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 Last weekend, I attended a fabulous scholarship and awards luncheon sponsored by the South Florida Black Journalists Association.
 I have been to several of these kinds of events throughout my career, in different cities.
What struck me about this one was its emphasis on the black press. In the past, keynote speakers, even while most were black, were almost always from the mainstream press.
This year’s speakers, however, were from black-owned media.
Robert Beatty, our own Broward Times publisher, and Bryan Monroe, vice president and editorial director for Johnson Publishing Co., which owns Ebony and Jet magazines, talked about taking command of our own destiny.
Both men held high-level, executive positions in the mainstream press, and ultimately decided that their best career moves would be with black-owned publications.
 Beatty, as many of you know, was vice president and general counsel for The Miami Herald until last year, when the McClatchy Co. purchased the newspaper and others from the now-defunct Knight Ridder chain. McClatchy decided to centralize its legal operations in Sacramento, and Beatty’s job at The Herald was eliminated.
Inundated with several professional options, Beatty chose to buy his own newspaper. And you read the rest of this story each week in the Broward Times.
Monroe’s story is similar.
As vice president for news at Knight Ridder, Monroe – who is also president of the National Association of Black Journalists – saw his job eliminated last year when McClatchy purchased the chain. He, too, according to news reports, was presented with several options, and decided that directing the editorial content of Ebony and Jet was the best option for him.
Monroe and NABJ took a public position on the Don Imus controversy earlier this year, calling for the radio host to be fired after he made denigrating remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.
I applaud both men, as all of us did loudly at the July 15 black journalists’ luncheon at the Trump International Sonesta Beach Resort in Sunny Isles Beach.
I especially applaud their messages.
“Journalists, I beseech each of you, ‘Elevate the Dialogue’ in all that you write. In so doing, you will surely become a catalyst in the evolution of our people,.’’ Beatty said.
The Broward Times under Beatty’s leadership has elevated the dialogue by breaking stories about the black community that the mainstream press has frequently followed.
Monroe also highlighted the need for self-determination in his speech.
South Florida Black Journalists Association President Emiene Wright said this is the first time the organization has chosen two keynote speakers from black-owned media at one awards luncheon.
“This has been a banner year for the black press, both locally, with Beatty's acquisition of the Broward
Times, and nationally,’’ Wright said. “The Don Imus situation was one of the catalysts, because it stood out as the most visible instance in recent times that the black press pushed an issue into the national consciousness and flexed real political muscle to get results.’’
Wright continued: “Because new media have changed the rules, now how we speak to and of each other reaches mainstream audiences, and directly influences how they speak of us. Technology and shake-ups in the industry have changed the media world, and the black press has a vital role in shaping that world to make sure our voices are heard, and ensure we're covered fairly, digital divide or no.’’
I agree with Wright, Beatty and Monroe that we need to take command of the messages that influence our minds – and the minds of others – about us.
If we don’t, others surely will, and they will use our own voices to help them.
Take the Hot Ghetto Mess show, for example.
I, for one, find it difficult to believe that you can elevate the dialogue about stereotypes by joking about those very same stereotypes. How can you overcome a negative image by broadcasting it to the world?
But maybe, as BET executives claim, I will be surprised when the show airs on July 25.
Then, there are the demeaning messages in today’s hip-hop music. I, for one, am a fan of old-school hip hop, when emcees and groups like Kool Moe Dee, Public Enemy and KRS-One called for an end to black-on-black violence and sought to educate, inform, and uplift the minds of young black people.
Those days, unfortunately, are gone, and – despite the NAACP’s best efforts – I don’t think we can bury the most demeaning racial epithets until we stop using them ourselves.
Then there is the need for us to value education.
Now that the Supreme Court has essentially reversed the Brown v. Board of Education decision that allowed for racial school integration, we need to beat the drum even louder among ourselves to ensure that our young people do not perceive being smart as something that somehow betrays authentic blackness.
Acting right in school is not the same thing as acting white, and we need to understand this.
Yet with high-school dropout rates around 50 percent in the black community, we seem to have lost our focus.
Here’s the bottom line: We need more people like Beatty and Monroe to lead by example, and encourage us to take charge of our own destiny.
You don’t have to be an executive, a publisher, or any other kind of high-level person to do this, they said.
You can make a difference right where you are.
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Pictured top left is Brad Bennett.
Pictured in the story, top right, is Robert Beatty, Esq. and bottom right, Bryan Monroe.
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