Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama gestures while speaking at the UNITY Journalism Convention Sunday. (The UNITY News Photo Jennifer Dronkers)

Sen. Barack Obama addressed thousands of journalists at a live forum on the final day of the UNITY convention in his first appearance since returning to the U.S. after a spending a week overseas.

The senator was greeted with a standing ovation when he walked onto the stage. He addressed issues such as immigration, the economy and race and gave a recap of his trip.

“When you think about the big problems we face at home, they are connected to the problems abroad,” Obama said.

Hundreds of empty seats in the back of the Skyline Ballroom at the McCormick Place convention center were noticeable as CNN broadcasted the event. Many attendees had already departed the convention by the time Obama spoke.

In weeks prior to the convention, UNITY organizers had heavily promoted a forum between Obama and Sen. John McCain, but neither candidate had confirmed the appearance, originally scheduled for Thursday night.

Karen Lincoln Michel, UNITY president, said McCain could not make the forum because of scheduling conflicts, although repeated invitations were sent.

Obama said although he was away from the country for a week, he was in touch with what was happening on this side. He expressed his pleasure with the passing of a landmark housing bill that will offer up to $300 billion in loans for troubled homeowners and establish a government rescue plan for mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“We’ve got to prevent people from losing their homes,” he said.

In response to criticism he faced for going on the overseas trip, the presumptive nominee said he met with the same leaders that McCain met with when he won the nomination.

“I was puzzled by the notion that what we did was any different,” Obama said. “We just did it better.”

Obama said the trip offered him key insight into what it would be like as a leader, should he win the election.

In anticipation of both candidates’ arrival, The UNITY News sent an informal survey to members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and National Association of Black Journalists, and interviewed journalists planning to attend the convention. The Asian American Journalist Association and the Native American Journalist Association did not participate.

The journalists were surveyed about the most important issues they wanted each candidate to address, and the strengths and weaknesses of the presumptive nominees. Each member surveyed was also asked to identify their gender and race.

The 38 NAHJ members who responded to the survey chose immigration reform as the most important issue facing the next president, while the 15 NABJ members who responded identified stabilizing the economy. But many respondents expressed doubt about Obama’s security and immigration policies.

“We are a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws,” Obama said. “The fact that we’re getting people who want to come to this country that is good.”

Obama said he will work to make a comprehensive immigration policy and work with immigrants currently in the country to help them become legal citizens.

The senator was asked a handful of tough questions, including if he would issue an apology to Native Americans for past mistreatment if elected.

“The most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer apologies, but offer deeds,” Obama said. “I have to confess, I’m more concerned with providing a better way of life.”

An apology was issued to Native Americans in 2000 by Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs.

The UNITY 2008 student project has come to a close. We want to thank all of the dedicated students, mentors and staff of UNITY and the alliance organizations for your support and encouragement!

By Arelis Hernandez
The UNITY News Online

At a time when the U.S. government reneged on promises of equal rights to Hispanics in the West, one young Californio named Francisco Ramirez advocated for his community with ink and paper.

In 1855, 17-year-old Ramirez founded El Clamor Público, a Spanish-language newspaper in California that sought to incite, instruct and inform his Mexican community.

“He’s a representative of journalism at it’s best,” said Felix Gutierrez, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California. “He’s a great role model for all of us.”

Though he died 100 years ago, Ramirez’s vision for an inclusive news media persists with his induction into the National Association of Hispanic Journalist’s Hall of Fame alongside NAHJ co-founders Juan Gonzalez, a columnist for the New York Daily News, and Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

“They’ve all contributed in different ways as strong activists for our community,” said Ivan Roman, NAHJ executive director.

Gonzalez has campaigned for equality since he was a student, co-founding the New York chapter of the Young Lords organization, a Puerto Rican nationalist group. The Young Lords broadcasted their message of discontent through the pages of the “Pa’lante,” newspaper — one of his Gonzalez’s first experiences with journalism.

Through alternative media, Gonzalez worked his way up to becoming an investigative reporter and columnist at the New York Daily News. In 2002, he was elected NAHJ president, where he spearheaded a number of programs to increase diversity in the newsroom.

Longtime friend and colleague Felix Gutierrez said Gonzalez was always on the “leading edge of raising issues.”

When newsrooms failed to acknowledge the importance of diversity, Gonzalez made them listen, Gutierrez said.

NAHJ board member Kevin Olivas recalled his first year at NAHJ under Gonzalez’s leadership.

“He brought all these ideas and energy including the Parity Project,” Olivas said, who now directs the program that increases the number of Latinos in the media. “He is one of the most creative people I’ve ever met. He is always solving problems.”

Gonzalez, along with William Sutton, former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, met together in 1988 hoping to bring together four media organizations of color. That initiative was later known as UNITY, Gutierrez said.

“All of this [UNITY convention] was their brainchild,” Gutierrez said.

In 2007, Gonzalez won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in exposing the health effects arising from Ground Zero’s air hazards. The admiration he has gained over the last 30 years has made him a name to know among elected officials and community leaders.

“It’s hard to think of another person that commands such immediate respect from so many people,” Olivas said.

Advocacy through journalism is not foreign to Rivas-Rodriguez. When she was working as a young reporter in the 1970s, Rivas-Rodriguez said she was often frustrated because she could only write about the change she wanted to see.

The news media were ignoring Latinos, and negative perceptions about her community abounded, but she had no way to correct it, she said.

“When I’d see something wrong, I would write about it,” Rivas-Rodriguez said. “But nothing changed.”

When NAHJ formed in 1982, Rivas-Rodriguez said she found a venue to channel her frustration and become a participant rather than an observer. Her work translated into the formation of a convention newspaper, The Latino Reporter, that was staffed by college students and guided by professionals.

Rivas-Rodriguez’s idea developed and became the model for the student projects that have evolved in each of UNITY’s associations. She said the project has come a long way from cutting and pasting pages and carrying plates to the printer.

“I’m really proud that we helped create something,” she said. “It has been refined every time. It’s amazing.”

As a professor, Rivas-Rodriguez concentrates on adding Latino history to the academic canon. She said history books, documentaries and journals have consistently omitted the stories of Latinos and their contributions. Recently, Rivas-Rodriguez led a campaign challenging the legitimacy of Ken Burn’s World War II documentary that did not feature Latino veterans.

“It’s not that we weren’t there, it’s that we were not read or written about,” she said. “There needs to be more outreach to the Latino community.”

Rivas-Rodriguez now leads a project to document the oral stories of Latino World War II veterans to augment an archive of Latino history that will be available for future generations.

“Maggie is somebody who through education and advocacy really carries the torch for the inclusion of Latinos in news coverage and media,” Roman said. “She advocates for fairness and educates young people in advocacy.”

By AMY PHAN
The UNITY News Online

Co-founders Juan Gonzalez and Will Sutton have proposed UNITY hold joint conventions every two years instead of every four.

In a statement released on Thursday, they said more people would have the opportunity to attend UNITY at a lower cost.

Sutton and Gonzalez also said they want UNITY to find more ways to fund education, in order to “produce proactive public policy positions.”

They have proposed the creation of a “UNITY publishing incubator” funded by venture capitalists. Journalists of color could then launch their own media companies to compete with the ones that have “failed to hire, promote and retain enough of us.”

Sutton and Gonzalez have also proposed a reduction in size of the UNITY board of directors.

They said their ideas will help ensure a better future for UNITY in a changing media landscape.

“We’re standing on top of quicksand, and it’s important that we quickly grab hold of each other and the nearby branches and limbs to pull ourselves out of the pit and onto more secure foundations upon which we can build a brighter future,” they said in the statement.

Executive director Onica Makwakwa said UNITY has selected preliminary cities to host UNITY 2012.

As of Thursday, the total number of registered UNITY participants was 6,665, Makwakwa said.

According to Makwakwa, the preliminary revenue for the 2008 convention was $4.3 million, not including revenue from registration fees. She predicted the total revenue would be $4.5 million, matching that of 2004.

By CHARLY EDSITTY
The UNITY News Online

Conversation got heated Friday afternoon when the floor was opened to audience members at the Native American Journalist Association’s “Who is an Indian?” panel.

For nearly two hours, panelists fielded questions, giving insight into the complexities of American Indian culture.

Debate over American Indian citizenship dominated the conversation. The Cherokee Freedmen controversy that called into question the tribal citizenships of 2,867 people drew the most debate.

“There are different concepts of history at play here,” said Kenneth J. Cooper, a Pulitzer Prize-winning independent journalist from Boston. “The Cherokees don’t know their own history.”

Cooper directed his comments toward panelist and current Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chad Smith in a debate that lasted several minutes. Cooper argued that race was a major issue in deciding the Freedmen dispute and that a certain group of people who shared mixed Cherokee heritage were wrongly denied tribal membership because they were black.

Ancestors on Cooper’s mother’s side are descendents from slaves who were owned by Cherokees in northeastern Oklahoma. He said he is of Cherokee blood and joins other people whose Cherokee citizenship has been called into question, revoked and then reinstated through a mess of treaties, court cases and tribal elections.

“The first columns said we kicked all blacks out of the Cherokee Nation,” Smith said of media coverage surrounding the controversy. “That’s absolutely false.”

“If you look at the records, tribal membership is not based upon color or appearance,” Smith said. “You just have to have one Cherokee ancestor and it doesn’t matter what you look like or what your other ethnicities are.”

Because a solution has yet to be found, Congress is considering cutting funding to the Cherokee Nation through legislation called HR 2824. Smith played a nine-minute video explaining that the funding cut would negatively affect the oldest, poorest and neediest Cherokees in the nation.

Other panelists included Suzanne Jasper, director of First Peoples Human Rights Coalition; Joe Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians; T.W. Shannon, Oklahoma state representative and moderator Karen Briggs, president of Red Hummingbird Media Corporation.

“The issue of who is an Indian must be viewed through the prism of tribal government,” said Shannon, a member of the Chickasaw Nation.

He said issues of citizenship handled by the federal government have been “catastrophic” and said he thinks it’s best if it is left up to the Cherokees to determine citizenship.

“Congress should be very careful trying to determine citizenship for someone else when they have their own issues trying to deal with American citizenship,” Shannon said.

Garcia objected to federal interference with tribal citizenship and regulations on dual tribal enrollment, which limits citizenship to only two tribes, even if someone is a member of more than two by blood.

“Who set that policy?” Garica asked in reference to the federal government. “That’s what gets to me. It takes the right away from my grandchildren to be members of tribes to which they belong.”

Garcia’s granddaughter is a member of several tribes by blood, but does not have citizenship to all of them.

Defining citizenship has proven to be a very emotional issue for American Indians. Smith explained that the fundamental definition of an Indian is a citizen of a tribal nation, but said there are other definitions.

Smith offered up his own definition that didn’t include papers or documentation, but a strong emphasis on community and relationships.

“Are you a member of an Indian community? That’s a relationship,” Smith said. “It doesn’t matter what you look like or where you come from, but if you are accepted by an Indian community, I think you are.”