Domestic and international news media influence and directly affect the quality and accuracy of information being shared with the public. News coverage of events, particularly of Presidential elections, display the ways in which the media can play a role in furthering divisions between races and ethnic groups as well as ameliorating them.
At the State of Race in America symposium, at the Newseum April 9, Time Magazine's Michael Scherer, Telemundo's Jose Diaz-Balart and others discuss the voting power of the Latino base.
American politics are becoming more and more polarized along ideological lines, as contemporary fights over health and financial issues illustrate. What are the implications of this polarization for racial and ethnic minorities? How has the election of an African-American President impacted minority communities and race relations as a whole?
Recent polls suggest that Latinos are dissatisfied with both major political parties and less than enthusiastic about the upcoming Presidential election. Politically, many assume that the Democratic Party will gain the Hispanic vote, but with recent shifts in the demographic landscape, how valid is that assertion?
Schools in America are failing children of color at alarming rates. While the public education system should be a powerful democratizing institution, many charge that it is a stratifying institution that ossifies class difference.
Rather than referring to the U.S. as “The Melting Pot”, many suggest that the country is in essence a “hyphenated America”, or a mosaic of cultures and ethnicities. With an estimated 12 million unauthorized immigrants believed to be living in the United States, immigration is an issue that is already shaping politics for the next Presidential election.
Donna Byrd, Publisher, The Root Mona Eltahawy, Columnist Will Griffin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hip Hop On Demand Spike Lee, Founder, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks Richard Lui, Anchor, MSNBC, moderator
Taken as a whole, Black and Hispanic families are poorer than white families. They live in poorer neighborhoods with worse housing, schools, crime rates and unhealthier environments. Family structure has changed dramatically as 70% of Black children and 50% of Hispanic children are born into single parent households.
