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BLACK SUMMIT
THE MEDIASTORY
community to build consensus, solutions, moral imperative, and blueprints for the future. The fact that we and others have been laboring tirelessly for decades only to confront similar structural challenges in 2018 is indicative of how the issues that circumscribe Black storytelling in the media are deeply entrenched and complexly constituted.
Through this summit, we have re-ignited cross-industry conversations and planted the seeds for an intentional collective. The culture and infrastructure of how Black stories are told must change in order to effect real change. Rashad Robinson, President of Color Of Change, reminds us in a recent Haas Institute Research Report that good content means nothing within the context of social justice if it does not have what he terms as “narrative power”–– the power to not only “change [the] hearts and minds” of masses
of people, but also “limit the influence of false and dangerous narratives propagated by the right wing and others.” He highlights the need for powerful narrative infrastructure, on par with or better than the messaging infrastructure which corporations, religious organizations and right-wing activists deploy to sway public opinion with frightening consequences. In short, “narrative infrastructure is singularly about equipping a tight network of people organizing on the ground and working within various sectors to enduringly change hearts, minds, behaviors, and relationships” (Robinson 2018).
OVERVIEW OF THE SUMMIT
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