NLGJA plans events at UNITY

By Hatzel Vela
NLGJA Reporter Staff

Two panels and five receptions will unite NLGJA members in August with colleagues in associations for journalists of color.

UNITY, the largest national gathering of minority journalists, will include NLGJA programming as part of its hefty schedule of events Aug. 4 through 8 in Washington.

UNITY: Journalists of Color is an alliance of four national associations — the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association.

Under the presidency of founder Roy Aarons, NLGJA initially sought formal membership in UNITY but was not accepted. The board has not revisited the issue in recent years, said outgoing NLGJA President Steven Petrow. In 1999, UNITY rewrote its organizational definition to describe its mission as explicitly championing journalists of color.

“I understand that the name was changed to really emphasize their mission,” said Sharif Durhams, a Charlotte Observer reporter and member of NABJ. “But in the end, it excludes NLGJA.”

Fourteen percent of NLGJA members are journalists of color, said Azuree Salazar, membership and chapter relationships coordinator.

“(Our efforts) include bridge-building and the further understanding of our sameness and our differences,” said Hassan L. Sudler, NLGJA diversity committee oversight chair. “The relationships we have with the four organizations are extremely important despite NLGJA not being a member of UNITY.”

These relationships should guide our involvement with the UNITY convention, Sudler said.

“I look forward to the day when there is an organization that covers all minority journalists, no matter their race, sex or sexuality.”

Durhams agreed: “All of our groups should be thinking about coverage issues and whether our groups are treated fairly by the media.”

On the web: unityjournalists.org