January 21, 2011 | 10:51 AM | By

One Station, Many Voices

FILED UNDER: Media, Diversity, LGBT, WAMU

DCentric

Today’s WAMU commentary is from Joel Carela, who is part of WAMU’s Youth Voices program in partnership with Youth Radio and D.C’s Latin American Youth Center.

I’ve always been put off by TV shows and movies that glorify casual sex. Like the “American Pie” movies, whose main characters are always in search of a quick and easy hook-up. They make the guys who can separate sex and emotions seem normal and emasculate the ones who develop feelings beyond the mattress.

As an emotional person, I never liked that message — but I guess somehow it seeped into my brain.

Last fall, I started college and moved into a dorm with more than 100 other hormonal teenagers. Suddenly, we had easy access to all sorts of things that were out of reach back home: alcohol, drugs and each other.

It wasn’t long before I started to connect really well with a guy in my international politics class, who also happened to live across the hall. We shared an affinity for baroque-era choral music and an interest in the British monarchy.

You can listen to it, here.

One of the DCentric-related possibilities that delighted me when I started this job– at a station I have loved and listened to for twelve years–was the idea that like our @FrontDeskAmy on Twitter, I could occasionally give you a little glimpse in to what it’s like to be here.

Many of my friends who are journalists of color lament that their workplaces aren’t very diverse– I don’t feel that way at WAMU, where my boss is African-American, the reporter who sat behind me was South Asian and our General Manager is a woman of color, too. Some may scoff at a word like “diversity”– why should it matter, right? The news is news, reporters and commentators should just do their jobs and do them well. That is true, but so is this– our identities shape who we are, and sometimes, they shape our stories, adding an element or detail with which some of us can identify.

About the author

DCentric was created to examine the ways race and class interact in Washington, D.C., a city with a vibrant mix of cultures and neighborhoods. Your guides to the changing district are reporters Anna John and Elahe Izadi. View all posts by Anna →

  • Gmail2050

    “Many of my friends who are journalists of color lament that their workplaces aren’t very diverse– I don’t feel that way at WAMU, where my boss is African-American, the reporter who sat behind me was South Asian and our General Manager is a woman of color, too. Some may scoff at a word like “diversity”– why should it matter, right? The news is news, reporters and commentators should just do their jobs and do them well. That is true, but so is this– our identities shape who we are, and sometimes, they shape our stories, adding an element or detail with which some of us can identify.”

    If White people express the same sentiment its considered “racism”.