Visual Racial Exclusion

     

     My reporter's instincts cause me to pay attention when groups of people look out of place.
     The population of The City of Montgomery is roughly 60% African-American and 30% White. That's why there has been so much attention paid to the race of the candidates for mayor in the election two weeks from now. 
     Montgomery is the only large city in the state that has never elected a black mayor.
     I wonder what's going on when I see a TV commercial for a Montgomery business that includes photos of its employees, and all of the dozen or so workers in the commercial are white. Does the company not have any black employees? Or did they include only their white employees in the commercial? And if so, why?
     There's a big BBQ event downtown this weekend that has me wondering the same. I've never been to it, but The Montgomery Advertiser published a story on Tuesday that included a dozen photos and video from previous years with many hundreds of people visible. There is only one black girl visible in one photo, and one black female performer in a music video posted with the story. So far as I can tell, everyone else appears to to be white.
     The event is children with cancer fundraiser, and a webpage describing the event shows four photos from previous years. 100% white folks.
     I applaud volunteers and non-profit groups raising money to help causes like pediatric cancer. But pediatric cancer effects all races. Why does this at least appear to be a white event, especially given the city's racial history.

RELATED: N.Y. Times story about health and race:

“Racism is a significant social determinant of health clearly prevalent in our society now,” said Dr. Maria Trent, a professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine...