ReThink Media knows that who gets heard—and who doesn’t—matters. We measure “voiceshare” to capture which voices in a conversation are being amplified and which are being silenced, and how that changes over time. In this chart, we show that very little of the discussion around national security issues (specifically, nuclear arms control and disarmament) is coming from advocates of color, although their voiceshare has been increasing the last few years. Still, most of the advocacy voices the public is hearing from are white. We know from public opinion research that communities of color in the US are just as concerned about these issues as their white counterparts once they learn about them, but BIPOC respondents are less likely than white respondents to prioritize these issues at first glance. This makes it even more important that BIPOC advocates’ voices are represented in the national conversation: they can reach BIPOC audiences more effectively.

There are a few sets of partners we need to enlist in turning this curve. One set is advocacy organizations. These are the institutions that hire and promote BIPOC spokespeople, and they must do a better job of supporting BIPOC advocates in spokesperson roles.
Another is BIPOC spokespeople themselves. Their role is to do the difficult job of acting as spokespeople—and, before that, thinking of themselves as potential spokespeople. This is not a job for everyone, but many talented would-be spokespeople don’t recognize that they could do it.
A third is ReThink Media ourselves. We have the expertise and experience to train current and aspiring spokespeople in the skills they need to do this job persuasively. We must create a larger set of BIPOC spokespeople so that their voices exist to be amplified. Further, ReThink also works with many journalists and media outlets, and we have a role in convincing the media that they must feature a more diverse set of spokespeople in their work.
Fourth and no less important is the media: journalists, editors, bookers, and outlets. The media bears responsibility for quoting and featuring certain voices and ignoring others. When the “supply” of BIPOC spokespeople exists, the media must also create the “demand” for it—or believe in the demand that exists in BIPOC audiences (as mentioned above).

ReThink has worked with advocates for Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) civil and human rights for at least a decade. In that time, we have had great success working with all of the partners listed above to broaden the amplify and diversify the voices of AMEMSA advocates represented in the media. We have used approaches such as: creating spokesperson cohorts that go through a intensive training program together, then continue to receive our assistance to build their media profiles and experience; working with journalists and media outlets to increase the demand for spokespeople with lived experience relevant to these issues; tracking and measuring the sector’s progress (both each cohort’s media hits and the voiceshare of the broader advocacy community) to fine-tune our approach.

To turn this curve, as we have with the AMEMSA advocacy community, we are launching a new training program for BIPOC spokespeople from the peace and security sector, open to folks at all levels of their careers. We are working with Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS), Organizations in Solidarity, and many other advocacy organizations in this sector to both create the program and to nominate candidates for the training. (Nominations just opened on 10/21, with the training program set to launch in Q1 of 2022.) After the training series itself, ReThink will continue to support these trainees by pitching them to journalists, assisting them with writing op-eds and preparing for interviews, and tracking their progress. We will also continue putting pressure on the media to feature a more diverse set of spokespeople, potentially by releasing our analysis publicly. And we will continue to work with the partners above to ensure that trainees’ employers support them as spokespeople, giving them opportunities to speak on behalf of the organization.