Meet Alexis Reed, a Fall 2020 Lede New Orleans Fellow
Alexis Reed will be doing community reporting work in New Orleans this fall as part of the Lede New Orleans fellowship.
By Jennifer Larino
Alexis Reed, a senior at the University of New Orleans, has represented Haiti as a model United Nations ambassador and studied abroad in Japan. But her biggest project yet has been reeducating herself on what it means to be a New Orleanian.
Reed, a graduate of Edna Karr High School, said she had felt disconnected from the city until finding the New Orleans Youth Alliance and taking part in its fellowship program, where she learned about local issues and civic leadership. Reed, 22, is interested in reporting on youth leadership and health care disparities in the Black community.
What does equitable media mean to you?
I think equitable media is allowing Black people, in particular, to have control of their own narratives… It’s about representation. Being intentional about it. Allowing people to learn and enter this space. Accessibility is really important. Also, it’s the willingness of people who are currently in the industry to say ‘I can’t speak on this, let me get more informed,’ as opposed to following stigmas and assumptions.
If you got to design your own community reporting beat, what would it be?
Medical apartheid in health care. The history [of health care] and current practices are very discriminatory. Black people aren’t listened to… We should have more choices when it comes to health care. I feel like there should be more accessibility to herbal remedies and holistic health care. It shouldn’t just be like a doctor at Tulane hospital or some place like that. I wish I had more options. There should be more doulas as well.
The pandemic has magnified health inequities facing Black and brown communities. What are you seeing?
I’m seeing posters pander towards the Black community to wear masks. I’ve seen commercials with a local rapper, which is very stereotypical. To have a rapper pander to the Black community to do something on behalf of elected officials. We’re constantly being told to wear masks. I pay attention to national media and I know that there are white people nationally who are blatantly not wearing masks. But in our communities, it’s plastered everywhere…
I just think of medical apartheid. I think about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. I think about the biases. I think about Black women today still dying at a higher rate than white women when giving birth. I question a lot of the things around COVID-19 and it’s really kind of frustrating… I think it’s fair to question things, but it’s also uncomfortable to question the majority.
What is your goal for this fellowship?
To get more comfortable with video editing and filming. The phrase “tech savvy” almost intimidates me and I don’t know why. It’s almost like being in math class when you’re intimidated by a math problem. That’s kind of like how I feel.
I also definitely want to showcase youth who are improving the quality of life in New Orleans… When it comes to local media, I feel like we’re always painted either as criminals or as the one Lusher [Charter School] student who got a perfect score on the ACT and is going away for college and got these millions of dollars in scholarships. I want to show the variety of who we are, but also that there’s a lot of leadership in New Orleans.
