“In This For The Long Haul”

Different perspectives

I was invited to attend a few talks at Barnard College this morning. It was a good distraction from the news, even though two of the panels were about the election, and they all made some reference to it . They gave me new insights and I’ll try to give you a few bits of what I learned.

The first panel of the day  was with Maria Hinjosa and Paola Ramos, both well known journalists who report on the Latino community. They spoke about the changes in political thinking within that community since Barack Obama, and how that intersects with the idea of the “American Dream.” When Obama ran, he brought the promise of that dream, and since then, many Latinos have achieved assimilation. So now they are inclined to vote to preserve what they have. The journalists talked about Latino fears of deportation, and even how some lean towards self-deportation— because life could easily be better elsewhere.  At one point, Maria asked the audience, “Do you know where your birth certificate is??”  I don’t. But her point was made loud and clear  for the audience. 

On another panel, documentarian Sheila Nevins spoke about the change in the documentary making business, and her very long career, She said when she started out in the 50’s, you had to “let guys touch your boobs.”  Sheila also said, “Documentaries are in trouble but the news is sick.”  This is true. Sheila also said that documentaries may not change the world, but they can make one person think differently, perhaps. She was a wonderful combination of hysterical, cynical and caring.

Later in the day, two young women entrepreneurs who left Wall Street (at the ripe old age of 27) to start a company called Alinéa,  to help women invest, spoke about their experiences. They relayed the continued  bias of funders towards women startups.  It sounds like it still is a bro culture, funding in part goes to those who can brag more loudly.

In a different panel, Kathryn Kilberg, co-founder and producer of the Athena Film Festival at Barnard (a festival dedicated to women creators)  said about this election that we need everyone and all approaches to fight back and find solutions. She also said that she spoke to friends in Europe and they said, why do Americans always want immediate gratification? We should think of it this way: “We’re in this for the long haul.”  

I’ve heard this elsewhere in the last few days. There’s no quick fix. 

Thanks for being here, see you tomorrow.