Black and White in Memphis Media show a lack of direct questions and answers.

In the city of Memphis, TN, the issue of race and racism has been the center of controversy since the civil rights movements of the 60's.

This Tuesday evening the University of Memphis held a panel discussion on the issue of race in Memphis Media. While one key speaker and a large audience never made it to the campus's Rose Theater the biggest piece missing from the discussion was direct answers to the questions asked to them.

"It felt like everyone was walking on eggshells when they answered the questions," Amanda Hastings, 21, of Millington TN, said.

Hastings said that she had come expecting to hear an open and honest debate about the issue and instead most of the panelists seemed to waffel their answers.

The panel of speakers, which consisted of news-anchor Joe Birch and former anchor for WMC-TV Donna Davis, news directors Ken Jobe, Bruce Moore and Jim Turpin, Otis Sanford, the editor for opinion and editorials for The Commercial Appeal , the Director of the Tri-State defender Dr. Karanja Ajanaku, and the executive director of the local chapter of the NAACP, Ms. Johnnie Turner, was missing a very important guest Tuesday night.

Originally accepting the offer of The University to sit on the panel, Mayor W.W. Herenton decided to decline the offer last week and probably to the dismay of the panel, the journalism department, and his image on the campus.

The biggest disappointment of the night was the seeming lack of straight talk that occured within the discussion. Herenton's spot, however, was filled by Memphis City council member Wanda Halbert, who is known for having opinions and in her own words "being blunt".

Hastings said that while the discussion as a whole was lacking, there were two bright spots that did shine on the evening by actually giving direct answers to the questions at hand, one being Ms. Halbert and the other being Ms. Turner.

"They were the ones I liked the best in this discussion, not because I agree with them, but because they acctually gave straight forward answers to the questions they were asked," Hastings said. "The discussion was still bad though, I mean it would have been better had everyone just been as blunt as they were. I just don't think that Memphis will every be able to truely work on its race issues until the people start being truthful."