What I learned before The Huffington Post Editorial Board pic was published.

The Huffington Post’s own Executive Editor Liz Heron, a self described Brooklynite Mom, tweeted a photo of an Editors Meeting at the Huffington Post main headquarters. The photo was meant to be a positive publicity stunt for the media giant.  Only she didn’t expect to get the firestorm over the photo that followed.
In the tweet, she says “Notice anything about this Huffington Post editors meeting?” What happened next most definitely came as an unexpected surprise. Twitter blew up over the lack of black women in on the board. The picture was entirely made up of white women, with possibly one asian and one hispanic. There were 14 women in the picture altogether . Not one woman was african American.

I love my colleagues at magazines such as The Source, Vibe and Essence and appreciate working with them.I also enjoyed writing for AC Weekly and ironically The Patch when owned by Huffington Post.

However, once I reached a certain age. I realized I needed to establish my own brands no matter how small, so that I could leave something to my children (I have none) or immediate family upon my death.

 

I hope and pray that my brand is big enough to be important to my family before I die...(trust me that is a whole "nother" article that needs writing.)
 

The Huffington Post  is by the way one of the best resources for news and information America has right now. However, the picture should make it clear...that people of color have the resources to develop and create wealth and opportunity for ourselves. How does this picture convey that?

The picture shows an all white editorial board that makes the decisions about what stories it will tell about America, Black America, kids, entertainment, cheese and a number of other topics.
We have the right and resources to write about the same things and to support it like we support Time, ESPN and a number of other media outlets.

So if you are truly upset that The Huffington Post Editorial Board is all white consider these three things.

1. As well as having no African Americans there are most likely no Latino, Arab, or Asian people either. So we all have stories and there is a market for media resources that tells all of our stories.

B. Build Your Own Brand.

C. Support solid journalism that you feel speaks the truth as often as possible. Despite the photo above ,I know there are some talented people of color at The Huffington Post that need the support and there are many independent small business publishers (of which I am one ) that also need your help to continue the fight for truth.

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