Identify with Country Rather Than Race or Ethnicity
Many Afro-Latinos don’t acknowledge their African roots because they don’t tend to identify with race so much as they do with their countries of origin. Many people from African countries are referred to as African rather than only Kenyan or Libyan. While they certainly do acknowledge their countries of origin and particular ethnic, there is still a concept of being African. This isn’t necessarily perceived the same way in some Latino communities. In fact, the American Community Survey now includes a line on survey questionnaires under “Hispanic-origin” because most Latinos preferred to write in their actual countries of origin. Today, even the Census Bureau’s code list contains over 30 Hispanic or Latino subgroups, including Mexican, Cuban and Puerto Rican.
This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.
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Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.
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