Executive Producer of Latino USA and CEO of Futuro Media Group Maria Hinojosa Launches Diversity Docu-Series 'America by the Numbers'
Executive producer of Latino USA Maria Hinojosa is the creator and host of "America by the Numbers," an eight-part documentary series airing on the WORLD Channel and PBS. The miniseries examines the national ethnic makeup of the U.S. and its irrevocable and fundamental changes, impacting everything from pop culture to politics.
Produced by the Futuro Media Group and presented by WGBH-TV and the National Minority Consortia, "America by the Numbers" is the first-ever national TV series that will examine "the new American mainstream," which includes the LGBTQ community, as well as Asians, Latinos, African-Americans, mixed-race individuals, immigrants, women and youth.
Earlier this month, a launching ceremony was held at the Ford Foundation for the new television series. Ford Foundation CEO and President Darren Walker introduced the award-winning Hinojosa to the eager crowd after stating, "Quality journalism elevates and oxygenates our democracy ... it amplifies the voices of underrepresented peoples, it brings to life the unabashed and unbiased truth in our society ... and by the numbers. And in this way, journalism at its best is a very profoundly powerful force for equality and justice. And there's no better example of this today than in the outstanding coverage of America's demographic revolution. And no one does a better job of holding that mirror up to society than Maria Hinojosa."
Wilson went on to say that great journalism undergirds our society, and the leaders in journalism need to look like America. Hinojosa, who looks a great deal like the changing American public, took to the stage and discussed the television series that's been years in the making.
"It's a culmination of four years of work," Hinojosa said to a crowded room of listeners. "Oh no, maybe an entire lifetime of work. I mean, think of it this way, it's like I've been pregnant for four years and I've just given birth to this television series."
The Ford Foundation decided to match the National Minority Consortia grant, making the eight-week venture possible. For eight weeks, "America by the Numbers" brings audiences unreported stories from every corner of the country to reveal how dramatic demographic changes are playing out in mainstream America today. The series will not only report important numbers, but show that those numbers are real.
Episode 3: "Our Private Idaho" was shown at the premiere event. The episode depicted Hinojosa as she visited an "exurb," Coeur d'Alene, a place that's become whiter as the rest of America has becomes less white. Coeur d'Alene, with its scenic beauty and iconic all-white Americana feel, is a town that both hosted and ousted the Aryan Nations. Presently, 92 percent of Coeur d'Alene's 46,000 residents are white, compared to 63 percent of the U.S. population. Coeur d'Alene's population has nearly doubled since 1990, and a majority of the new arrivals are white.
Coeur d'Alene was once a "hotbed of white supremacy." Richard Girnt Butler moved to the town in 1974 to found the Aryan Nations and to establish a whites-only homeland in the Pacific Northwest. His followers committed hate crimes that included fire bombings and attempted murders, but local citizens fought back. In 2000, with the help of Norm Gissel, a lawsuit was filed against the Aryan Nations that bankrupted them. The Aryan Nations' compound was bought by a philanthropist at an auction, who later burned it to the ground.
Hinojosa went to Coeur d'Alene to find out what it was like to live in an overwhelmingly white community, at a time of so much demographic change. Kim Boland, a resident of the town, offered to show Hinojosa around, showing Hinojosa that Coeur d'Alene was a place of relative peace that held poor whites as well as very wealthy whites.
The Bolands explained to Hinojosa that the appeal of the Coeur d'Alene is that everyone just speaks English and "nobody's figuring anybody out ... it's just easy." Coeur d'Alene is a stark change from the Bolands' lives in multicultural, metropolitan L.A., where Kim and her husband Pat lived, and worked in law enforcement during the 1990s, during a decade of racial unrest.
They were a part of the "blue migration," which involved hundreds of retired LAPD and county police moving to Northern Idaho. The Bolands relocated in 2001 because they were tired of the racial politics in L.A. They wanted to live around people who shared their outlook on life: conservative and Christian. Pat originally moved to L.A. from Bozeman, Montana for better job opportunities. Instead, he found that "race mattered all of a sudden" when working on the police force.
Only 20 percent of conservatives care about diversity or living in diverse areas, compared to 76 percent of liberals. The Bolands confirmed this when stating they never talk about diversity or race, because "there are so many other things happening." Many whites are drawn to Coeur d'Alene because they want something simpler.
But, some whites feel disenfranchised and bewildered by the cultural changes that's swept the nation since the 1960s. The post-slavery African-American presence and the influx of Latinos and Asians "threatens" them. And an African American president is a destabilizer; it undermines their understanding of the white male-dominated hierarchal society, Gissel explained to Hinojosa during the episode. While hate crimes have dropped around the nation since President Obama was elected, they've actually risen in Coeur d'Alene.
The episode also features a restaurant manager named Patricia Gonzalez, whose restaurant, Atilano's, was picketed by white supremacists, with signs that said, "Keep Coeur d'Alene White." But, Gonzalez was supported by the people in the town, loyal customers who rallied around her and defended her and the restaurant. Nonetheless, each employee of the restaurant has experienced discrimination.
The episode also features the son of a master sergeant in the Air Force, Josh Hoston, who is Coeur d'Alene's first black firefighter. He's a family man, "the first black friend of a lot people" and he enjoys his life in Coeur d'Alene, believing that it is a welcoming place.
The number of non-whites in Coeur d'Alene has tripled in recent years, from 3 percent to 9 percent. Nonetheless, education tends to be the herald of change, and the Christian-centered educational institutions in the area don't encouraged tolerance, and they've dismantled college preparatory programs. Still, open-minded teachers have been able to host annual multicultural fairs.
Thirty percent of all American grandparents have a grandchild that's of another race or ethnicity. And while that number is likely much lower in Coeur d'Alene, it's in the nation's best interest for residents to understand that diversity is not the future, it's the now. Future episodes of "America by the Numbers" will show Native Americans confronting an oil boom on a reservation in North Dakota and the underserved U.S. veterans in Guam. It will reveal the dropout rate of South East Asian youth in Long Beach, California; the new, multicultural Mad Men of Austin, Texas; and it will showcase compelling Americans, surprising data and distinctive visuals.
Episode 1: "Mainstream, USA" aired Oct. 2 at 9 p.m.; Episode 2: "Island of Warriors" aired Oct. 9 at 9 p.m.; and "Our Private Idaho" airs Oct. 16 at 9 p.m. on the World Channel, as will the other five episodes. Find "America By the Numbers" at their website, Facebook and Twitter.
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