Black Meetings and Tourism

T he spin doctors are working overtime these days doing their best to frame President Barack Obama's election as the beginning of a "Post Racial America." How absurd! Make no mistake – it is surely a historic event, one that I never felt I would experience in my lifetime, and one that has inspired us all to do better and be better and regain a sense of hope and optimism. But it's hardly any indication that racism in these United States has gone the way of the dinosaurs. Quite to the contrary, as the saying goes, racism is still alive and well in America. Perhaps retired Washington Post columnist William Raspberry put it best in his piece A Path Beyond Grievance when he wrote "Obama's election means that in America, including at the highest levels of our politics, race is no longer an automatic deal-breaker. That's a major step forward in the thinking of white America." For starters, in my opinion, if Barack Obama had been White, he would have won the presidency by an overwhelm- ing landslide. How else do you explain away the fact that after eight years of a Bush administration whose approval rat- ing sank into the 20s, almost 50% of the voters still opted to support more of the same? And if it hadn't been for the legions of young new voters Obama's organization brought into the process, even a larger percentage of voters would have voted against him. This decision on their part to vote for the status quo had nothing to do with politics, or policies or ideology. It had to do with skin color. We have to look no further than our own industry to see that diversity and inclusion are sorely lacking. Just count the number of CVBs run by persons of color, or the number of hotel GMs that look like you or me. None of the major organizations currently have any meaningful, progressive and successful diversity initiatives in place. Several programs were implemented a few years back with much fanfare, but for the most part, they have slowly died on the vine as attention and resources were focused elsewhere. Fortunately, a new effort that holds some promise at bringing more African-Americans and other people of color into the industry leadership pipeline has just been undertaken by a small group of high- level African-American CVB executives. The very need for them to embark on this course of action, however, is a clear indication that so much work still needs to be done in the area of race relations. Why do I feel so passionately about this issue you may be asking? Why can't I just be happy at the success of this brilliant new president, his lovely wife Michelle, and the statement his election has made to the rest of the world about the promise that America holds? Because those who have either intentionally or unwittingly stood in the way of us as African-Americans to reach our full potential and realize the American dream for ourselves and our families will now rationalize that since we are in a "post racial" era, there is no more need to address issues like racism, inclusion, parity and leveling of the playing field. And as you and I well know, nothing could be further from the truth. At BM&T we intend to keep these and other vital issues that are so important to the health of our community and our industry in front of you. We are committed to remaining an ever-active catalyst for change in an industry that has histori- cally lagged behind the rest of society in correcting past injus- tices. President Obama's election creates an environment and an opportunity for us as an industry to reexamine our priori- ties and objectives, and explore ways we can truly manifest the concept of hospitality that we claim to represent. Publisher's Message Solomon J. Herbert Publisher/Editor-In-Chief E-Mail: BMandTMag@aol.com Black Meetings & Tourism is published bi-monthly by SunGlo Enterprises, 20840 Chase St., Winnetka, CA 91306-1207 •Telephone: (818)709-0646/Fax: (818) 709-4753 Copyright 2009 by SunGlo Enterprises. All rights reserved. Single Copies, $6.00 Subscriptions $45.00. Postage Paid at Pasadena, CA. •Postmaster send address changes to Black Meetings & Tourism, 20840 Chase St., Winnetka, CA 91306-1207. Black Meetings & Tourism February/March 2009: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 4

• Cover