My girlfriend is doing a story for our school newspaper about institutional racism and how it plays out in our everyday reactions on campus. She opens up with an example of a teacher describing to a class about the controversy between Native American burial grounds and construction projects. Then, one of the students in class (a white female) raises her hand and says, in disbelief. "Really? They bury their own kin? I thought they ate themselves!"
Pretty messed up huh? Especially when the teacher didn't address the issue she brought up and instead just told her she was wrong and left it at that. But why I'm blogging about this is that one of the editors (who's a Chinese and Latino male) who is editing her story said she should get rid of that quote because it's racist...against whites. Huh? Excuse me?
When I first heard this in the news lab and I was pretty flabbergasted and upset. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I asked my girlfriend out loud. "Jesus Christ. That guy's an idiot! Don't listen to that shit."
This brings up a whole lot of issues that I don't really want to talk about now, especially since I'm working on a multimedia piece right now and I have to go through all of the audio and pictures that I collected over the past seven weeks. But I will say this (and I will latter expound this point in an upcoming blog):
It's interesting to note that the editor seemed to focus on the fact that my girlfriend mentioned that it was a white woman who said that comment instead of the actual racist comment it self. He saw racism where it wasn't instead of where it truly was.
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3 comments:
Shocking but not surprising, really. Not anymore, at least to me. Yesterday, a Venezuelan was talking down about Mexicans in front of me. The sad irony, she is an immigrant, no realizing that the establishment is lumping her in the same boat with all the Mexicans she despises. And not matter how much she wishes to distance herself, it is her heavy accent that will not let her.
I would imagine that editor is suffering from the same self-denial as the Venezuelan. They just don't realize no matter much they can conform to "fit" in, it is the current status quo that won't let them.
OMG! What the hell? Okay don't get worked up over someone who is clearly ridiculous and biased. Even if the remark is edited out maybe people will just assume the person is White anyway. I notice things like the fact that most serial killers and sex tourists are white is never mentioned. It also isn't mentioned that most powder cocaine and meth users are white. Yet people are quick to link gang violence, sexist and racist music, school drop-out, and crack to Black people. I don't think its racist to state the race of the person who said the racist remark. This is just another case where the person who points out racism is called a racist.
Some people think that anything that shows white supremacy in a bad light is "white bashing." Not so!
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