Since the founding of the first Black-owned newspaper in the United States, journalism led by Black, Indigenous, Asian, and Latine folks has generated more holistic and dynamic stories for communities across the world. For centuries, this reporting has stood in resistance and opposition to mainstream media, which has long muted, distorted, and ignored the narratives and information needs of BIPOC communities, making possible continued acts of harm and oppression that tear at the fabrics of our multi-racial democracy.
Borealis Philanthropy’s Racial Equity in Journalism (REJ) Fund exists to nourish and build up the capacity of those who are co-creating a more tender and truthful media sector, in which BIPOC communities can steward our stories from ideation to distribution and the spaces in between. To arrive at this place, we must resource the many intersecting limbs of the BIPOC media ecosystem, including efforts to envision—and thus propel us toward—future possibilities.
In 2022, the REJ Fund began exploratory work through The Thriving BIPOC Journalism Project. This project aimed to define and develop indicators for a thriving BIPOC media ecosystem and better understand the enabling factors (e.g., resources, networks, communities) necessary for its existence. We partnered with researcher Dr. Wilneida Negrón to explore these curiosities and scope out four possible scenarios for the future of journalism.
To imagine a liberated, reparative future of journalism, we must first ask ourselves:
- What do we mean when we say thriving?
- What does it look like for a BIPOC-led and -serving new organization to thrive?
- What will it feel like to arrive at a thriving BIPOC media ecosystem?
- What tangible evidence will we have that we have arrived to this new world?
Dr. Negrón’s conversations with BIPOC journalists across our existing media landscape shared several perspectives and ideas, which we’re uplifting in our new report, Thriving BIPOC Journalism, for consumption and meditation.
The words we’re putting forward in this report are a call to action, urging a reevaluation of how journalism is funded, particularly in BIPOC communities. They put forward concrete visions of reparation and thriving. They highlight the discrepancy in funding between BIPOC journalism and predominantly white technology sectors, posing a moral question about equity, justice, and the present and future of a multi-racial democracy.
As a weaver and connector of this ecosystem, the REJ Fund is honored to invite you into continued visioning around a reimagined, non-violent, and tender future of journalism—beginning with the insights shared in our new report.