The big picture is that minorities are still underrepresented in broadcast news, according to results from the latest Radio-Television News Directors Association/Hofstra University annual survey of women and minorities in broadcasting. But within the minority workforce, the largest gains have been among Hispanics and Asian Americans, while African Americans have lost ground over the past few years.
Religion’s Role in Politics
African Americans who say that churches should express their views on social and political topics, the same as the number of white evangelical Protestants, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Forum. About half of blacks also say there has been too little expression of faith and prayer by political leaders.
Black Shortage on TV Screens
The NAACP’s Hollywood Bureau latest report, “Out of Focus-Out of Sync Take 4,†shows African Americans and other minorities continue to be grossly under-represented in nearly every aspect of television and film businesses.
Federal Judges Not Color-Blind
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University uncovered that in hundreds of U.S. federal court cases involving workplace racial harassment, the race of the judge frequently affects the outcome of cases. African American judges rule in favor of the plaintiff nearly 46% of the time, more than twice as often as white judges.
This story originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.