Is this racist?

[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Do you agree that there is such a thing a “Missing White Girl Syndrome”, which works like this?

[quote]“missing white girl” syndrome, and it continues to be one of the most pernicious expressions of our contemporary media culture. The latest celebrity victim is an adorable little girl named Caylee Anthony, a child who has been missing for months from the care of an unstable mother, who remains in jail. . .

Caylee Anthony is the latest in a long list of celebrity victims, or should I say, victims who become celebrities. You know their names by now: Polly Klaas, JonBenet Ramsey, Elizabeth Smart, Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, Natalee Holloway, and now Caylee Anthony. These victims, who were either kidnapped or murdered or both, have several things in common:

  • They are white.
  • They are female.
  • They are young.
  • They are either cute or attractive.
  • They are middle class or upper-middle class.
  • They are the center of a mystery: either “where is she” or “who killed her.”
  • They have advocates who are capable of keeping their names in the news.
  • They have a photo or video record of their lives that can be used, over and over again, by television producers.

. . . What about the black children or brown children who are missing or dead? What about the poor children? What about the boys? What about the men of any color?

Beneath the endless cable promotions and unquenchable public curiosity is a dark hole. If you shine a light into that hole you will find three familiar demons: racism, sexism, and a virulent class bias. . .

Here’s how it works. . . First you identify an appropriate victim. Then you alert us time and time again of her and our collective vulnerability. The exposure turns the victim into a celebrity, a household name. You create an irresistible story engine, a question that viewers need to have answered: Is this girl dead or alive? What happened to her? Where is she? Who did this to her? Why isn’t law enforcement more effective in finding the victim or prosecuting the criminal? Finally, to justify continuing coverage, you treat even the tiniest new development in the case as “breaking news” or an “exclusive report.”

. . . . Please try and think of exceptions to this coverage if you can. Perhaps you recall the recent case of murder involving relatives of actress and singer Jennifer Hudson, who lost her mother, brother, and nephew. Jennifer Hudson gained her fame through “American Idol” and her Oscar-winning performance in “Dreamgirls,” and it was her celebrity that drove the news coverage, not the plight of her missing 7-year-old nephew.

Do you remember his name? It was Julian King. If he had been a pretty white girl, it would probably be on the tip of your tongue.[/quote]
poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=154337

Isn’t the above true?

If the kid was white, might we get headlines like this . . .

:heart: :heart:

Instead, all we get is a few local sources saying, “Looking for parents of abandoned kid.”[/quote]

Oh so very true. Educate 'em MT. :bravo:

Edit-Now I can see what you’re pointing to MT. See, I’m so accustomed to blacks/brown kids NOT even getting media attention for going missing, that it didn’t appear to be racist in my book. Just another day in the media.
But, if that kid had been 10 years older and shot someone, it would front page, 10 pm news.

Yes, I think it reflects a racial bias in our media and in our society. I can’t think of any widely hyped stories involving missing or murdered Asian, black or Hispanic kids. The closest thing that comes to mind is Elian Gonzalez.

But that doesn’t count, because it wasn’t really an “oh, poor troubled hispanic kid story,” it was a “U.S. v. the evil Commies” story.

Plus a lot of Hispanics are also considered ‘white’. Like me.

How about that little white boy whose family went away on vacation and left him behind. They didn’t even realize it. It wasn’t really in the news a lot. The boy had to take care of himself even when two robbers came to break into his house. He outsmarted them.

:beatnik: Fight the power,MT, fight da power

Dr.McCoy, step away from the computer, slowly :roflmao:

If it makes you feel better, I’ve never considered you white.

Kind of pink, maybe…sort of a osezno rosa, if you will…

I was sunburned that day.

I saw the documentary about that.

Me too. He also got diddled by Michael Jackson, I believe. Oops! Wait a minute. Didn’t Michael Jackson used to be black? Maybe I just did a racism thingy.

I saw the documentary about that.[/quote]

Me too… Hey wait a minute! That happened in Chicago… Nama is in Chicago

Spooky.

And there was the time when Arnold had to have his appendix taken out but they wouldn’t let him share a hospital room with his little white girlfriend, so he said, “What ‘cho talkin’ 'bout!” and him and the little white girl ran away. Willis and Mr. Drummond went crazy looking for them. No news coverage.

I don’t know.

But, in all of that, this popped out at me:

  • They are white.
  • They are female.
  • They are young.
  • They are either cute or attractive.
  • They are middle class or upper-middle class.
  • They are the center of a mystery: either “where is she” or “who killed her.”
  • [color=#0040FF]They have advocates who are capable of keeping their names in the news[/color].
  • [color=#0040FF]They have a photo or video record of their lives that can be used, over and over again, by television producers[/color]

Those last two, which have nothing to do with race, seem to be the most important factors.

The kid in the photo in the original post is a cute kid. He’s young. He’s the center of a mystery.

I dunno… but, it seems to me that the most likely reason that the kid was reported as “abandoned” is that nobody has filed a missing child report for him. If he were the child of a black family with means to have advocates who are capable of keeping their names in the news and if they had a photo or video record of the kid’s life that could be used, over and over again, by television producers, I’m betting that the headline would have described the little boy as “missing” rather than as “abandoned”.

I’m not seeing the racism in this.

Obviously that article is not racist unless you are uber-PC.

However, being uber-PC and simply expressing your opinion is not necessarily a bad thing. But check out what these fuckwits did at Carelton University in Ottawa. A bunch of hosers, eh?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/11/25/ot-081125-shinerama.html

[quote=“Tigerman”]- [color=#0040FF]They have advocates who are capable of keeping their names in the news[/color].

  • [color=#0040FF]They have a photo or video record of their lives that can be used, over and over again, by television producers[/color]

Those last two, which have nothing to do with race, seem to be the most important factors.[/quote]

For the media to really hype it they do probably need at least one cute photo, but I doubt that a disparity in the camera ownership rates among, say, African Americans is really enough to explain the disparity in news coverage. I’m also not sure why advocacy is necessary (although I’m sure it helps). After all, the media love sensationalistic stuff, and there isn’t a lot of stuff more sensational than a missing, or trapped, or murdered child.

Right. Little Timmy’s trapped in the well! Where’s Lassie?

What about Mystery at Skull Mountain?
When Frank and Joe were trapped in the cave-in by the smugglers?
And even Fenton wasn’t worried!
They’d probably still be there if Tony Prito hadn’t happened by in his motorboat!

I see a pattern developing here…

Is Timmy okay?

No, he died of lung cancer about 10 years ago.

This is from the news article:[quote]As of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, no one has reported the young boy missing. [/quote]

and this:[quote]Last Edited: Tuesday, 25 Nov 2008, 5:51 PM CST
Created: Tuesday, 25 Nov 2008, 5:51 PM CST[/quote]

and this: [quote]Police were notified of a child wandering the halls of an apartment complex at 175 Charles Ave. Tuesday. Officers extensively searched the complex and surrounding areas, but did not find anyone who identified themselves as the 2-year-old’s parents or guardians. [/quote]

It’s racist sensationalism, IMO. Just imagine what would happen if you reported the same for a caucasian child who later turned out to NOT be abandoned, and who happened to be the child of a wealthy mom and dad. I’d say that the press would definitely get the facts straight before publishing something like this if it were a caucasian child. Never mind publishing this on the same day the child was found!

marboulette