Media 2070 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 95
XX. Making Media Reparations Real
PAVING THE ROAD TO COLLECTIVE HEALING
The history and ideas discussed here, we hope, further lay
the foundation to create and realize media reparations. But
we have to work to make them real. Make no mistake: The
work required is possible. In fact, it’s already begun, which
means that there is transformation toward reparative and
restorative media that we can see in our lifetimes.
Media reparations are oriented toward a world we’ve
never lived in before, a world where the media-andjournalism landscape promises opportunity for all people
when Black liberation and freedom are realized. Media
reparations could create a future of journalism — and
media more broadly — that journalists, media-makers and
all other community members alike can fight to sustain
and support. Media reparations can create a future of
journalism abundant with economic equity.
We are releasing this essay in conjunction with the launch
of our Media 2070 project. We will work in coalition
with Black journalists, media-makers, artists, activists,
technologists, organizations, scholars and anyone who is a
keeper of our story to demand media reparations.
One of our initial goals is to continue to uncover or
rediscover stories of the harm caused by the news media
that are often a forgotten part of our history. We are also
seeking collaboration with people sharing stories of how
other forms of media — film,1 music, theatre2 and the
spectrum of visual arts — have perpetuated anti-Black
racism and upheld the myth of Black inferiority.
We need to set the record straight so we can reconcile
these histories and help inform the policies that are
needed to dismantle institutional and structural racism.
We also want to work in coalition to adopt a reparations
platform that will advocate for media companies and
policymakers to reconcile and repair the harms they have
caused.
We dream of a world where reparations are made
real, where Black people live and fully exercise their
fundamental human rights that are actually enshrined and
protected by law. For this world to be born and to exist, we
must dismantle the myth of Black inferiority and the role
media companies and our racist media system have played
in its execution.
To create this world, the work toward media reparations
must be grounded in curiosity and imagination of a new
future, exploring and answering questions like:
#MEDIA2070
95