Yes, it exists.

O.K., I know what you’re thinking. “Intolerance? Inequality? BAH! This is AMERICA, and it’s 2009! Those things don’t exist anymore! We abolished slavery, schools and public restrooms are no longer considered ‘separate but equal,’ Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won Oscars for Best Actor and Best Actress (respectively) in 2002, and we have a BLACK PRESIDENT! There’s no such thing as racism in America anymore!”


Ok, maybe you weren’t thinking that, but I can assure you that there are people out there who do believe that intolerance and inequality is no longer an issue in America. Well, I’m here to tell you these issues DO exist and they ARE a problem..


Sure, segregation isn’t legal anymore, but that doesn’t mean that white kids and black kids and Hispanic kids and Asian kids all get the same education.


Sure, we have a black President, but has any President before Obama been defined by his race?


Sure, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry both won Oscars, but have you looked at the roles that won them those Academy Awards?


We at MaMeMi, for one, have looked at these things and come to a conclusion: racism, sexism, inequality, and intolerance are still EVERYWHERE, and not only is the Mass Media not fighting against these problems, it’s promoting them. It seems like in every aspect of the media, the public is being told either that inequality and intolerance doesn’t exist, or that it exists but it’s ok.


Mass Media Minorities was created because of one simple belief: that the first step in changing the world is to convince people that there’s something that needs to be changed. That’s our mission statement: to bring attention to the ways in which the world, in general, and the media, in particular, needs to change. We want to bring your attention to the ways that inequality and intolerance are both permitted by and encouraged by the media, in the hopes that enough people will stand up and say “This isn’t OK!” and things will change for the better.


So here’s a question to our readers: what arguments have you heard claiming that these issues aren’t actually a problem?


And how do you counter these statements?