Media 2070 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 96
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What could media reparations for Black people look
like?
And it raises the question of whether America is even
possible at all.
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Where do media reparations live within the greater
struggle toward reparations?
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How does the fight for media reparations and
broad-based reparations in the United States exist in
solidarity with global struggles for reparations and
decolonization?
So, we’ll need to wrestle with these questions, but we’ll
also need to gather people and organizations that are
committed to creating a future where all people thrive
because Black people are thriving. In gathering, we’ll need
to build relationships and figure out strategy for making
media reparations real, creating new media structures and
building the future we know is possible.
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How do we ensure that Black people have control
over the creation and distribution of our own
narratives and stories? What opportunities are there
for this to exist across various mediums of journalism,
social media, technology and creative practice?
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What infrastructure do we need to ensure that media
reparations are made real and sustainable?
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Alone, no one person or organization has the power,
insight, creativity or path for achieving what is possible. In
coalition, however, all of that is present. So, consider who
you can share this essay with. Share it with them. Bring
your family, friends and community into visioning what’s
possible for the media landscape in 2070. Together, we
have everything we need.
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How do we create social-media algorithms and
platforms that are emancipatory for Black people
rather than predatory?
1. Anousha Sakoui, “Black Writers Call for Accountability, Revamped Hiring in Open Letter to
Hollywood,” The Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2020: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/
story/2020-06-12/black-writers-wga-film-tv-open-letter-to-hollywood
2. “We See You, White American Theatre”: https://www.weseeyouwat.com/statement
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What would a new economy look like that fosters
Black-community ownership of media outlets,
platforms and networks that are noncommercial and
accountable to serving our communities’ news-andinformation needs?
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What role do media organizations play in ensuring
reconciliation, repair and restoration for the
community harms they’ve created or given voice to?
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How can Black and Indigenous people, across
ethnicities and tribal affiliations, work together to
ensure that media reparations function hand in hand
with decolonization efforts and other movements
toward repatriation and the honoring of treaties with
Indigenous people?
Each time there has been a civil-rights win for Black
people, countless other groups of people have also been
uplifted. How can media reparations for Black people
ensure better media institutions that everyone deserves?
These are some of the questions that we have to wrestle
with to dismantle the myth of Black inferiority. ‘‘
That myth — the great lie of our nation’s founding —
continues to fuel broad support for policies that prevent
people on this land from realizing a multiracial democracy.
This mythology creates barriers for necessary Black
brilliance and innovation to be a full part of our future.
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