African American Studies and Senior
Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Harvard. - Gary
Orfield, professor of Education and Social Policy and Director of the
Civil Rights Project at Harvard.
As part of a discussion on “Katrina, Race and Class,”
Guinier will join Newsweek columnist Ellis Cose to talk about the consequences
of that controversy in a conversation moderated by Bob Giles, curator of the
Nieman program. Following their
conversation, a panel of journalists will discuss the challenges that faced
reporters, photographers and editors covering that aspect of the story.
Both sessions on Thursday afternoon will be webcast.
On Wednesday, the fellows will
spend the day in Roxbury to meet residents and community workers who are
working to revitalize one of Boston’s poorest and most diverse neighborhoods.
Victor Merina is a senior fellow with the USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism.
