Colorlines fills in missing pieces of master narrative

As a middle-class, white, privileged young woman, I feel that to have a completed worldview I must make an effort to understand those who are less privileged than I. This is one of the most important principles to me when taking in the news – are all voices heard? Is the master narrative a fair analysis for everyone? Independent sources like Colorlines serve a twofold purpose: they help people of color who are often silenced by the mainstream media to stay informed about their communities, and it helps those who come from much more privileged positions to understand what these communities go through on a daily basis.

Colorlines has a clean, organized interface with the trending topics listed across the top of the page – Trump presidency, gender and sexuality, Islamophobia, and criminalization. These topics are life and death for communities of color, yet somehow the mainstream media fails to capture the perspectives that Colorlines magnifies. Many people have the privilege to ignore these sources and listen only to mainstream media, which often skims over or ignores the perspectives of people of color. 

Situations like the Dakota Access Pipeline come to mind when I skimmed the site - during that event I constantly felt as if I were missing pieces of the puzzle that the mainstream media would not disclose. I turned to sources like Democracy Now! which covered the events from the perspective of those who were protesting the construction. Independent sources like these helped me to understand the plight of the people of color who were not receiving their airtime they deserved during this event. Colorlines and Democracy Now! both provided the perspectives of the oppressed in the situation, rather than relying on the mainstream media to cover mostly the side of the oppressors. 

It is so important for the voices of the less privileged to be not only heard, but projected across the country and world. Colorlines is a wonderful source to project these voices which are not promoted by the mainstream media. I believe that everyone should look at sources like Colorlines for their news to understand the issues which may not be as clear to a person of privilege.