FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2018
NAHJ Leadership discusses ‘Despacito’ skit with NYFWA President
Washington, D.C. – This morning, President Hugo Balta and leaders of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) spoke with New York Financial Writers’ Association (NYFWA) President Carolyn Marie Crapo about the inappropriate skit ‘Puerto Rican Debt Crisis’ performed at the association’s annual Financial Follies. NAHJ was made aware of the blatant racist content within the skit over the weekend and called on NYFWA to give thought to the performance and its messaging.
Within the discussion this morning, NYFWA explained that the performance was intended to mock the ‘cluelessness of bankers’ in relation to the Puerto Rican Debt Crisis in a satirical manner, but recognized that the way it was presented was problematic and considered insensitive by many. “The intent might not have been to offend, but the impact was certainly that”, said President Balta. “Messages of any type often miss their mark when the community they’re about are not included in producing it”, he continued.
When asked if anyone associated with writing the skit was a member of the Puerto Rican community, President Crapo shared that a Colombian member NYFWA was involved, but admitted that the skit should have been further reviewed before its performance. “Just because a person is Latino (in this case Colombian),it does not mean they are the authority of what is permissible to another Latino”, advised president Balta.
President Crapo accepted NAHJ Region 2 Director, Jose Diaz offer of assistance from local chapters of NAHJ for advisement on appropriate language within NYFWA’s future content.
President Crapo notes that, “the point of the Follies is not really to network but that its main purpose, as it has been for 76 years, is to raise money for scholarships, We are pleased that we are able to assist 5-6 NYC journalism students from all backgrounds every year due to this event.”
The association is aware that the lack of diversity of NYFWA’s members is a problem. President Crapo attests that the association has taken a strong lesson from this experience and vows to be more conscious of their messaging and increase efforts to recruit more diverse members to the association.
NAHJ President Hugo Balta, Region 2 Director Jose Diaz, NAHJ NYC President Monica Castillo and VP of NAHJ NYC Keldy Ortiz would like to thank President Crapo and NYFWA for taking the time to discuss this issue and having a constructive conversation.
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About NAHJ The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is the largest organization of Latino journalists in the United States and dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry. The mission of NAHJ is to increase the number of Latinos in the newsrooms and to work toward fair and accurate representation of Latinos in news media. Established in April 1984, NAHJ created a national voice and unified vision for all Hispanic journalists. NAHJ has approximately 2,300 members, including working journalists, journalism students, other media-related professionals and journalism educators. For more information please visit NAHJ.org or follow on Twitter @NAHJ.
Media Contact:
BA Snyder
Veritas Group for NAHJ
512.630.6337
BA@VeritasAustin.com