Happy Tuesday. This week I have to start with the Golden Globes. I wasn’t sure on what to expect but was pleasantly surprised at how it became a “female empowerment event” as also described by Gamespot. There was of course Oprah Winfrey’s acceptance speech as the first black woman to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award (link here if you missed it). There were other firsts including Sterling K. Brown as first African-American actor to win in the best actor in TV Drama and Aziz Ansari becoming the first Asian-American to win for best actor in a TV comedy.
This year activists became the real stars of the Red Carpet, read more here. One of my favorite moments on the Red Carpet was this by Viola Davis. I also recommend reading this piece from Jane Randel about #TimesUp. As she says “Changing the conversation is more complex and time-consuming, conceptually harder to understand, and oddly more discomforting to discuss because it forces us to look at our own behaviors.”
Back to Oprah. One of the most important messages in her speech for me was that representation matters. This is why the conversation on diversity is so important. So let’s talk representation and start with this on Latinas in newsrooms. Monica Castillo, film writer for the New York Times Watching, shared these percentages of Latinas in newsrooms:
2.47% – print newspapers
8.7% – TV news
4.2% – Radio.
Rebecca Aguilar launched a Facebook group for Latina journalists to create a community because as she says: “If no one else will open the doors for us, we will open them.” Bravo!
Now two examples of why representation also matters. 1) The New York Times identifying Rita Moreno as a guest in a photo caption. I get it that in red carpets things move quickly but really? Remember, she is one of the few entertainers to to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. 2) H&M. That’s all I’ll say. Read more here. It is unacceptable that these mistakes are happening today and I do believe that if you had more diversity this would not happen.
Another story driving the conversation this week, Carrie Gracie resigning from her post at the BBC because of the gender gap pay.
Here is this shared by Tanzina Vega and a great read: “Women of Color Will Reclaim and Monetize Our Time.”
Other recommended reads for this week: 7 CMOs Myths About Hispanic Marketing, “Gallup poll: Soccer closes in on big three as most popular U.S. spectator sport,” and this Cindy Gallop profile (btw great content by MM.LAFLEUR).
And the ICYMI of the week: “New UC Irvine dean will be only woman of color to lead a top law school, university says.” Congratulations!
Be on the lookout for the list of conferences to attend, I’ll post those soon.
Photo by hannah grace on Unsplash