It's not that I have anything against white people, partly because I'm as obviously white as it gets, but there's something creepy about a left/lib paper that does a music issue featuring white people on the cover and follows soon after with a Valentine's Day related print promotion featuring white people. Does this represent the Triangle's diversity or do people of other colors not make music or fall in love?
Maybe it all comes down to the fact that the Independent's writers hate hip hop that doesn't follow their guidelines and perhaps the advertisers in the print supplement requested only white or white-looking couples. I don't know. It puzzles me.
So I'd encourage you to check out the February 3rd print edition of the Independent Weekly, go to page 31, leaf through "The Gift of Love" ad/content section and you tell me how it looks. And then check out the February 10th print edition, go to page 31, leaf through that "Gift of Love" ad/content section and tell me how that looks.
Admittedly, there are stories without pictures. And, in the Feb. 10th edition, there is a Greek guy and, historically speaking, they weren't always considered white and there is a guy who looks like he's covered his face in some kind of bronzing cream or something (bronzeface, anyone?). Plus, they've got some apparently lesbian couples in the mix so you can't say they're only representing straight and/or bisexual couples, though the absence of gay white male couples is a bit surprising. That said, I find this all rather disturbing.
Nevertheless, they do have a traditional out that white people tend to use in such situations. They can claim that they just picked from what was submitted and they did the best they could given the circumstances.
Sorry, but even I know that what is submitted represents who you're reaching and how comfortable they feel having themselves represented in one's publication. If you want to represent diversity, I've always found that you have to reach out to those you claim to represent or you need to STFU about your supposed left/lib values.
Of course, it could be that African, African-American, Latin, Asian, Native American, mixed-race looking people and similar genres of humans as well as gay white men don't photograph well or maybe they can't write good stories or maybe, just maybe, they don't give a f*ck about the Independent Weekly.
If you've been reading Raleighwood, NC, you know which theory I'm going with!
Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage:
NC Independent's All White Year in Music Cover!
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