Russell ContrerasVerified account

Excited to come to London for @newsrewired to talk about how US media recruit and retain journalists of color. As former president of @UNITY_JFD in US I’m also interested in helping create a group in UK for #BAME journos https://www.journalism.co.uk/ampnews/how-can-news-organisations-avoid-hiring-diversity-for-the-sake-of-ticking-boxes-/s435/a743918/?__twitter_impression=true …

Since the 1970s, journalists of color organizations in US have been working to diversify media outlets to include perspectives of black, Latino, Native American and Asian American journalists. The UNITY experiment was powerful experience in 90s and 2000s. Can be done in the UK

Until a few years ago, I knew almost nothing about the experiences of fellow #BAME brothers, sisters and shems in the UK and Europe. Most people of color in US also unaware. Recent works by @johnypitts and @renireni have helped educate me and others

Recently, I’ve walked the streets of London, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, Cologne, and Edinburgh and I’ve sought out #BAME communities in search of kinship. Like Latino communities in East LA or in the Navajo Nation, there’s a desire to be included in a narrative

So I think it’s time for #BAME journalists to form a new group to foster, promote and mentor journalists of color in Europe like in the US. I and other US journalists of color will do our part to make this happen. #journalism

The new group for #BAME journalists could hold annual conferences, create needed internships and fellowships, provide media outlets with a talent pipeline and train journalists to write books, engage and transform the narrative