Toni Laws vividly remembers the days when she was told to sit in the back of the bus and when she could only buy a ticket at the black-owned movie theater in her hometown of Wilmington, Del.
That was years before she became a vice president at the Newspaper Association of America, directing what was in 1992 the newly created diversity department. For more than a decade in that role, Laws helped launch several innovative programs that increased minority staffing at media companies across the country.
While her place of employment has changed, her commitment and dedication in the fight for multicultural representation hasn’t. After retiring from NAA in 2003, Laws joined the National Association of Multicultural Media Executives (NAMME) as its executive director.
That same year, Laws received NAMME’s Lawrence Young Breakthrough Award. “Her legacy,” the announcement said, “includes programs that have developed a critical mass of well-trained minority managers, poised to assume greater responsibilities.”
I recently asked Laws some questions via e-mail about her thoughts on how newsroom diversity is faring during difficult times in the industry.
One of the programs you helped create when you were at NAA was the Train-the-Trainer program aimed at helping media companies develop a greater appreciation for the value of our differences. As you look back on this program, how do you judge its success?
Laws: I still hear from many of the “trainers” and folks who participated in those sessions. Many of them say it stands out as a “life-changing” experience. So, some measure of success occurred, if the metric is the impact on individuals. But my intent was to move the needle at the company and industry level. In that respect, I would have to say the effort failed.
We are a nation that avoids direct, honest conversations about race and other differences, and programs that encourage or enable these conversations are important and needed. Meaningful, sustained change best occurs when you have a critical mass of people driving that change.
The Train-the-Trainer program was centered on the belief that a group of peers affirming the importance and need for conversations about race, gender and other differences in the workplace would lead to that meaningful change, but the critical mass was never reached.
NAMME is and has been a resource for multicultural talent and has provided forums to discuss multicultural issues. Are media companies still knocking on your door for executive talent, and is there an ongoing conversation about multicultural issues?
Laws: I’m sorry to say it, but I see much more interest in our talent from companies outside the industry than from within the industry.
The conversation has taken a major backseat to issues of survival in this economic downturn. We have come full circle in that many cannot see how diversity can be an important key in the strategy for economic survival.
Given the transformation of the news business, what’s your forecast regarding diversity in the media?
Laws: It’s hard not to be cynical during these times, but I’ve never been comfortable wallowing in that space for long. Clearly, the economy has had an adverse impact on media professionals of color.
Strangely, I take heart in recent examples, such as the New York Post‘s chimp cartoon fiasco, because they provide the strongest argument one could have for the need and value of diversity in the newsroom, especially among the decision makers. Diversity among peers would have provided the first line of filter. Even more important, diversity at the top would have squashed the cartoon before it got to print.
All that said, I think that media as we know it is under siege. Far too many media outlets don’t see diversity as an integral strategy to pull them out of the quagmire in which they are mired.
You have talked in the past about people being the driver of their destiny. In this age of massive cuts, and with no end in sight, how can one control his or her destiny?
Laws: I still strongly believe everyone is the driver of his or her own destiny, even though it’s difficult to see oneself as driving much of anything in these times. First, I think it is very important to keep yourself connected to others. Isolation can be your worst enemy.
When you are the primary wage earner for your family and you have lost your job through no fault of your own, it’s almost impossible not to feel that you are a failure in some way.
At these times it is especially critical to be connected to folks who have firsthand knowledge of your worth — who know about your professional accomplishments, the kind of impact you have had on others, etc. Their task is to counter your negative self-talk and to remind you of the real and valuable contributions you make each day.
What should human resources directors and other leaders be doing to help people through this transition?
Laws: Now more than ever, human resources directors and other leaders should be the strongest advocates for upping the training investment. Employees left behind after rounds of layoffs must be groomed for leadership and retooled to perform duties that aren’t currently part of their skill sets.
What questions are you hearing from young journalists of color about their futures?
Laws: Young journalists are strongly motivated by the desire to make a difference. Bringing authenticity, accuracy and fairness to coverage of the communities they represent is a primary factor in their choice to become journalists.
That said, there are very real concerns about the future and what kind of job security there will be. Also, there is the perception that earning potential is pretty low.
I think that despite those fears, young journalists have a firm belief that a critical role of media is to give us a glimpse into worlds about which we know nothing and to prepare us to better understand and effectively interact as those worlds collide.
A purely personal question: What were your thoughts on that day when President Barack Obama was elected?
Laws: Oh, this has been “heady” stuff for a child of the 60s. I grew up in Wilmington, where we could only attend the black-owned Hopkins movie theater and where, despite integration, I was told to sit in the back of the bus and, as an elementary school student, was taken to the suburbs and told to get off the bus by a white bus driver. I was abandoned out there with no money and not knowing where I was.
These were some of my experiences back then. So, despite working so long for change, and today, still being counted among the few at the top of organizations, I had low expectations that I would see such a change in my lifetime.
It’s hard to express my pride and admiration for President Obama, and his wife, Michelle. Tears come to my eyes when I think of my parents and my regret that they did not live to see it happen. I kept my daughter from school that day because she had to witness this moment of history and share it with my closest friends, some of whom came from as far as California to share the event. All of them in some way were pioneers in integrating schools and workplaces.
