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MINORITIES 2000 Minorities -- now sometimes known as of or AHANA (an acronym for African-American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American)--are questioning their status in public relations more fervently and overtly than ever before. At the same time, the field is beginning to realize that ethnic diveristy is its future: for this profession and all businesses, demographic trends will mean that Work Force 2000 will be far different than Work Force 1989. It's estimated that, over the next decade, the number of minorities in the work force will jump by 9 percent, meaning that they will account for 30 percent, or nearly one-third, of employees. Overall, 80 percent of the work force will be made up of non-whites, femals and immigrants. Because of these converging forces, the outlook right now for minorities in public relations is perhaps at its most crucial point since a few pioneers broke the field's color barrier 50 years ago. Momentum for change seems to be stirring to a degree unseen in recent years. But will this impetus be strong enough to significantly improve minority practitioners' status during the next decade and beyond? Change so far has been slow in coming. Joseph Baker, APR, a Philadelphia-based counselor, became the first black to take an active role in public relations in the 1930s, the first to become a PRSA chapter president, and apparently, the first to be accredited. However, aside from a handful of minorities who entered the profession at about the same time as Baker, there were so significant numbers chooing public relations until the '60s and '70s. Since then, the numbers haven't increased greatly. In 1980, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 4,000, or 5 percent, of the 70,000 people classified as public relations specialists were minorities. By 1987, the figure was only 7.3 percent--this compared to a 21 percent representation of minorities in the work force as a whole. In other words, by any standard, minorities are greatly underrepresented in public relations. Clearly, public relations is not leading the field of minority employment opportunity. That, of course, is an understatement, said John Paluszek, APR, PRSA president and president of Ketchum Affairs, speaking in May to members of the society's Los Angeles chapter, the local chapter of the Black Relations Society (BPRS) and the Hispanic Relations Association (HPRA). Cycle begins in high school If current enrollments in universities and colleges nationwide are any indication, there will be more minorities knocking on the doors of corporate public relations departments and firms in the near future. According to Dennis Wilcox, Phillip Ault and Warren Agee, authors of Public Relations Strategies and Tactics, 8.6 percent of all students enrolled in journalism classes are minorities; at least some of them are likely to find their way into public relations. Moreover, the progress of minorities working within the media--fostered by a growing number of media-sponsored minority training programs, fellowships, scholarships and competitions--has drawn the attention of the general and business press and contributed to a re-examination of minority status within public relations. But those in the field say that, although minorities have made some progress, a cycle of serious problems in recruitment, mentoring, hiring, advancement, and retention continues to discourage their entry into public relations and to impede the professional growth of those who do enter the field. There is an absence at the high school level of counseling public relations as a viable career option, says Ruby Miller, APR, manager of socioeconomic programs and administrative support at Martin Marietta Energy Systems in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Miller was the first black female to be elected to the National Board of Directors of PRSA, and the second black American to hold such a position (the first was John Arnold III). …
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