shootouts prime and festive projects I’m
not describing a scene from the wire
this is how I saw that communities of
color were being portrayed in the media
when I began my professional writing
career over a decade ago as an editor
and reporter I would edit travel books
about the area where I grew up and lived
South East Queens and I covered that
local beat at the time the portrayal of
people of color was terrible it was
always about someone getting shot or
stabbed and that wasn’t the neighborhood
that I grew up in and lived and that
didn’t reflect the people that I knew
the store owners who stood outside and
greeted neighbors neighbors that bonded
together during crisis and she had block
parties together in the summer father’s
out early getting their kids to school
or playing with them in the park people
that dedicated their time and effort to
make sure their communities were better
stronger and I was frustrated that those
stories weren’t being told and so were
my friends and neighbors
as a result more and more people were
turning away from mainstream media so I
decided to take a chance on this idea I
had to start a news organization produce
a newspaper one based totally on my
community and I shopped around to get
funding receive smiles and nods nothing
more I mean who is fool enough to start
a news or
they said who in this day and age puts
out a newspaper especially one year to
black folks my name is Karen Clement
Roach and I’m the founder of communities
of color news I started the news over
six years ago as a little more than an
idea born from frustration at the way
things were today communities of color
reaches over 20,000 individuals and
southeast Queens Far Rockaway and
central Brooklyn we are online and in
print we have been honored as being a
business in Queens that is best for New
York for the last three years in a row
we started just by telling stories that
spoke to the Black Consciousness and
issues that affected people of color
locally we were covering at the flooding
in southeast Queens stop and first
practices
lack of public resources politicians
apathy in the community and especially
elections we were giving residents
updates about candidates we were telling
these stories and giving timelines and
updates and in-depth analysis from a
residents perspective articles about
what was really happening in the
community not just the crime blotter
report we produced a series of trackers
there we tracked school performance as
amended failing schools were in our area
we also track pending legislation we
follow campaign issues and we track the
progress of local elected officials this
was news critical to this community that
wasn’t being provided as we were telling
these stories to be found that we were
developing a context of celebration
community spirit what made us different
as a news organization was we were
celebratory and not sensational and that
community spirit that celebration it was
evident and our color centerfold
we always had pictures of people of
color in their community doing what it
is they’re doing
at church at an event volunteering
protesting voting annually we look at
fathers and their children one year we
covered a father-daughter dance and the
photos were amazing these beautiful
young girls in these evening gowns
posing that still they have very dapper
dance and this was something people of
color didn’t regularly see themselves
represented positively and consistently
in the news the first hint that I got
that things were changing was the swift
way that newspapers were leaving the new
state while other papers seemed to
languish on stands ours was flying off
the shelf and I didn’t know what was
going on this was a community that
wasn’t used to this type of news maybe
store managers didn’t want to stock them
I had to figure out what was going on so
I staged a stakeout
I planted some newspapers at a site and
then I waited across the street to see
what was going to happen and people
would take in the newspapers some
several copies at a time and when I
confronted one store manager who got
tired of me staking out his place he
said people have taken the copies fast
and you need to leave more another
indication that things were resonating
was the reaction from elected officials
all of a sudden they were interacting
with me different one elected official
that the newspaper had mentioned hadn’t
been showing up at local events had me
stopped as I had finished covering event
and I was just leaving and then they ran
hand over to me just to make sure I got
a quote from them and saw that they were
at the event another elected official
invited me to their office is to make
sure things are okay with us
they had been called out in a track
because they hadn’t been responding to
our repeated attempts of information
these changes aren’t to be taken lightly
because but some people might not
understand is the news is a business of
course CNN wants you to have all the
news you need for your daily life to
build your community but they’re able to
do that because they receive support in
the form of advertising a correlation
between news organization and
advertisers is particularly important in
communities of color because other areas
tend to receive more and better coverage
because they have more in the form of
support when we came on the scene and
highlighted that yes this community does
want this kind of information and yes
there is support for that and we saw
others catching on to that wanting to
tell stories that spoke directly to
people of color on subjects like
economic development entrepreneurship
and police community relation in the
summer of 2014 we did extensive coverage
surrounding the Eric garner case you
might remember mr. Gardner he was killed
while being taken into custody for
selling loose cigarettes and this
touched a nerve in communities of color
people were protesting they were angry
they were upset this was news we felt
important to cover because it was that
voice that wasn’t being represented as I
was placing newspapers on stands with
the cover of headline still marching and
photos from a recent protest in support
of mr. Gardner it’s–at alongside
newspapers that talked about the
summertime Surf’s Up beach town we were
clearly having a different conversation
but it was one that I saw others wanted
to take part in because as I returned to
the places and events
and I typically all of a sudden I would
see news reporters there that I had
never seen news reports as a result of
our reporting and in response to the
news paper there’s also the onslaught of
negative feedback there are always the
calls from people complaining about an
article that doesn’t go or didn’t go the
way that they thought it should
elections typically stir up the lion’s
share of those phone calls one
particularly heated election cycle I got
a call from a candidate yelled at me for
about 20 minutes he was very upset
because he felt he was the front-runner
and was upset this article didn’t
properly demonstrate that fact well he
didn’t win the election I got yelled at
at National Night Out this big local
fair in the park because the candidate
representatives felt like our news
coverage favored one candidate over
another so they proceeded to give me a
very loud civics lesson in the park I
had a lady yell at me because she felt
that we had unfairly outed her as a leak
in our e-newsletter I have reports from
people who we have covered truthfully
but they feel unfavorably tossing
newspapers having campaigns against us
so others don’t take newspapers
slandering us so that we don’t get
business we can look down upon because
we’re in print and some say print is
passe we could overlook in front in
favor of media that caters to the
mainstream we get shunned by some
business and civic leaders that do not
believe in our audience I had a
particularly heated exchange with a
former elected official who said that we
were reporting faithing he was about him
the newspaper has been called a rag and
we have been compared
to the New York Post remember newspapers
are flying off shelves in an area where
people of color are continually told
that they don’t read newspapers I tell
you these stories so you know what to
look out for when you become a change
more so so you don’t get the stories
when you’re on your journey because
you’re gonna face some negativity and
the negativity is gonna hurt because
this is all personal you know you’re
following your dreams and an ounce of
negative negativity can feel monumental
you felt monumental to me I’m out here
giving this all I got I’m taking
newspapers you know but when things
don’t go the way you want and the bad
poles outnumber the good when an issue
doesn’t perform like I would like and
the advertisers don’t come and it’s just
one more person yells at me in the
street when those things would happen it
would make me feel like the news wasn’t
working like we would be in laughter for
our efforts and then I would watch other
newspapers thrive and I’m facing all
these challenges while telling these
great great stories and it hurts but
what I want you to know is that negative
responses or an indication that you are
having a greater impact than you can
even imagine because if no one is acting
from this newspaper and reading it there
would be no reason for people to argue
for us to fight with me in the street
I’m just saying
so I had to change this was my dream
this was what I wanted to see I wanted
my community positively represented am I
gonna stop doing that because of the
negativity am I gonna stop telling these
great stories no I’m gonna grow from it
and I’m gonna continue going forward
because in order to change I have to be
the change in order to embrace change
and I have to adapt it and I have to
hold on to the little bit dirty like my
neighbors that encouraged me oil and
they say hi to men in the street to the
many people that contact the newsroom
and remind us how they were able to act
positively as a result of our coverage
to all the people that stopped me on the
street and invite me out to cover their
event to those that want to connect with
the news organization and help us grow I
may never know the impact that this news
organization this news organization
might I might never know that we may
never be this dream of being a CNN for
black folks but what I do know what I
believe is my passion your passion
that’s the most unique expression of
ourselves and as long as we’re following
our passion and being uniquely you me
being uniquely us then we are the change you are the G thank you