“The community is an essential partner.”[i]
The following list is a summary of the recommendations including tasks that are appropriate for individuals or groups in Arkansas to assume responsibility.
1. Recommendation – Continue talking about racial and ethnic issues; have discussions at home, workplaces, and in the community.
Opportunity – Read and share resources like, “Race Matters” a report published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, written to provide insight on how to approach issues of race and ethnicity.
2. Recommendation – Create a media watch group.
Opportunity – Thanks to the Internet, citizens are able to share ideas in real-time in a global setting. Monitor the media through the web, social media networks, or start your own blog.
3. Recommendation – Take responsibility for educating our own children about diversity and acceptance.
Opportunity – Take advantage of teachable moments at home. Read an example on how in this article from Parenting magazine, “5 Tips for Talking About Racism With Kids.”
4. Recommendation – Learn more about your neighbor.
Opportunity – Support your local community events and groups like the University District Neighborhood Associations and others to get to know people different from yourself.
5. Recommendation – Create a series of continuing education for journalists.
Opportunity
- The Society of Professional Journalists, the largest professional organization for news media professionals has resolutions for reporting on issues of race, “Guidelines for Countering Racial, Ethnic and Religious Profiling.”
- Journalists can use the guidelines as a tool to examine their own reporting habits, and consumers can use it to hold news reporting outlets accountable.
To download the full report, see the 2012 Roundtable Strategy Session Recommendations.
[i] UALR Institute on Race and Ethnicity. “Taking on Arkansas’s Biggest Problem,” Chancellor’s Prospectus. University of Arkansas at Little Rock, October 2011.
