Reporters always call me when something big and black happens.
But when it comes to talking the Iraq war or the global financial crisis, then suddenly, my color and my gender disqualifies me. Which reminds me of the irony of watching the news of Obama's win on BBC TV where a table of old white men analyzed the election numbers.
Ok, who am I kidding!?
I was ecstatic to learn a reporter with the Indian Express* in Delhi wanted to talk to me about Obama! Being black in India has its perks for sure.
Chinki Sinha, the reporter, didn't quote me 100 percent-- not shocking here-- but this is what I said:
For African-American Malena K Amusa, who cast her vote at a party organised by the group Democrats Abroad, the victory was spectacular but the bigger concern is that Obama was seen more as a symbol of race rather than unity in the US. “His colour is an added bonus,” Amusa, a journalist working with a Delhi paper, said. “But the big fear now is Obama may not want to talk about racial profiling or affirmative action.
“We are wary that he is such a president of the people that he may not focus on race specific policies.”
But Amusa is happy she played a role, howsoever small, in creating history and though she missed being in the US, she celebrated in Delhi. “The elections proved that if you are Democrat, you cannot win without African-American voters,” she said.
As Johnson said, though much has changed over the years, the black community has struggled with stereotypes, prejudices and oppression. “Maybe with Obama, all that will change,” he said.
*I initially called Chinki's paper the "Financial Express." That's wrong. She works for the "Indian Express."
2 comments:
Dear Malena,
Where did I misquote you? since you went to a good American University, they must have also taught you that you possibly can't quote all that a person says and by the way I am from Indian Express and not Financial Express.
And how do you know when a global financial crisi happens, the person who is quoted is not black ... race isn't an issue in India. It is in you country that people discriminate and you guys carry the baggage all over. We might have our problems in India but race is the least of our issues.
And Dear Malena, I too have worked in United States for a daily and it was shocking to see the numbers of corrections American newspapers have to issue including the mighty New York Times have to issue almost on a routine basis. Why cast doubts then on Indian journalism and issues of 100 percent correct quotes ...(in my story I quoted you 100 percent) when you yourself are interning at an Indian newspaper?
Chinki, I like a good fight.
But this isn't one.
I appreciate you getting the story out.
The issue I take with direct quotes versus reporter-revised quotes transcends your article, and is an issue everywhere, including India.
Every original word I speak that you replace with your own word and put inside quotes calls into question our duty as journalists to get the bite or chunck right.
Journalism is even tougher when writing about race, and especially race in America.
Reading your comment, I wonder if a person who thinks "race in india is not an issue," or that Americans helplessly "carry the baggage all over" has even the intellectual acuity to imagine a world where history and idealism clash.
You say race doesn't matter in India. But turn on any hit TV channel in India and you'll see only light-complexions selling cars, pop music, cell phones, and diapers. Tell me why most of the street beggars that accost me are dark-skinned? Tell me why the front-desk staff in top Delhi hotels are almost always light? Tell me why many blue-collor job postings list "fair skin" as a hiring requirement?
Our job as reporters is to understand the world we live in.
We may not get this on the first try ... But I hope we keep looking for a second, third, and beyond...
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