Los Angeles needs Black news that isn’t one-size-fits-all

AfroLA is a new digital newsroom trying change L.A.’s media landscape.

By Dana Amihere

Mainstream media often treats the mere presence of Black bodies — despite their nuances in heritage, origin story, appearance or beliefs — as one amorphous entity.

But, Black 👏🏾is 👏🏾 not 👏🏾 a 👏🏾 monolith 👏🏾

This is why we’re starting AfroLA. Because Los Angeles, especially Black Angelenos, deserve better.

AfroLA leans into the fact that no form of Blackness is a monolith. We are who we are — no matter what shade our skin is or where we call home. AfroLA celebrates it all without pause.

AfroLA celebrates the rich diversity of Blackness found in Los Angeles’s communities.

Interracial and cross-cultural relationships have changed our social reality of what Black culture is, and can be. Preserving cultural traditions, and melding them to create new ones, has enriched our communities with a beautiful complexity that should be leaned into and celebrated.

There are more than a dozen ethnic neighborhoods across Los Angeles officially recognized by the city, but there are hundreds more ethnic enclaves and thriving cultural communities that aren’t. Official or not, these communities are full of stories of people who have helped shape L.A.’s cultural consciousness. From Little Armenia to Thai Town, this includes people who identify as Black or have ties to Blackness. Their stories are just as valid and important as those coming out of South Central.

You can’t tell the story of Los Angeles without telling the story of Black people.

Not long ago, I was in conversation with a Black friend who was raised and resides in Watts. He said that, over the years, he’s had Black friends and acquaintances move to L.A. who have all asked some version of the same question: “Where are all the Black people?” My reaction to this was unfazed: “We’re here, if you bother to look.”

The area’s Black population has steadily fallen since 1975. Today, Black people account for about 8% of Los Angeles residents, in both the city and county. But what’s the point of erasure? Local writer and journalist Lynell George unpacks exactly this in a 2021 essay:

“What happens when your population falls below a certain percentage? What’s the magic number? 10%? Nine? Seven? Slip below this and you fade away into a ghost. When do you — I — any of us become transparent?”

George argues that the strength and power in Black people’s contributions to L.A. can’t be erased, even if their physical numbers dwindle, because of how they’ve foundationally helped shape the city culturally.

The Second Great Migration was a continued exodus of Black people from the South following the Great Depression and on the heels of America’s entry into World War II. One in seven Black Southerners journeyed to northern and western states, including California. The combined Black populations of Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco swelled to more than a quarter million by 1950.

As L.A.’s Black population swelled, writes Ismail Muhammad, “The city’s white power structure responded by intensifying racial discrimination.” Racially restrictive housing covenants, restrictions around where and when African Americans could use public swimming pools, and school segregation became the norm.” Redlining corralled Black people into the city’s “least desirable” neighborhoods. (Image credit: Los Angeles Public Library)

Writer Ismail Muhammad echoes George’s sentiments from a historical frame of reference. L.A. was transformed from “a sleepy agricultural town into an industrial city” by Black migration.

Plainly, Muhammad writes, “You can’t disentangle blackness and California.”

AfroLA embraces this same thinking from a hyperlocal bent: You can’t tell the story of Los Angeles without telling the story of its Black people.

“When they see us”

But, Black people, our communities, our stories aren’t told with the frequency, the nuance, the normalcy or even the respect they deserve. This isn’t unique to Los Angeles. but it’s especially tragic in America’s second-largest city. L.A.’s 8% are a legion of hundreds of thousands of lives, voices and rich experiences. That’s a city within a city.

Bias, stereotypes and misrepresentation of Black people, where they live, how they live can come from a place of misunderstanding and ignorance. To be fair, this stems from bigger systemic issues in journalism, like newsroom diversity, hiring practices, recruiting and retaining employees of color.

That’s still no excuse. “When you know better, do better.”

We can do better. AfroLA was founded to do better.

AfroLA’s mission is to find, celebrate and share intersectionality and universality in the Black experience. “Afro Angeleno,” or AfroLA, celebrates diversity in backgrounds and unity in culture and experiences within L.A. and beyond.

How?

• AfroLA normalizes telling stories from and of the Black community. We characterize Black people as people living their lives and the extraordinary stories that can stem from those experiences.
• AfroLA empowers Black Angelenos with information through accountability reporting and solutions journalism about issues that specifically impact them and where they live.
• AfroLA is a lab for sustainable news practices rooted in inclusion and accessibility. We will test and implement new ways to connect with communities.

Admittedly, this is a LOT. (We’ll dive deeper into each of these topics in future Medium posts, too.)

These are high bars to clear. We will need to build and rely upon the community to make it possible. We need to be a part of it — to show up, to listen and contribute in ways that improve the lives of the people who actually live here.

Creating in public

More than 80 local digital news sites have started since fall 2018. But, the same number shuttered, according to updated “news deserts” research from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Some of these thriving local digital news outlets, including some Black-owned, Black-led shops, have talked extensively about what they hope to accomplish. But, granular details about their operations and the motivations behind them have remained elusive. The sausage, so to speak, has been made in a black box.

We want AfroLA to be created in public. Earning trust is achieved through openness.

To that end, this is the first in a series of Medium posts to document the process of building AfroLA. This will open us up to scrutiny, criticism and feedback that may be uncomfortable. But, it will keep us honest, which matters more.

We want our audience to understand why we’re doing things the way we’re choosing to do them, from editorial strategic planning to conducting a community information needs assessment. We want to invite you along for the journey and hope that you’ll be interested enough to stick around and stick with us as a trusted news source.

AfroLA officially launches in early 2023, but we’ve already started producing quality journalism for L.A.’s Black community.

• Explore the archive of AfroLA’s pre-launch stories.
• Support our journalism with a tax-deductible donation.
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• Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Dana Amihere is a data journalist, designer and developer. She’s the founder/executive director of AfroLA. She’s committed to solutions reporting that centers racial and social justice, especially through data-driven storytelling.

Previously, Amihere worked in data, interactive design and news apps for KPCC/LAist, The Dallas Morning News, Pew Research Center and The Baltimore Sun. She owns Code Black Media, a digital media and data consultancy. She is a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.