I'm unsure exactly what made my eyes moisten, suddenly and unexpectedly, at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Detroit back in 1982. I was so new in the business, so unsure of my talents, that any colleague's "You can make it!" speech could have dissolved me.
I couldn't explain to the co-worker who found me near tears. But now I have a theory:
My fellow journalists' faces did me in.
They were so alive. So comfortable. So animated as their owners discussed new ways of piercing the industry attitudes that challenged them, and that had kept their forebears out of mainstream journalism.
Although most of the faces would have been considered "black," they were amazingly diverse.
I felt similarly Wednesday at the Unity convention, the consortium of four journalism associations that has drawn more than 7,000 journalists "of color" to downtown Washington. The Convention Center's hallways and ballrooms were filled with faces: student-fresh and elder-noble faces. Gold and brown and honey and sand and ivory and chocolate-colored faces. Faces that are different -- and yet surprisingly similar.
"It's just a great experience," Julissa Marenco, a general manager at Telemundo in Washington, told me. Marenco's news director persuaded her to attend her first Unity conference.
"It's powerful to come together," Marenco continued. "The name fits perfectly -- we're very much united."
Studying the throng, one might naturally ask: Who knew there were so many? So many newspaper, TV, radio, magazine and interactive journalists united by a word that, considering their numbers, suddenly seems absurd:
"Minority."
There's nothing minor about the energy generated by conventioneers rubbing elbows, swapping war stories, trumpeting their résumés, giving and seeking advice. More than 1,050 participants represent the Asian American Journalists Association; about 2,700 are from NABJ; some 1,200 represent the National Association of Hispanic Journalists; and about 200 are from the Native American Journalists Association.
Also attending are hundreds of freelancers, job-seekers, recruiters and working press members drawn to election-year appearances by President George W. ("I'm not making the NAACP mistake again") Bush, John Kerry and Colin Powell.
Where else can journalists find workshops about how to cover international athletes or Native American life without resorting to stereotype, and about the future of ethnic radio? What other conventions' seminar participants boast such lyrical surnames as Red-Horse, Sreenivasan, Hiroyuki and Ofori?
Still, Unity's palpable "We Are the World" vibe doesn't obscure some attendees' concerns. Beneath the camaraderie, note-comparing and cross-ethnic flirting float some uncomfortable questions:
