Xpress’ preferential coverage of recent festivals disappointing

I was surprised to see the LAAFF festival on the front cover of the Mountain Xpress [“Need a LAAF?”  Sept.1] this week. Not that I don't thoroughly enjoy that annual festival.

It's just that the week before was Goombay, which got a quarter page on page 67 [“Back on the Block,” Aug. 25 Xpress] with a cover about the cost of Pack Square – not even a mention that this year some of the entertainment of Goombay actually took place on that new stage.

Both festivals are annual; both take place on a four-block area and have a variety of entertainment, vendors and street theater. Many people at Goombay said they only wandered in because they heard music as they happened by.

Why not give this African heritage festival the same kind of publicity as the hippie festival? Unfortunately, we still suffer from unconscious racism, which prioritizes events that highlight aspects of white culture over aspects of black culture.

Only by paying attention to these kinds of discrepancies will we eliminate racism.

— Kathryn Liss
Asheville

Editor’s response: Thank you for your attention. We make coverage decisions based on the best information we have at the time of our print deadlines. In this case, we were able to print the full Goombay schedule in our issue, and we included photo galleries and blog posts on our web site. Find more at mountainx.com.

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4 thoughts on “Xpress’ preferential coverage of recent festivals disappointing

  1. pff

    HaHA!-She called LAFF ‘white culture’. Man, if that’s white culture, we suck!

    Great points though, Kathryn

  2. Asheville Dweller

    Only the Faux-Hippy genre festivals catch the MX eye, dont feel bad this was the 1st year they covered the pow-wow in Cherokee.

  3. asheville resident

    nice how this op ed is in an issue with another minority-based festival on the front cover and getting great coverage… looks balanced to me.

  4. Piffy!

    [b]nice how this op ed is in an issue with another minority-based festival on the front cover and getting great coverage… looks balanced to me. [/b]

    yeah, those poor, maligned white rastas.

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