Today's fail in media: racism and homophobia
[Trigger warning for discussions of sexual offences, racism, and homophobia of the worst kind, also in the links.]
Ah, BBC News... Woke up to Newswatch, which failed by not really addressing the Elton John/David Furnish adoption story problem with anything other than reporting it and mentioning that the BBC stood by its coverage, which they laughably call "balanced". (Quick recap: Elton John & David Furnish had a child, conceived via surrogacy, and the BBC decided to cover this by giving airtime to a right wing extremist from an organisation called "Christian Voice", who, to put it mildly, don't like gay people.) There was no one in the studio to answer questions, and while they did have a feature from a viewer who explained why it was offensive, they didn't seem interested in challenging things in the least. Which is, as I understand it, sort of Newswatch's job.
But, of course, it was the actual news itself which woke me up from a Saturday morning snooze properly, in which Jack Straw, MP, decided to argue that if you were white and a sex offender, that just means you're a sex offender, but if you're a person of colour Pakistani and a sex offender, it's a community problem that should be addressed by the Pakistani community in Britain, because, and this is almost literally what his argument comes down to, "they are targetting vulnerable young white girls." You know, on purpose. Like, say, a white sex offender does. Or you know, sex offenders do. Because they're sex offenders. The disturbing thing about this case is that Straw, a white, straight, cis male whose career has, I'm sure, not been hampered by being part of the dominant social class, dares to accuse a community which he knows zip about of having a "cultural problem", and reduces serious sexual offences against teenagers to that, too.
I don't know and don't really want to know how and why the offenders selected their victims, or if race had something to do with it, because when you start picking up twelve year olds to groom for sex, you are a sex offender and race has nothing to do with that. And by pretending that only white girls can be "vulnerable victims", as if victims of colour to sex crimes of this kind or other kinds don't exist, he is misrepresenting a lot of facts. Not to mention contributing to a problem where, precisely because only cases with white victims are highlighted in the media, the idea persistently exists in Western society that sex crimes are a white problem, and as a result, there's precious little help and support available to victims of colour.
And there's the fun third thing about the BBC News this morning... Newswatch was willing to address the issue of how much attention the Jo Yeates murder has been getting (Quick recap: Jo Yeates was a white, middle class woman who went missing around Christmas time and was found murdered on Christmas day. Police investigation into the case is ongoing) and they talked a lot about how this might be a class issue, but failed to address that this case is a classic example of Missing White Woman Syndrome. I said those very words the first time I caught a hint of this story, and I stand by them. Not because the Jo Yeates case doesn't deserve media coverage, but because I watch the BBC News six days out of seven, and the amount of times the network covers a story about a missing or dead white woman is significantly more often than the coverage of stories with a victim of colour.
Belgian public television announced they were going to introduce quotas for talkshows, news, and other broadcasts a few months ago. Quotas for the amount of women, people of colour, and GLBs would have to appear in those programmes, both as guests and presenters. That idea is looking pretty good to me right now.
(ETA: caladria pointed out I misrepresented Straw's statement to cover all persons of colour, instead of the Pakistani community, which Straw specifically addressed. Therefore, changed.)
Ah, BBC News... Woke up to Newswatch, which failed by not really addressing the Elton John/David Furnish adoption story problem with anything other than reporting it and mentioning that the BBC stood by its coverage, which they laughably call "balanced". (Quick recap: Elton John & David Furnish had a child, conceived via surrogacy, and the BBC decided to cover this by giving airtime to a right wing extremist from an organisation called "Christian Voice", who, to put it mildly, don't like gay people.) There was no one in the studio to answer questions, and while they did have a feature from a viewer who explained why it was offensive, they didn't seem interested in challenging things in the least. Which is, as I understand it, sort of Newswatch's job.
But, of course, it was the actual news itself which woke me up from a Saturday morning snooze properly, in which Jack Straw, MP, decided to argue that if you were white and a sex offender, that just means you're a sex offender, but if you're a person of colour Pakistani and a sex offender, it's a community problem that should be addressed by the Pakistani community in Britain, because, and this is almost literally what his argument comes down to, "they are targetting vulnerable young white girls." You know, on purpose. Like, say, a white sex offender does. Or you know, sex offenders do. Because they're sex offenders. The disturbing thing about this case is that Straw, a white, straight, cis male whose career has, I'm sure, not been hampered by being part of the dominant social class, dares to accuse a community which he knows zip about of having a "cultural problem", and reduces serious sexual offences against teenagers to that, too.
I don't know and don't really want to know how and why the offenders selected their victims, or if race had something to do with it, because when you start picking up twelve year olds to groom for sex, you are a sex offender and race has nothing to do with that. And by pretending that only white girls can be "vulnerable victims", as if victims of colour to sex crimes of this kind or other kinds don't exist, he is misrepresenting a lot of facts. Not to mention contributing to a problem where, precisely because only cases with white victims are highlighted in the media, the idea persistently exists in Western society that sex crimes are a white problem, and as a result, there's precious little help and support available to victims of colour.
And there's the fun third thing about the BBC News this morning... Newswatch was willing to address the issue of how much attention the Jo Yeates murder has been getting (Quick recap: Jo Yeates was a white, middle class woman who went missing around Christmas time and was found murdered on Christmas day. Police investigation into the case is ongoing) and they talked a lot about how this might be a class issue, but failed to address that this case is a classic example of Missing White Woman Syndrome. I said those very words the first time I caught a hint of this story, and I stand by them. Not because the Jo Yeates case doesn't deserve media coverage, but because I watch the BBC News six days out of seven, and the amount of times the network covers a story about a missing or dead white woman is significantly more often than the coverage of stories with a victim of colour.
Belgian public television announced they were going to introduce quotas for talkshows, news, and other broadcasts a few months ago. Quotas for the amount of women, people of colour, and GLBs would have to appear in those programmes, both as guests and presenters. That idea is looking pretty good to me right now.
(ETA: caladria pointed out I misrepresented Straw's statement to cover all persons of colour, instead of the Pakistani community, which Straw specifically addressed. Therefore, changed.)