Touching on a variety of subjects related to post-Sept. 11 America, Farai Chideya, Bryn Mawrís Black History Month keynote speaker, urged her audience to become more aware of international events and to rethink the notion that the United States is somehow disconnected with the rest of the world.
Chideya stressed the dire need for Americans to escape its isolationist tendencies so that they may become more fully conscious of current events, not only within the country, but also throughout the globe. ìNine-eleven made us realize that if we donít pay attention, they will make us pay attention,î she said.
On Sept. 11, Chideya was in South Africa attending the U.N. Conference Against Racism. She described watching the local news in Durbin and reading the South African newspapers and being struck by the fact that an event happening thousands of miles away was leading every newscast and made the front page of every paper. ìThe South Africans ran the story [as if it were] a human tragedy, and they responded with human warmth,î Chideya said.
Chideya also told the audience that she could not help but think that if a similar terrorist attack happened in Johannesburg or Cape Town, it would barely be covered in the American media. ìWe in the U.S. think news is ënewsí if it happens to an American. It takes a whole lot of people [to die] for the U.S. to give a crap,î Chideya said. This contributes to the widespread belief in the international community that Americans are arrogant as well as ignorant of the rest of the world.
Chideyaís speaking style was informal and she stressed that she wanted to have more of a conversation with the audience, rather than just lecture to them.
According to Chideya, the problem of how international news is covered is not entirely the fault of the media but also the fault of the public and the prevalent attitude in society regarding news. Chideya articulated this point by saying that it was the difference between two schools of thought.
The first school, said Chideya, was ìIf you really believe that someone is fully human you are going to care [about them].î The second attitude, she declared, was ìif you believe that your happiness depends on someone elseís pain, you arenít going to want to know [about their suffering].î
Foreign correspondents and newspaper editors, said Chideya, have to contend with these attitudes and the news that they publish and produce reflect the biases of their audience. A friend of Chideyaís who writes for the Associated Press spent years covering the civil war in Sierra Leone and became increasingly frustrated and distressed by the fact that the stories that he was risking his life to research and write were not being run in any papers. ìThe stories he was writing – and nearly lost his life for – were not receiving any attention at all,î she said.
Chideya is the author of Donít Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation about African-Americans as well as The Color of Our Future, an innovative look into youth perceptions of race. She also maintains a website, which serves, among other things, as a forum for other political commentators and cultural activists to express their views. Chideya chose to speak more inclusively about the American public as well as the news and entertainment media rather than focusing on misrepresentations of specific minority groups.
Having written extensively on the subjects of discrimination and media-bias, a lecture tending to de-emphasize the issues unique to particular ethnic groups and focusing more upon the American people as a unified whole was somewhat surprising to many attendees. ìI thought that she was really open-minded and very nonpartisan which was really refreshing to me,î said Jennifer Koch, a Bryn Mawr College junior, ìI thought that she was going to focus more on Hip Hopís portrayal of African Americans but she focused more on September 11 and the need for Americans to become more aware of international news.î
Chideya is currently a Knight Fellow at Stanford University and has received an abundance of accolades for her work and cutting-edge analysis of current sociological and political norms. Frequently appearing on BET News, CNN, MSNBC, and FOX, she was named to Newsweek magazineís Century Club of 100 people to watch in 2000. Her latest book, The Color of Our Future, is a report on the future of race as seen through the eyes of young Americans. Itís been named one of the best books for young adults by the New York Public Library and has been adopted in ethnic-studies and sociology courses on college campuses nationwide.
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