Strategically Communicating

Los Angeles Daily News: “In effort to ease ‘pain,’ LA County leaders replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day”

The first person I shared the story with was my boyfriend (27, face to face – conservative on fiscal issues, moderate on social issues), second person was my best friend back in LA (26, via text – liberal & easily influenced by mainstream media), third person was my mother (59, via phone call – Christian, conservative) and the last person was an old coworker (36, via text – moderate on most issues).

In initially telling my boyfriend, I knew I was going to leave out specific, strong adjectives (I later showed him the real article). While texting my best friend, I started with a one-line text, telling her about the change LA County made and that opened up a conversation to discuss further. After catching up with my mother on our week, I asked if she had heard about the “change of holiday over there.” I was able to keep the story close to the original article because I knew this subject matter wouldn’t touch on any of the issues she is very conservative on. The reaction from my coworker was similar to that of my best friend. They are both Hispanic and hold tightly onto their culture. I did the opposite with these two women than what I did while telling my boyfriend – I kept the strong adjectives in the story while texting. Both women agreed with/were happy about the change.

The audience I relayed the story to is aware of the backstory on Columbus (despite what is taught starting in elementary school). All four people are of Mexican descent and because of this subject, I would prefer not to change the story as this issue would not cause much of a rift.