The Happy Hour Episode 3: A NECESSARY CONVERSATION Part 2

Diversifying our newsroom for the future

Malakai Wade, shaylyn martos, Nia Coats, and Whitney Papalii • Aug 28, 2020

Welcome to our first Happy Hour episode of the fall semester! Your palate cleansing podcast is here to provide some fresh insight on the relationship between the SF State Black Student Union and the Golden Gate Xpress, social media slactivism, and how we experience reporting from certain identity roles.

Join hosts Malakai Wade (@malakaiwade) and shaylyn martos (@shaylynmartos) in our second part of a conversation with Xpress reporters Nia Coats and Whitney Papalii about their recent work and personal experiences.

We find our happiness through sharing our passions with people we respect. Change begins with necessary conversation, and results from organized action.

Listen to part 1 here.

Find this week’s stories and background below:

Nia’s stories:
Black entrepreneurs make way for racial equity in cannabis industry (link)

Black Invincibility: The Myth (link)

Whitney’s stories:

BSU fundraiser unites campus groups to support Black businesses (link)

Black Residents United in Housing hosts its first meeting of the semester to welcome back students (link)

Background research (optional!):
SFSU Resource Guide, collected by the BSU (link)

Fighting inequity in the face of COVID-19 (link)

Gater article from 1967 (link)

‘We still have a long way to go,’ say 1968 SF State activists (link)

The fight for Ethnic Studies continues (link)

Promises unfulfilled for College of Ethnic Studies (link)

Bitch Media’s Editor in Chief Evette Dionne tweets about identity roles (link)

Overcoming systemic racism begins in our own newsrooms (link)

About the Contributors

Malakai Wade

Malakai is a senior journalism student at SFSU and the Editor-in-Chief of Xpress Magazine. She is in her last semester after finishing a minor in International Relations. Malakai wants to focus on multimedia productions such as podcasting and video, as well as magazine design and publishing. She likes writing about global feminism, community organizations, and other artists. She also co-hosts and produces The Happy Hour Podcast, a comedy/news/talkshow all about happy stories. Catch her at home or wearing a mask when she goes out.

shaylyn martos

shaylyn martos (she/her) works to provide better representation of LGBTQ+ people in media, and produces stories that address possible solutions to larger, systemic issues. She currently serves as multimedia editor for SF State's Golden Gate Xpress and produces The Happy Hour Podcast. In 2019, shaylyn was honored as an NPR Next Generation Radio Mentee. When not chasing a story, shaylyn can be found reading speculative fiction, cooking her favorite native Chamorro foods or bombing at a stand-up open mic. She's online @shaylynmartos

Nia Coats

Nia Coats is a San Francisco Native and a 4th year journalism student at San Francisco State. Her beat is mainly telling Black stories along with arts and culture. She also conducts interviews on her independently ran blog Lucky7mag.org.

Whitney Papalii

Whitney Papalii is a student at San Francisco University, pursuing a BA in Journalism (Online/Print) and a minor in Women and Gender Studies. This is her last semester as a student at SFSU and first semester writing for Golden Gate Xpress. Originally from Los Angeles, Whitney was a student at Santa Monica College before she transferred schools and moved up to the Bay Area. After graduation, she hopes to find a job that fulfills her interests in writing and fashion. Her other interests include social media, local news, and design.