The Award Winning Newspaper Of Pace University

THE PACE CHRONICLE

The Award Winning Newspaper Of Pace University

THE PACE CHRONICLE

The Award Winning Newspaper Of Pace University

THE PACE CHRONICLE

Photo Courtesy of Pace Athletics.
Softball Sweeps Doubleheader vs Georgian Court
Dylan Brown, Managing Editor • March 20, 2024

LAKEWOOD, N.J.- Pace picked up two road wins versus Georgian Court University yesterday afternoon. Game 1 went Pace's way with a final score...

Front of Miller Hall. Photo Courtesy of webpage.pace.edu
President Krislov on Campus Involvement and School-Town Relations
Dylan Brown, Managing Editor • March 18, 2024

This article is on the topic of on-campus involvement and school/town relations. For the article about academics, the article about student life,...

Outside of the Office of SGA
Diaz And Tracey Wins 2024 SGA Election
Pace Chronicle StaffMarch 15, 2024

Incumbent President Nick Diaz and Vice President Paris Tracey have won reelection to their respective offices in the Student Government Association....

Slow and Steady Wins the Race? Diversity and its Slow Mainstream Media Acceptance

I felt like a hypocrite having interned for a magazine where the only diversity in its cubicles rested in their interns, messenger service and front desk. I would walk into the elevator elated if I saw so much as one person of color heading to any floor without an Urban Express logo on their shirts. It was rare, but when I did I knew that meant I could one day work here – that it was a realistic goal to be able to work in mainstream media that has subconsciously whitewashed their content.

Lo and behold, the first black editor-in-chief at Conde Nast, Washington D.C. native, Keija Minor is holding the reigns for Brides magazine: a magazine with a readership of 40 percent African Americans and Latin Americans but has only had a handful of covers with black brides. The same day ESPN announces Cami Champion will be the host of ESPN’s First Take. For the first time in decades, two women of color have achieved the pinnacle of most journalistic careers. This sets the tone the kind of content Americans nationwide will be consuming for years to come. Now, Americans have to have the uncomfortable conversation on what diversity in media means, and what the lack of it has done to generations of minority youth.

Studies have shown over the years that beauty ideals encouraged by media and emphasized daily through magazine covers are responsible for shaping the young woman’s beauty ideals for herself. Part of this beauty ideal is the fair-skinned woman, a skin tone that not even a third of the country identifies with. What Minor, Champion and even Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes have done is use their platform to fill a void that has been overdue for filling.

How are minorities supposed to know that in there is a place for them to be fairly represented in the media, free of the stereotypes that hold us back, if the people in charge of controlling images in media are not minorities?

Part of the issue is that minorities would rather run to the more comfortable option of specialized magazines and networks such as BET, Telemundo or Essence magazine. While both avenues have done their part in creating opportunities for Blacks and Latin Americans in the media, we are not needed in places like these. None of these media outlets reach a large enough audience to have any kind of influence over the beauty and norm ideals of our country. They influence minorities but need to penetrate the majority to make any kind of difference.

Unfortunately, the minority experience is not a transcendent one; it is not an experience that can be understood across all creeds and cultures, which is the beauty of it. Race in our society is only a sensitive subject because as a collective we do not talk about it, and in the offices of my internship it was clear that these people who held positions I dream of have yet to work in a diverse environment, and will never know how.

Thankfully, my current internship is filled with young women and men of many different backgrounds, and diversity is encouraged in their mainstream pages. While this does not signal our society moving into a post-racial environment, more and more minorities moving into top positions in the mainstream means a progressive movement is on the horizon.

Leave a Comment
Donate to THE PACE CHRONICLE

Your donation supports independent, student-run journalism at Pace University. Support the Pace Chronicle to help cover publishing costs.

About the Contributor
Ebony Turner, Opinion Editor
 Ebony Turner is a journalism major and double minor in political science and African American studies. She's always had a vested interest in writing stories and thought pieces on people and subjects that would otherwise be unheard of. Ebony currently serves as the opinion editor of The Pace Chronicle, and has been writing for the paper for two years, introducing the first black culture column 40 Acres & a MacBook to the newspaper. She enjoys taking pictures of her food on instagram and watching episodes of Sex and the City 500 times per day - after her homework, of course. She has interned for Vanity Fair magazine, and is currently interning for ELLE. She can be reached at [email protected]
Donate to THE PACE CHRONICLE

Comments (0)

All THE PACE CHRONICLE Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *