By Jonathan White
Special to the Reporter

I read an article in the Globe the other day that spoke of 5 suburban youth football teams leaving a conference filled with urban teams from neighborhoods such as Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury. The article stated that the reason the suburban teams were leaving, among other issues, was a "[concern for] safety." The Pop Warner Regional Director was quoted as saying that "some suburban parents see drive-by shootings and murders in Boston on the nightly news, and - don't want their children [playing] in - dangerous city neighborhoods."

Common sense and fairness aside, I can't really blame the suburban parents fortheir perceptions of Urban Boston - even if it is a "New Boston." The Regional Director hit the nail on the head when he spoke of the perceptions given by the nightly news and, implicitly, other media sources. Although we've come a long way in TV dramas and sitcoms, the portrayal of Blacks on the nightly news and in the papers is less than flattering and rarely positive. The ideal of responsible journalism doesn't seem to exist when it comes to reporting about Blacks. Reports seldom deliver the positive stories involving Black people and journalists seem to find no need to search for any either.

On June 3, Senator Dianne Wilkerson gave journalists an opportunity when she kicked off the 4th Annual 21st Century Black Massachusetts Conference (21blackma.org) at the Hynes Convention Center. Over the course of the two-day conference titled "Pampers To Prison Pipeline: The Ms. Education of Black Boys," over 1,000 Black residents took part in discussions, panels, and strategy sessions about the problems facing black male youth in the state of Massachusetts and nationwide. Numerous well-respected Black leaders including Min. Don Muhammed of the Nation of Islam; Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, Author and Education Consultant; Deval Patrick, a 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate who happens to be Black; and Boston Magazine's only Black representative in its list of the "Top 100 People in Who Run This Town", the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers spoke on issues ranging from disparities in health care to improving the education of our black boys. So much went on at this conference that would make any and every Black resident of Massachusetts gleeful and hopeful for the future. The tragedy is that if you weren't at the conference, you probably knew nothing about what happened.

While the Globe and the Phoenix made appearances during the conference, the Globe's subsequent article in Sunday's paper used most of its ink primarily highlighting Saturday's opening speaker, 2006 gubernatorial hopeful Deval Patrick, while making faint references to the conference in general. One would think after the second or third occurrence of such a fascinating and powerful conference, lead by one of Boston's well-respected elected officials (Dianne Wilkerson), that those in the media would have it circled on their calendars.

No need to "search" for positive Black news here, we've packaged and gift wrapped it nicely for everyone. So why was there no media buzz over this conference? Why wasn't there at least one reporter from each of the news outlets in Boston? Was there no desire to add another angle to the two-dimensional perception of Blacks by the media?

This isn't the first time it's happened. In the past two and a half months, this is the second "black" conference that I've attended with little to no media coverage. In March, the National Society of Black Engineers held its National Convention in Boston at the Hynes Convention Center for the second time in 8 years. Nearly 10,000 Black scientist and engineers brought nothing but positivity, creativity, and intellectualism to an unwelcoming Boston and not one media outlet accepted requests to be present. The National Chairperson asked the mayor why there was no media coverage and why there was a blatant disregard for such an outstanding event; I don't imagine he received any acceptable response.

So, to the suburbanite parents, concerned about bullets flying by your son (or daughter's) helmets, understand that we urbanites are just as concerned about the safety of your children and ours! And although you didn't know it, we met for 2 days and spent about 14 hours strategizing how to make those parks and our streets safer for your white boys and our black boys.

Jonathan White is an MIT graduate and Brigham and Women's Hospital researcher who lives in Dorchester.