Point of View

It’s the day after Mother’s Day and representations of women of color are scarce on the mainstream sites. The only notable post includes that of Eva Longoria and her run on “Desperate Housewives,” where she was  a smart and savvy Latina…who slept with the teen-age gardener. Men of color don’t fare much better; they’re overpaid struggling athletes, or entertainers.   Children of color are considered in terms of political decisions like reapportionment of Congressional representation and government spending. 

What’s the message here?

The President’s decision to support same-sex marriage is covered prominently on every site, though the emphasis varies.

The decision quickly became part of campaign rhetoric, as The Huffington Post reports  . . .  There also was lots of reaction on Twitter.

. . .

On the mainstream sites, there’s Beyoncé, the politics of immigration, an angry Congressman  and outrageous remarks by a black commentator and a white blogger. Real life is so much richer than this . . . 

According to a post on The Huffington Post, Mitt Romney is still figuring out where he stands on immigration . . .

Sometimes it’s a matter of perspective; stories can be covered from the viewpoint of the agencies issuing the information, or that of the people being affected. Today’s coverage of April unemployment and jobs numbers is a good example. The mainstream sites are all touting the drop in unemployment and the slow jobs growth. The stories focus primarily on the numbers and there’s little humanity. This is in contrast to the approach taken by The Grio, which emphasizes what the numbers mean for black people.