The Zero-Sum Game Is Not The Answer: New Models for BIPOC-Led Media and Cultural Power Building
Part of the 2024 GIA Conference Blog
Erin Toale
A zero-sum gain is one where there is a winner and a loser. An oft-overlooked aspect of this equation is that a gain (+1) combined with a loss (-1) is a net gain of zero: stalling all collective progress. The “losing party” featured on this panel are BIPOC media makers, who have long been underfunded and in one-sided relationships with white-led regranting organizations. Panelists Jason Matsumoto (Co Founder & Co Executive Director, Full Spectrum Features) and Yvonne Welbon (Founder & CEO, Sisters in Cinema) spoke about how to create pathways for an expansive, sustainable, and equitable media landscape in Chicago and beyond.
In the Chicago spirit of collaboration and solidarity, the newly formed Chicago Media Coalition -- founded by Sisters in Cinema, Full Spectrum Features, Mezcla Media Collective, and OTV | Open Television -- is launching a platform to support general operations and strategic partnerships as a development & management commons. This revolutionary model leverages the strengths of the Coalition, individually and collectively, to catalyze the most innovative investment towards a new media infrastructure that is representative of our country’s diversity.
Image description: Seven members of the Chicago Media Coalition standing on stage for a picture following the keynote presentation. Photo credit: Earica (EP) Parrish.
Matsumoto and Welbon lead two of the four organizations that make up the Chicago Media Coalition (CMC)—a platform for fundraising, resource-sharing, and collective management. They administer the Chicago BIPOC Media Fund with the goal of “[catalyzing] investment towards a new media infrastructure that is representative of our country’s diversity.” This mission statement touches on the key point stressed in this panel—BIPOC artists need structural and financial support to tell their own stories. In order to do this, funders need to work directly with BIPOC-led storytelling organizations such as the partners that make up CMC, especially in times of crisis.
Welbon recalled the hasty invitations issued by legacy white organizations in reaction to the 2020 police murder of George Floyd. These organizations called upon BIPOC peers to—uncompensated—share their lived experiences on DEI panels intended to investigate if/how these white-led organizations were proliferating systemic racism. This was a breaking point in relationships that had long felt extractive. Further inequity persisted when it was the white-led organizations that received what Welbon called “diversity dollars”—funding specifically intended to support BIPOC storytelling—for regranting. The onus was then on the BIPOC-led entity to do all of the reporting and other administrative labor. Welbon, Matsumoto, and other BIPOC media leaders coalesced to form a strategic collaboration and began seeking direct funding. These panelists call CMC a “braided” model of collaboration and shared administrative duties, as opposed to siloed organizational work. It’s important to note that CMC was initially met with resistance for being “too young” of an organization, and continues to be told that their work is too new and/or doesn’t have an audience (a highly subjective chicken/egg situation).
It is imperative that granmakers directly fund such young, BIPOC-led media outlets. Media should be representative of the populations consuming it; people should be able to turn on the TV or go see a movie and see themselves reflected back. The stark lack of diversity in media is not reflective of Chicago’s population census data. The demographic statistics for who receives arts funding in Chicago remain wildly unequal, but CMC is working to rectify that while creating jobs and bolstering the creative economy here.
Matsumoto and Welbon’s work with CMC has created a sustainable pipeline for BIPOC media makers in Chicago. They provide financial support, administrative resources (such as production and distribution), and amenities such as childcare so that BIPOC creatives can not just survive but thrive. Matsumoto encouraged risk-taking in grant making—saying that investment in the arts “can transform the entire media landscape and build cultural power” for historically under-represented populations. CMC is committed to planting the seeds for a new and equitable creative ecosystem, and funders need to take drastic action as we work together towards a positive-sum game.
ABOUT THE KEYNOTE
Yvonne Welbon and Jason Matsumoto emphasized the importance of BIPOC-led storytelling and highlighted the need for a significant shift in today’s models of philanthropic support to achieve a thriving, representative media ecosystem. They also introduced the Chicago Media Coalition, a partnership of four BIPOC-led media arts organizations, catalyzing the individual and collective strengths of its members to build a new media infrastructure.
