Minority Media- Key to Surviving COVID-19
Saturday, October 24, 2020 marks a historic event for minority media in San Antonio. The first meeting of the Alamo City’s Black, Jewish and Latino Newspapers was held during the Dr. Doug weekly radio show at the KROVFM studio. The San Antonio Observer, the Jewish Journal and La Prensa Texas each discussed their unique niche in the San Antonio market. More importantly they discussed their common challenges and opportunities. This consortium could not have transpired at a better time. When our communities are being ravaged by the pandemic, this long overdue collaboration has committed to ensuring that minority and underserved communities have the information they need to survive COVID-19. It is a role that has historic roots in our communities, but systemic racism has almost silenced their information dissemination efforts of minority media outlets.
Since our country’s inception media outlets have used their platforms to inflict harm on people of color, minorities and immigrants. Their tools have been weaponized narratives that promote inferiority and portray the disadvantaged and people of color as threats to society. In 1704, the Boston Newsletter, our nation’s first continuously published newspaper, became the first paper involved in the slave trade. It ran its first ad one month after opening seeking “purchasers of a slave family”. The editor successfully brokered the transaction. In 1919 the editor of the San Antonio Inquirer, the city’s first black newspaper, received a two-year prison sentence and spent about a year incarcerated. His crime, publishing an editorial praising the 13 black soldiers from Camp Logan who retaliated against the local Houston sheriff after he brutally beat a black woman. The 13 soldiers were hung at Fort Sam Houston. The two events are just one example of how mainstream media is treated differently from minority media. Mainstream media performs an inhumane act and profits, minority media reports facts and face incarceration.
The Chairs of the Congressional minority caucuses have expressed deep concern regarding the disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths in communities of color and the clear need for timely, and culturally relevant news that can help save lives. Local ethnic media outlets and local media outlets that serve minority communities are providing critical updates to communities not only in San Antonio but across America. Many of these outlets are struggling to stay afloat during COVID-19 due to major losses in the advertising revenue so critical to our business models. However, the reality is that African American, Latino, Asian Pacific American, and Native American communities need more news and information to stay healthy and safe in the ever-changing COVID-19 environment. The old African American aphorism “When white America catches a cold, black America gets pneumonia” has a new, morbid twist: when white America catches the novel coronavirus, black Americans die. Thousands of white Americans have also died from the virus, but the pace at which African Americans are dying has transformed this public-health crisis into an object lesson in racial and class inequality.
Approximately 25% of San Antonio residents do not have access to the internet. Yet most of the information involving coronavirus exists only on the internet. In addition, an increasing amount of information about the health care experience is now found on the internet. The Internet is now an important part of healthcare experience for many San Antonians. Management of most chronic medical conditions involves self-care on an outpatient basis. This requires patients to be knowledgeable about how to provide the best personal care. In the absence of a comprehensive plan to address the issues revolving around this life altering dilemma, the minority media outlets will ensure our communities are kept informed with no paywalls. We have your back.
Watch the full San Antonio Media Minority Meeting on the Dr. Doug show above.
