Gone But Not Forgotten: Felicia Yvette Traylor-Bass lost her life on 9/11 (Image: Andrew Bass)

I lost my wife and the mother of my first born on that sunny day of September 11, 2001. Her name is Felicia Yvette Traylor-Bass, and I was her husband.

Such a beautiful start to the day ended with me falling into the darkest period of my life. Watching that huge gaping black hole in the side of the North Tower, I instinctively knew we would never see Felicia again.

With both towers collapsing, the realization of my instinct became official for everyone else. The following few months showed how great humanity can be with unified cooperation, consideration and empathy that not only helped my then two-year-old son, Sebastian, and myself but also thousands of other family members. My heart swelled with pride and hope. Unfortunately, it was too short-lived.

We are days away from the tenth anniversary of the attacks of September 11^th and the bombardment of specials and shows revisiting the day’s events and its aftermath have begun. Over the past ten years, I’ve watched, read and listened to numerous tales recounted by survivors, family members, politicians and the good old media about this horrific day. If I had never heard about September 11^th and relied only on these accounts, I’d believe that the only folks who died that day were firefighters and wealthy financial traders who were all white men and “good Catholics.” From nearly all the brochures, websites and other promotional material from various organizations dedicated to September 11^th including the National September 11th Memorial & Museum, that same imagery is reinforced with the association that the people who died in this tragedy happened only to be white, male and Catholic.

Felicia with son, Sebastian (Image: Courtesy of Andrew Bass)

I noticed this happening about six months after the attacks, and while it irked me, I focused on making sure my son’s life went about as normal as possible. His mother would have wanted me to make sure of that, so that’s what I did. Each anniversary I would watch the ceremonies, read the articles, and still see the same thing. On the fifth anniversary, I actually went down to the ceremony on the site of the World Trade Center and the Family Tribute Center. Honestly, I can’t say it was a pleasant experience. It was very painful and emotional, but I also felt like I was an outsider to an event that had happened to me as well. It felt like this hadn’t happened to anyone like my wife or anyone else for that matter just because she wasn’t what was being constantly driven over and over again by all the media.

Five years later, it has only gotten worse. I’ve never seen a lead, first-person account of any victim of the September 11^th attacks who was African-American, Latino, Asian, female, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, non-financial trader, non-firefighter or non-police. While I respect and appreciate what the firefighters and police officers did that day, they are very well aware of the risks of their jobs—which they willfully do every day. To focus primarily on their accounts is not only insulting to the thousands of civilians who lost their lives that day, but it also creates this ridiculous value system that places their lives higher than our lost loved ones. For all of us, our loved ones are priceless.

Remembrances for September 11^th should be fair, balanced and account for all the different splices of life that occurred on that day. It is not about securing politicians’ legacies or some developer’s egotistical drive for wealth and real estate. Nor is it about perpetuating some American patriotic mythos. Remembrances should not be these fiefdoms where a small group of family members claim to speak for us all, yet reach out to none. Remembrances should not be about organizations created to build a memorial that secretly select family members to meet with the President of the United States, who also happens to be the first black president, and is greeted by this sea of white faces.

Ten years later, what had started out as a great show of American unity has ultimately succumbed to the dark side of our nation. The ugly faces of class, religious intolerance and race are defining how September 11^th is remembered. Ten years later I am left feeling disgusted, offended and dismissed. The hardest part is when my son looks at the specials on television now or reads the news accounts and asks if anyone else like his mom died that day. I tell him yes, there were, but how do I tell him that they don’t fit the image the outlets wanted to project? At least his mom was a good Catholic.

Author Andrew Bass lives in New York with his son, his daughter and his wife, Karen.

Style expert Daisy Lewellyn says attention to detail is key when pitching your fashion line.

In the fashion industry, image reigns supreme. And when it comes to getting a line seen by the top trendsetters, editors, and style forecasters, gaining exposure relies directly on how a brand is presented. The wrong pitch can make or break chances of building an audience of potential consumers and buyers.

“No matter whether you are a designer of gowns, jewelry, belts, or furs, your brand is your baby–which is your image–which is your everything,” says Daisy Lewellyn, says Daisy Lewellyn, style expert and author of Never Pay Retail Again: Shop Smart, Spend Less, and Look Your Best Ever ($15; Gallery).

Lewellyn, who as an editor, handpicked the hottest accessories and fashion for the likes of In Style, Glamour, and The Today Show, tells how to get your designs exposure.

Lewellyn’s Do’s and Don’ts:

Don’t …

Ignore the details when it comes to your lookbook: “I get some lookbooks that have beautiful packaging, expensive paper, and special intricate detailing, only to find not so great pictures of the garments or accessories.” Be sure images are clear, properly labeled and current.

Offer items that are not available: “If you send images of items, they should be available immediately,” she says. You should be able to get stock upon request, otherwise you risk losing a good opportunity.

Get too personal before you establish a relationship: Editors and writers see hundreds of collections, so be patient and humble in your correspondence with them. “Getting offended if they need refreshing as to who you are or what your collection is should not offend you,” Lewellyn says. “Instead feel privileged that they are interested.”

Do …

Have a clear concept of what you’re offering and portray that: “Strategically decide what you want to be identified as, who you’re similar to, who you will be compared to, your goals, [and] your target market,” she says.

Have a clear understanding of the person/company you’re pitching to: “If it’s a women’s magazine, and you are a menswear designer, how can you somehow fit in?” she says. “Be honest and strategic about the match.”

Hire a publicist with solid relationships and a good reputation: “It’s their job to be persistent, not pesky, and get you access to cover shoots, celebrity features, and stories.”

Finishing touch: Send a token or note of thanks after you’re granted a meeting: “If she mentioned that she can’t live without Sprinkles cupcakes, by all means, give a gift card to Sprinkles, or send a half dozen cupcakes for her to share,” she says. “Small gifting is a wonderful way to compete with the big poppas of the industry.”

Further Reading: Three Ways to Brand Personalization

Hundreds of Internet readers at TheLoop21.com participated in the “Truth in Media” audience poll, which measured the public’s opinions on how news coverage by the mainstream media affects racial perceptions. Nearly 90%, of the respondents do not think the mainstream news is “fair and balanced” in its coverage of African Americans.

“That is a very serious indictment of mainstream media and one that the media ought to take…and we ought to take very seriously going forward,” said Darrell Williams, publisher of TheLoop21.com.

More than 55% of respondents said that mainstream media’s coverage of racial issues during the past 12 months had “worsened” race relations.

In addition, the majority of respondents indicated that more reporting on “the achievements by African Americans” and “economic issues that affect African Americans” would cause them to spend more time watching, listening, and reading the news.

Turning the tide on negative coverage will need a two-prong strategy, says David Wilson, a pollster for TheLoop21.com and professor of political science at the University of Delaware. First, an increase in diversity of not only race but of perspectives in the newsroom will help increase fair and balanced coverage of all races. Next, he says audiences need to speak up.

“If they feel like the coverage is stereotypical and promoting negative images let it be known,” said Wilson. “Write a letter to the news channel.”

Nearly 82% of the approximately 400 respondents were black, and the majority of respondents were college graduates. The Truth in Media poll was conducted by TheLoop21.com from Feb. 24 to March 5.

Earvin "Magic" Johnson

Earvin “Magic” Johnson said Monday that talks to do business with Johnson Publishing Co., the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, are now dead.

“Recently, an affiliate of Magic Johnson Enterprises and Johnson Publishing Co. were in advanced discussions to do business together, but unfortunately we were unable to reach a definitive agreement,” the former Los Angeles Laker said in a statement.

The statement confirms rumors from last week that Johnson’s Magic Johnson Enterprises had an interest in investing in and possibly buying Johnson Publishing (No. 15 on the BE 100s Industrial Service list with $328 million in revenues).

Magic Johnson, who is not related to the Johnson publishing family,  has formed several strategic partnerships with companies such as Sodexo, Starbucks Corp., AMC Entertainment Inc., and Aetna. Johnson has also ventured into the financial services sector, and through the Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund committed nearly $1 billion in capital on the revitalization of ethnically diverse communities. He also licenses his name and likeness to companies such as Jackson Hewitt and furniture rental company Rent-a-Center, an endeavor that critics say discredits his goals to uplift the black community.
Ebony and Jet Magazines introduced the country to Black American life, fashion, and celebrities when John H. Johnson founded the magazine in 1942 on a loan from his mother’s furniture. The company is now run by Linda Johnson Rice, the founders’ daughter.

“I would like to salute Linda Johnson Rice and the Johnson family for pioneering the iconic brand of the Johnson Publishing Co., which we have all come to love and respect,” said Magic Johnson. “Ebony and Jet have been permanent fixtures on coffee tables in African-American homes for many years.”

Johnson said he will continue to look for opportunities to invest in African American media.

Earvin "Magic" Johnson

Earvin “Magic” Johnson, retired NBA star and businessman, has entered into talks to purchase Johnson Publishing Co. and possibly take the reigns of Ebony and Jet magazines.

If Johnson, who is not related to the Johnson publishing family, were to purchase the 68-year-old Johnson Publishing (No. 15 on the BE 100s Industrial Service list with $328 million in revenues), the transaction would infuse new blood into the company, says Samir Husni, director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi at Oxford. “The business model that they started, like the rest of the magazines in this country, is no longer working, says Husni.

Sale rumors have been in the air since February 2009 when the company underwent a reorganization.

“There’s no definitive agreement,” said Eric Holoman, president of Los Angeles-based Magic Johnson Enterprises, in an interview with Bloomberg. Linda Johnson Rice, daughter of acclaimed publisher and JPC founder John H. Johnson, declined to comment. Magic Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for an interview.

Magic Johnson, the former Los Angeles Laker, has formed several strategic partnerships with companies such as Sodexo, Starbucks Corp., AMC Entertainment Inc., and Aetna. Johnson has also ventured into the financial services sector, and through the Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund committed nearly $1 billion in capital on the revitalization of ethnically diverse communities. He also licenses his name and likeness to companies such as Jackson Hewitt and furniture rental company Rent-a-Center, an endeavor that critics say discredits his goals to uplift the black community.

Like many other publishers, Johnson Publishing has faltered under the weight of the current economic crisis. Ad revenue at Ebony declined 38% to $35.5 million last year, according to Publishers Information Bureau. In an effort to boost revenue at Jet, Rice announced this month that Jet, a weekly, will be redesigned to include a new layout and content.

“As a world-class media company, we will solidify Jet’s position as an innovator and leader in the African-American marketplace,” said Rice, in the announcement. Rice became chairman and CEO in 2005 when John H. Johnson passed away.

Ebony and Jet Magazines introduced the country to Black American life, fashion, and celebrities when John H. Johnson founded the magazine in 1942 on a loan from his mother’s furniture.

Husni credits Jet magazine with sparking the national civil rights movement when it published the photos of the brutally mutilated body of Emmett Till in his casket in 1955. Till’s murder was racially motivated and the photos not only shed light on lynching in America’s southern states, but supercharged the magazine’s success.

Gwen Ifill

Gwen Ifill thinks “mood” is too small a word to describe what it felt like to be on the National Mall during President Barack Obama’s inauguration. “It was an astonishing spirit that was out there,” recalls the moderator and managing editor of PBS’ longest running public affairs show, Washington Week.

Doing double (and sometimes triple) duty, Ifill is also senior correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; and for the 2008 presidential election, she moderated the Biden-Palin vice presidential debate. Still, in the midst of all this, the 53-year-old New York City native managed to write a book. In The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (Doubleday; $24.95), Ifill explains how leaders such as Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, among others, have taken advantage of hard-fought gains from the civil rights era. Ifill says this new politics is young, promotes public service, and embraces racial diversity. Black Enterprise turned the tables on the journalist, getting her thoughts on this fresh political energy, objectivity in the media, and how a new take on leadership is exactly what this country needs right now.

What myths do you anticipate your book will shatter about race and the political system?
What Barack Obama provided was a way in—to talk about this broader concept, which is how much the world has changed in the years since civil rights was put on the books. Back then you had to picket. You had to protest in order to get what you needed, what was legal for us. This generation comes along and that foundation is already laid. It’s not just that we got affirmative action or that we got into better schools, it’s that a couple of generations of younger folks really took those advantages and said, ‘I want to give back, not just to my people but to everybody.’

Your book discusses those from the civil rights era who doubted Obama was electable. Was the presumption that we weren’t ready for it?
I think that in any case where an Obama came along or any of these other breakthrough leaders that I write about, they were often told, ‘Not yet.’ They knew that if they waited, they would [miss out]. You can’t wait for permission to take leadership. And neither did Martin Luther King or Joe Riley.

Social issues seem to be the main ideas these leaders are pushing to the forefront.
All of these breakthrough politicians have discovered that if you find the thing that’s common: healthcare, joblessness, things that people share in common and say, ‘Let’s fix that,’ you will disproportionately affect black people, because we suffer more. Rather than making it a big thing and saying, ‘Lets’ save the black people,’ they say, ‘Let’s save the people.’

Why do you think this approach is more effective?
The truth is a lot of Americans, black and white, don’t want to be spoken for anymore. They don’t want self-anointed leaders to speak for them. They have lots of layers of complicated ideas and it’s not  about race, especially in a time of economic crisis.How are they changing the discussion on race?
Here is a man saying we can work together on this issue; let’s talk through it. These breakthroughs bring a whole different way for a black leader to talk or at least a different way for people to hear it. We talk a lot about black voters but the truth is white voters were transformed in this election.

How so?
Their minds were opened to possibilities. And some of them wanted people to believe this wasn’t about him being black and they preferred to think of him as not black. That’s fine. They’re allowed to go where they need to go as long as in the end everyone is on the same page. And when people say they’re race-blind or colorblind, I walk away because I don’t believe that’s possible; the people who say that assume that being of color is a negative. And if Barack Obama and his whole family have shown anything, it’s that it’s a positive.

The mainstream media has been charged with favoring Obama. How difficult is objectivity in journalism?
I think objectivity is impossible. We shouldn’t be striving to be objective; we should be striving to be fair. Nobody’s ever objective. Reporters are not objective. What we are and what we’re supposed to be is fair, that’s our responsibility.

This article originally appeared in the March 2009 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.

[The agreement] “established our existence in broadcast cable,” said Ricky Anderson, BBN’s chairman and CEO. “The network will focus on programming that is appealing, interesting, entertaining and culturally relevant to urban viewers today.”

The deal “provides national broadcast distribution from New York to Los Angeles, with many major markets between the East Coast, West Coast, North, and South,” said Anderson.

The multiplatform network will focus on a variety of program genres featuring African American and Latino artists, casts, comedians, producers, filmmakers, and athletes. Programming includes the latest in movies, music, music videos, independent films, reality shows, comedy, and current affairs. Coverage includes black college sports, Battle of the Bands, the Premier Basketball League, Ringside Boxing, and such films as “Precious.”

The partnership, first announced in late December, is the Houston-based company’s first distribution deal. For those who do not have access to Verizon FIOS, BBN offers the ability to view content online with a monthly subscription for $3.99. BBN would not disclose the value of the deal.

The company was founded by Yusef F. Muhammad and Anderson in 2008 as a means to provide programming to underserved audiences.

Williams

“I’ve been in radio for 23 years,”says  Williams, who is the host of The Wendy Williams Show on Fox. “While I love radio, I had to leave WBLS and radio for now. It’s not to say I’ll never be back. This TV show is a dream come true.”

It remains to be seen how the popular host’s transition will impact the show’s home, WBLS-FM. Owned by I.C.B.C. Broadcast Holdings, Inc. (No. 80 on the BE Industrial/Service Companies list with $50.6 million in revenue) Williams’ midday show was a revenue driver for the company, says Deon Levingston, WBLS vice president and general manager. The show recently ranked No. 1 among the 25-54 age group and reaches 778,000 listeners.

“WBLS has been a dominate radio station in America for the last few years and Wendy Williams and Steve Harvey helped us get to that point, radio ratings wise, and revenue wise.”

A powerful force among African Americans, black radio has long served as a means of information, but tepid ad sales, a proposed performance tax, and cost cutting measures threaten its livelihood. Williams’ departure from radio for television signals a changing tide in how content is consumed. It also illustrates black radio’s struggle to develop a content format and business model to recapture dwindling revenue, says Chris Smith, professor at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California.

“It’s very difficult in this changing business environment for traditional media like print and radio to retain talent,” Smith says. “Everything is becoming more TV and online oriented.”

Williams’s fans appear to agree. “According to some of the e-mails I’ve been receiving, people are saying that’s it. New York [City] black radio is done,” Williams says. “Am I really of force like that? I don’t know.”

Keeping the same capital structure from past decades will spell doom for the survival of black radio, Smith adds, explaining the key to success lies in embracing new media to attract listeners.

Radio advertising expenditures for the first quarter of 2009 plunged 14.2% year-over-year, according to data released today by marketing research firm, TNS Media Intelligence, in June.

“I hope traditional black radio outlets try to get hold of [new media] and embrace it and have that be apart of the emerging legacy for themselves,” Smith says.

From the archives: One-on-one with Wendy Williams

Jackson was misunderstood because we assume that because we love his videos and know every word of every one of his songs, we know him. WE MAY NEVER KNOW HIM. We hardly truly know members of our own families. Yet we think we really know Jackson and other celebrities whose music, movies,videos, families, marriages and lives we obsess over.

Michael Jackson’s work should certainly be honored. And his life and death will be worthy of news coverage for decades to come. But is everything we are seeing, and the “tributes” we have yet to see, honoring him as a person, as a human being? I don’t think so.

What we are seeing is the 21st century equivalent of the Roman soldiers casting lots for the garments of Jesus (Luke 23:34). Most of us did not value Michael Jackson as a person, as flawed as he was (and all of us are). We just covet what he left behind.

I, for one, want better for Jackson’s memory, his family and those who truly knew and loved him. Because it is just what I would want for me and mine, when my life is over.