"If we are to have peace on earth...our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develope a world perspective. No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. We must either learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we are all going to perish together as fools."

                                                                      ~Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1967)

Between media sessions, career expos and mingling with other journalists of color, your Illinois street teamer is wiped out! This past week, thanks to the Knight Foundation and MTV, I was able to attend UNITY '08 here in Chicago. Nearly 7,000 journalists, myself included, converged for 5 days at McCormick Place to get acquainted with other journalists of color, to sharpen our reportorial skills and to raise awareness of the importance of diversity at media outlets and in the media's coverage. However, trying to explain UNITY too most people is difficult. But, I believe the best way for others to understand the purpose of UNITY is to revert to the old journalism method of the 5 W's:

Who: UNITY "08: Journalist's of Color, Inc./Minority Members of the Media

What: UNITY:Journalists of Color, Inc. is a strategic alliance advocation fair and accurate news coverage about people of color, and aggressively challenging the industry to staff its organizations at all levels to reflect the nation's diversity. It is comprised of four national associations: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association.

When: July 22-27, 2008

Where: McCormick Place (Chicago, Illinois)

Why: UNITY strives to raise awareness and participation of the media industry in understanding the diverse culturs represented by the UNITY alliance members. It has the following goals:

*To increase the representation of people of color at all levels in the nation's newsrooms.

*To increase and broaden the news coverage focusing on people of color, and to dispel racial and ethnic stereotypes and myths.

*To become recognized as the principal national alliance of journalism professionals advocating for diversity and multiculturalism in the news media.

*To create a self-sustaining organization with a diversified financial base that complements, and does not compete with alliance partneres.

  View the Unity '08 audio slideshow bt clicking this link below:

http://think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF00989E1E0017009913C7/

Watch me on CBS 2 Chicago, interviewing about bias in the media coverage when it comes to covering Senator Barack Obama:

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/minority.journalists.unity.2.780360.html