It took 200 years for the US government to officially mark February as Black History Month, with bicentennial President Ford proclaiming that we “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
In the case of these three titles — Ebony, Jet and Essence — the government was playing catch-up, making them as much a part of black history as the events they cover.
And given the magazine industry’s ebbing fortunes in recent years, the stability of these titles is also making history.
Ebony, which was launched in 1945 by Chicago-based Johnson Co., has long outlived its model, Life magazine, and this month it had just the topic to showcase its stuff. The mag devotes 28 of its 158 pages to the death of Nelson Mandela, and Ebony didn’t disappoint. We particularly liked that Ebony pointed out that Mandela wasn’t always so beloved in the US. As one of the magazine’s essayists noted, President Reagan vetoed sanctions against apartheid South Africa in the 1980s. And since February is also the unofficial month of love, with Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14, Ebony also reports on several black couples who seem to have figured out how to have it all.
Although a few years newer than Ebony — it first published in 1951 — its sister news magazine Jet became known as the bible of the civil rights movement, in part for its coverage of the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi, a pivotal event. We like the fact that Jet is still the same digest-size it was when launched and remains part of the Johnson publishing company. But we wish Jet had celebrated its historical role in this issue’s avowed celebration of black history. Instead it put hip-hop superstar Kendrick Lamar on its cover. The profile of him, sadly, doesn’t showcase his “social responsibility” that the magazine’s editor promises.
The other major black title, Essence, is a classic women’s magazine (and part of the Time Inc. stable) with fashion and beauty tips and the constant search for love and men. Black history gets unusual treatment here with such things as a pop quiz on black cultural history and book reviews. ( “The richest black girl in America” is apparently found in the book, “Searching for Sarah Rector.”) On the issue front, Essence has a timely feature on the sad plight of uninsured, poor black working women in the US. The story of blacks in America, this poignant article reminds us, is a work in progress.
Monsanto’s nasty chemicals and ruthless attacks on small farmers have been well chronicled by critics. This week, the New Yorker takes a swipe at lesser-known agribusiness giant Syngenta. According to juicy internal e-mails, Syngenta has orchestrated a fierce, multiyear p.r. campaign against scientist Tyrone Hayes, who says its herbicide atrazine isn’t something you want your kids near. Rounding up dozens of other professors to counter Hayes’s claims, the mag details a smorgasbord of company smear and intimidation tactics that sound like the equivalent of dousing an anthill with gasoline. On a more inspiring (and possibly surprising) note, there’s a profile of swimmer Diana Nyad who, after four failed attempts that spanned decades, finally swam from Cuba to Florida at age 64.
For those of us who haven’t lately seen Jimmy Fallon on enough mag covers, New York comes to the rescue. We also get an interview with Lorne Michaels who, asked if he has a succession plan for himself, responds that, “Milton Berle, George Burns, and Bob Hope, they all made it to 100 pretty close.” We also get a profile of blogger Ezra Klein, who left the Washington Post for a start-up whose business model remains somewhat murky. The new site, Klein says, will relieve Web surfers from the tiresome and unproductive activity of reading news so they can actually understand what’s happening in the world. Also, in the lotsa-luck-with-that department, we get an attempt to explain “how gentrification actually works,” which extends the hope that art-gentrification programs will make it impossible for money-grubbing lawyers to ruin cool neighborhoods.
The reality is better laid out in Time’s piece on San Francisco, where longtime residents of the historically poor Mission neighborhood are being shipped out in droves to make way for zillionaire tech kids. The mag chronicles gripes of the former and has a nice photo of protesters surrounding a Google commuter bus. On the other hand, it says the “tech companies are making the economy hum” without explaining how this is the case for the people who are getting kicked out of their houses. We likewise thought it interesting that economics columnist Rana Foroohar, railing against inequality, quotes two rather surprising “good guys” to support her column’s thesis: former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Warren Buffett.