Race and Media: Kamala Harris's Fight for Fair Representation

BEP Narrator: 00:00:02

A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know

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with the award winning hyphenated Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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Dr.

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Burton.

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What do we need to know?

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Dr. Nsenga Burton: Good afternoon

and welcome to Need to Know with Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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I am she.

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Uh, today we're going to talk about race

and media, and we're going to talk about

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it through the context of this, uh, U.

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S.

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presidential election

that's happening right now.

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Uh, and what's interesting, what a lot of

people are talking about is Vice President

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Kamala Harris, who is now the presidential

nominee for the Democratic Party, has

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been slow to Accept an interview interview

requests from mainstream media, and a

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lot of people have a lot to say about it.

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But what's interesting about it is that

the way that she has been covered by

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the mainstream media has been less than

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demonstrative of a media that.

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That intends to be impartial and balanced

and actually fair when interviewing her.

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So, and it's not just mainstream media,

you know, we had an issue with earlier

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this month, but to stay on topic.

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This idea that black women in general, and

this particular black woman specifically

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should show up to get beaten up is false.

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You don't have to do that.

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And she is in a position to, you know,

write her own ticket in that way, right?

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To say who she will interview with

who she won't she's interviewed

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with many people in the press.

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She's interviewed with National

Newspaper Publishers Association.

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She's interviewed with

NABJ before previously.

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She's interviewed with lots of folks and

sat down 60 minutes or what have you.

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Time magazine, all of these

different types of publications,

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but what is happening now is that

she is standing on her truth.

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And the truth is that many media

organizations have failed to cover.

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Her contributions in any significant way,

even as vice president, and currently

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as the presumptive, I mean, not the

presumptive, even as vice president

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and currently as the presidential

nominee for the Democratic Party.

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And so.

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Harris's career Harris.

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And so Harris's team is being, is moving

really slowly and being very decisive in

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deciding who will get this first interview

and deciding when it will happen, and

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really taking control of the narrative.

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Because what happens, particularly

as it relates to black people in

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general and black women specifically

in media, people are often.

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Okay, with creating their

own narratives of us, right?

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They decide who we are, what we will

be and what they want to show about us.

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And there's very little protection

given to us in the ways that are

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often given to other people in

general, and white women specifically.

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So, you know, people

aren't really guarding, um.

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Our presence or, or protecting us in

a way that will protect our image.

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So for example, um, you know,

UGA won a major championship.

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Y'all are like, which one?

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'cause they went all the time, . But,

um, there was a tragedy at the

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end of, um, the championship win.

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Um.

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The year before last, and a

couple of players were killed.

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Um, a couple of, uh, employees

were killed and there has been very

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little coverage of those employees.

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Who were killed, who were white women, um,

in this accident, in this car accident,

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um, you may not even know what I'm talking

about, because there's been very little

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national coverage of this event, and

there have been very few subsequent follow

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ups, uh, in terms of what's happening

with the story now, what's happening

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with the case now, how did UGA handle

it, what policies did they put in place

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to prevent this from happening again?

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Again, are there going to be lawsuits from

the families, all of the things that, you

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know, you shouldn't have to read the AJC

to find out about it should be a national

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news, but I really believe they are really

invested and that would be members of

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media are invested and protecting the

image of these young white women who.

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Um, we're involved in this really tragic

incident, so that type of protection

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is not really extended to black women.

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I really believe that if they were black,

we would know everything about them.

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We know your parents are, we know

everything about them, every step

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that they made, everything they've

done or what have you, which leads

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me back to what the topic is, right?

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This idea about black women

just showing up to get beat up.

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Why?

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Why is that the expectation for us?

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And when you have the opportunity

and the power to say, No,

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I'm not going to do that.

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You can.

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And so we should not demonize

Vice President Harris because she

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is taking her time to decide who

she wants to be interviewed by

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because she wants a fair shot.

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She doesn't want someone else

to take a narrative or to

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create a narrative for her.

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She wants to speak.

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For herself.

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And so when we think about race and media,

when we think about gender and media,

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and we think about the ways in which

people are represented and, you know, I

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will say this too, white women are often

represented as pious and, you know, in

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need of protection, even in fiction.

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Um, and so some of that feeds into why

and how, um, they are portrayed, but.

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You know, people are

individuals, they have a right

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to represent themselves in media.

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They have a right to say who and will they

who they will and won't interview with.

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They have a right to say

when they will do it.

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And particularly when you're

in a media climate that is

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very negative and vitriolic.

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For example, University of South

Carolina, which I'm shocked by.

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And I know people who know

South Carolina like, why?

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Because I just really believe that I

can't believe that they're allowing

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this group of white supremacists to

have a roast of Vice President Kamala

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Harris and to let that go unchecked.

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Um, yes, freedom of speech exists, but,

uh, freedom of speech isn't always free.

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And typically we have a roast.

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The person is there.

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They are there.

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And they have some type of relationship

so that they can understand the

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jokes and they can be a part of the

jokes or what have you, but to have

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someone just sit there and make racist

and sexist jokes about, and we're

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going to say it's racist and sexist

because the people who are doing it,

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whose names I will never say, um.

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That's who they are.

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You know, they, if you look

at the comments on the stories

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that people are talking about,

um, they're using the F word.

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They're using the N word.

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These are people who have been

ostensibly, and I could be wrong.

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I'm hoping I'm wrong because I was

shocked when I saw it, when I saw the

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advertisement, but, um, ostensibly have

been given carte blanche to go and roast,

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roast the current vice president, um, and

Democratic presidential nominee, um, And

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with no response or ability for anybody

to really stand and or stand up for her.

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So, in conclusion, I would just

say this when you exist in a media

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environment that has historically.

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And currently refuses to play

the game in a fair way, right?

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Refuses to give you access.

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Refuses to allow you to tell your own

narrative and to share your story.

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And allows others to demonize and tear you

apart at any given moment for any reason.

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Then no, you shouldn't just

say yes to any interview.

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And you shouldn't just do it

because it's expected of you.

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You should take your time and make sure

that you're going to go with an outlet,

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a media outlet, that is going to be fair.

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They're going to be accurate

in their editing and reporting.

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Um, and they're going to

allow you to set the tone.

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And to tell the story that you need

to tell and to answer the questions in

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a way that they need to be answered.

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So that's all I have for you.

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Um, so just keep that in mind as we go

go about, you know, Talking bad about

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people demonizing people saying what

they should and shouldn't do Um, it's

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easy to say that when you are not bearing

the brunt of racism sexism and misogyny

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every single day of your life All right.

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So without further ado, I

wish you a wonderful day.

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Tune in next week for a black executive

perspective podcast with me, Dr.

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Nsenga Burton for Need to Know.

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Bye.

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BEP Narrator: A Black

Executive Perspective.