Soul Searching Over Seattle As Unity '99 Site p. 17

By: Mark fitzgerald Statewide vote on affirmative action exposes disunity among minority journalism
groups, as blacks hold veto power over the second Unity gathering

the fate of Unity '99 ? next summer's huge scheduled gathering of the nation's black, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American journalists ? could well be determined at the National Association of Black Journalists' convention in Washington, D.C., later this month.
Unity '99 would be essentially impossible without the participation of NABJ, the minority journalists association with by far the most members and the greatest attractiveness to corporate sponsors and media job recruiters.
But that participation is in doubt now, after three years of planning for the second joint meeting of NABJ and the three other national minority journalists associations: the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Asian American Journalists Association and Native American Journalists Association.
The rub is that Unity '99 is planned for Seattle ? and Washington state has on its ballot this fall an initiative that would ban affirmative action. Some minority journalists are suggesting pulling out of Seattle if the so-called Initiative 200 passes.
In a vote last spring, everybody on Unity's board, comprised of representatives of each association, cast in favor of Seattle ? except for NABJ president Vanessa Williams.
"I was deeply concerned that people did not even want to discuss the issue," Williams said at the recent NAHJ convention in Miami. "I was quite offended and upset when people said, 'It will cost us too much money. We couldn't find another place.' I was offended by the attitude that we had no choice."
Certainly big money is at stake. Unity has reserved space in 15 hotels for the expected 8,000 attendees, and cancellation penalties could run as high as $900,000, according to former NAHJ president Dino Chiecchi. And finding another site would be extraordinarily difficult.
Leaders of the Native American and Asian American groups said they supported Seattle no matter what and will be "confronting" the issue of affirmative action there at the convention. NAHJ is polling its members, but its officers lean strongly toward going.
NAHJ has experience with boycotts: In 1992 it observed a national boycott, called by homosexual groups, of Colorado after voters there approved Proposition 2, a measure forbidding gay rights legislation. While the cancellation was costly, the worst effect was on Denver minorities, Chiecchi said. "Our members in Colorado said . . . the people you were hurting in many cases were people like us, because many of the contracts were with Hispanic vendors and not people who supported Proposition 2," Chiecchi said.
Williams, however, said the groups need to discuss seriously whether going to Seattle would send the message they are apathetic about affirmative action.
"We are more than willing . . . to beat up on our own industry if they don't progress on our goals on hiring," Williams said. "Are we saying this is good for us and our own industry ? but not good enough for the rest of the people?"
Williams said NABJ leaders would informally poll members on the issue during the association's convention July 29 to Aug. 3 in Washington, D.C.
"We are more than willing . . . to beat up on our own
industry if they don't progress on our goals on
hiring," Williams said. "Are we saying this is good for us and our own
industry ? but not good enough for the rest of the people?"

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?(copyrigh: Editor & Publisher July 11, 1998) [Caption]