Women of color: an emerging voice

March 24, 10:20 AMWorkplace Diversity ExaminerJessica Faye Carter

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While the media establishment has no trouble embracing an African-American, multiracial President, it has surprisingly little interest in the opinions of women of color, despite their increasing economic and political power.

Recent changes in the opinion media format illustrate this point.  Last week, the New York Times announced a replacement for departing conservative columnist Bill Kristol. The new man? Ross Douthat of the Atlantic.  A week or so prior, NBC announced that Conan O’Brien would be replaced as the host of its late-night television program. The new guy? Jimmy Fallon. 

Evening opinion programs are no better. There is not a single person of color, let alone a woman of color, that hosts any of the evening opinion shows on any of the cable news networks.  There is room for the opinions of everyone from Hannity to Rachel Maddow, but no room for women of color to express their views.

For some reason, there is this notion among media elites that it is acceptable to ignore the opinions of women of color—women of African, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American descent.  But economic and political data indicate otherwise.  In 2008, women of color spent $1 trillion, which if measured as a nation would result in a ranking of 16th in terms of nominal GDP—higher than South Korea or Saudi Arabia and just behind India and Australia. 

Women of color are increasing in political clout as well, comprising roughly 13% of the U.S. population, the third-largest group after African-Americans and Latinos.  According to EngageHer, an organization that promotes the participation and leadership of minority women in politics, over 30 million women of color were eligible to vote in the recent 2008 election.

Another reason women of color are often ignored is because they do not share any indicia of power with the larger power structure, which is generally White and male.  Americans continue to associate power with Whiteness and maleness and is more accepting of leadership from people with one or both of those characteristics.  It’s part of the reason why Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s candidacies for the Democratic nomination were taken seriously by the media, while Carol Moseley Braun, a full-term U.S. Senator from Illinois, and an ambassador, with credentials on par or better than either Clinton or Obama, was simply ignored.

There is also a tendency to conflate the voices of women of color with their white female or ethnic male counterparts.  As the argument goes, women of color are included in white women’s perspective (wrong), and they are represented by their cultural community’s viewpoint (doubly wrong).  While there is overlap between the issues facing white women and women of color, and those facing women and men of color, there are also issues that are unique to those of us who deal with both race and gender.

This isn’t to suggest that media outlets should make decisions about their thought leaders based on the race, gender, political persuasion or other identifying characteristic of the writer. Nor should this imply that there are no women of color involved in opinion journalism; there are certainly some.

What is at issue is the implicit judgment taking place in the media regarding whose opinions matter.  There should be better representation by television, print, and electronic media for any group with the size and stature of women of color.  In 2050, just over 40 years from now, women of color’s perspectives will be in the numerical majority. Something tells me inclusion will be a major priority by then.