Looking for different media sources

February 17, 2013 8:53 AM

After reading this article, I'm interested in varying the way I get my media more. Aside from places mentioned in the article, Ebony, Latino, PODER, Essence magazines, what should I be reading that will give me more perspective from people of color?

I should note that I'm not really looking for opinions on the article itself, just some online or magazine writing done by non-mainstream authors of color.

posted by roomthreeseventeen to writing & language (12 answers total)

Here in the Greater Toronto Area, we have the Ethnic Aisle, brought to you by non-white non-newcomer locals. My favorite of their many tag lines is "beyond the pale".
posted by heatherann at 9:04 AM on February 17

I like Racialicious, Angry Asian Man, Africa Is A Country, the Root, the Field Negro, and Native Appropriations.
posted by ChuraChura at 9:16 AM on February 17 [2 favorites]

If you're interested in diving in to Ebony you should also know that Google Books has an impressive back run of issues of Ebony as well as Jet. The Asian American Writers Union also writes Open City Magazine which is specifically about Asian Americans in New York. Native Times is one of many online news sources by and for Native Americans. This article has more options and a very long list of individual authors. Al Jazeera has a free online magazine. Do you have specific topics or interest areas, or just looking for news from other perspectives? GLAAD also specifically runs a people of color media institute to work on GLBTQ visibility among people of color. They have "related blog posts" on the side of that page which may be useful. This spreadsheet which came out of this article has more specific voices in new media that you could follow.

My go-to for a lot of outward pointers is Racialicious or sometimes ColorLines.

I don't know if you have kids, but the Coretta Scott King awards always point to very good books for children and young adults by African American authors and here is one for American Indians in children's literature. REFORMA is a library group that does similar things for Latinos and Spanish speaking people.
posted by jessamyn at 9:24 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

Hyphen is an excellent magazine for Asian-American issues, published three times a year around a theme. What's really impressive is that it's an all-volunteer effort, but manages to explore issues in depth. It's very broad in its definition of Asian (not just East Asian), which some publications that focus on these issues are not.
posted by calistasm at 10:01 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

A librarian friend suggests seeing if your library subscribes to the Ethnic NewsWatch database (title list) "a current resource of full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives." which has news and perspectives many smaller ethnic groups including Lebanese, Pequot and Ethiopian. Not all sources come from what we might consider people of color (women in engineering is one group for example) but all fit the "minority press" heading in one way or another.
posted by jessamyn at 10:29 AM on February 17

Internationally, Global Voices, and in Australia SBS.
posted by wingless_angel at 10:34 AM on February 17

Ta-Nehisi Coates.
posted by palbo at 11:11 AM on February 17

TransGriot is a fantastic source; Monica Roberts has a great eye for important stuff that doesn't get Big Media's attention.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:05 PM on February 17

Chicago Defender
posted by SisterHavana at 1:24 PM on February 17

Black Agenda Report
VivirLatino
posted by RogerB at 1:39 PM on February 17

Seconding SBS in Australia, and also their NITV (National Indigenous Television) channel. On Twitter it's worth following IndigenousX, a rotation curation account for Australian Aboriginals with regular shoutouts to non-mainstream content sources.
posted by harriet vane at 3:17 AM on February 20

Clutch
posted by girlmightlive at 5:55 AM on February 20