I found the whole Shirley Sherrod case to be pretty disgraceful to be honest. I’ve written a number of pieces on it for different publications, as well as appearing on the BBC talking about the nature of the media today and how easy it is to score cheap political points by manipulating the media…

Here are some of the pieces I wrote on the case. In the very first piece, which was written before the full video was released, I questioned how we could possibly make a snap judgement based on a short video clip.

As I wrote: “I’m not saying that Sherrod was right. I don’t know. And neither does anyone else – because we haven’t seen the whole video. Until the entire video is seen, it is not possible to garner from that clip the exact context of what she was saying.”

It’s the same thing I said about Sonia Sotomayor and the ‘wise Latina’ comments. Without context there is no meaning. I didn’t need to see the entire video to know that firing someone (or forcing them to ‘resign’) over a short clip was utterly absurd.

In the second piece – Shirley Sherrod Wants To Talk Race With President Obama – I looked at why Obama needed to sit down with Sherrod. If he was willing to have a beer with Henry Louis Gates and the police officer, surely he could take a while to speak to Sherrod (which he did eventually)

In the third piece – The Firing of Shirley Sherrod –  I took a critical look at the whole incident. I looked at what this means about the media (particularly partisan media, such as the likes of Fox News), the state of the nation’s conversation about race (it is distorted) and took issue with the NAACP saying that it was ‘snookered’. No, it wasn’t, it just didn’t check the facts. Unacceptable.

And in this fourth piece – The White House Can Avoid Future Shirley Sherrod Debacles – I look at what lessons the White House can learn from this.

I also think there needs to be movement which encourages the media to reconsider exactly what we are here for and why we exist. We have power and we need to use it for good….On that theme, in The Guardian, I take a look at the ugly media flaws that this case exposes.

“Unfortunately, “journalism” based on the regurgitation of clips, soundbites and inaccuracies has become all too common. Controversy wins the day over facts, and regardless of the cost – which can include damage to the life or career of an individual, undermining the good work of an organisation (as in the case of Acorn) and losing the trust of the public. Indeed, in recognition of the fact that controversy sells, scandals are increasingly being manufactured and manipulated by the rightwing media to push people out of jobs and to scare the government.

Yesterday, while traveling on a bus, I found myself being the mediator of a heated argument that almost turned into a fight. The young black lady sitting next to me had been listening to music on her headphones, but it was so loud that she may as well have been playing it out loud.

A young white lady across the row asked her to turn the music down. In a matter of seconds, the ‘discussion’ between the two women was on the verge of becoming an ugly scene.

“Good thing I’m pregnant,” the black lady sitting next to me with the loud music said after the white lady had gone to complain about her to the bus driver, “or I would have got all black on her.”

I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. She assumed that we’d both agree with the stereotype, that we both understood it and both bought into it. Truth be told, I did unfortunately know all too well what she meant.

Those of us who are proponents of equality often talk about stereotypes and how they are imposed, whether it be through portrayal in the media or profiling by police. But what about when they are accepted and espoused by the very people who are likely to suffer most from them?

This young woman, had she not been pregnant, was ready to go ‘all black’. Not only was she talking about the stereotype as if it was a reality, she was prepared to reinforce it with her actions, thus perpetuating the stereotype. Talk about a vicious cycle.

And then we get upset with people like American comedian Bill Maher for making jokes about Barack Obama not being a ‘real black president’. The question is how do we lessen the impact of stereotypes about black people if they are accepted and reinforced by black people themselves?

What do you think? My answer to that question is to come very soon.

I’ve been away on a hiatus… but I’m back in force. I must admit that I have been sucked into the abyss that is Twitter (follow me!) and am just dragging myself out. There really is something to be said for micro-blogging.

In any case, I have still been writing. So here are some pieces for you:

The Guardian – Stop the publishing white wash – In this piece I ask why there is still the widespread belief that black images don’t sell.

The Guardian – Why so serious about Obama as Joker? – In this piece I argue that although cultural sensitivity is necessary, joking about the president is to be expected and, indeed, welcomed

The Guardian – Don’t let the beer summit go flat – Here I wrote that President Obama shouldn’t let the’ beer summit’ between himself, Henry Louis Gates, Sergeant Crowley and Joe Biden be a waste of time

The Guardian – What happens to black men in America – Why the Henry Louis Gates’ affair was just an expose of what black men go through on a daily basis

I have a lot to say about Sotomayor and the whole ‘identity politics’ debate.  Personally I think the whole ‘identity politics’ argument is BS and I wish her all the very best. 

For now, watch me debating the issue on CNN. A post on identity politics is to come…

Questions I’m pondering at the moment:

How do you define a racist?

How do you define racism?

What would you say is the difference between racism and discrimination?

What’s reverse racism? 

Words like ‘racist’ and ‘racism’ are bandied around very easily these days – to the point where they start to lose meaning. So I’m interested in how other people define them…

Yesterday, May 19th, would have been Malcolm X’s 84th birthday.

I have a few comments to make about the relevance of some of Malcolm X’s theories in this day and age, but for now I just want to salute him for what he contributed to the world. 

And here’s one of his most powerful speeches:

African-American women are disproportionately more likely to have an abortion than any other racial group. While abortion among white women constitutes around 10 in 1000 cases, with black women it’s around 50 in 1000.

With centres like Planned Parenthood moving into urban areas and focusing more on African-Americans, some have claimed that this is a form of ethnic cleansing or genocide and that abortion is being touted as just another service for black people, just like going to the corner store. The National Pro Black Life Union believes that abortion is a form of racism.

I find that argument somewhat disingenous and can’t agree. Since there is often a higher rate of unplanned pregnancy among low-income and less well educated women it would seem wrong if groups like Planned Pregnancy avoided going into inner city, urban areas.

I’m also not sure that bringing lots more unwanted black children into the world is a good thing. There are already many floating in and out of foster care and waiting to be adopted.

Again, I see education and information (which then hopefully lead to financial empowerment, since poverty is also a key indicator of abortion rates) as the keys to preventing abortion. Maybe there needs to be a great deal more of this targetted at black women.

Yet again racism rears its ugly head in the world of European sports as a Spanish a man in black face appeared to be imitating Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton at the Grand Prix in Spain. 

This has happened before, and no doubt it will happen again. And of course it’s not just in F1, but in other sports – particularly in football (soccer) – where these kinds of incidents continue to take place.

Black footballers in Europe (and there are many of them) are still regularly, and openly, faced with racist taunts, gestures and having objects like bananas thrown at them from spectators. It still baffles me that sports fans consider this acceptable behaviour.  

In the UK, where being called a racist is probably as bad as being called a padeophile, I wonder why that space still invites that kind of behaviour especially when sport is *supposed* to be a more equal and meritocratic playing field.

The UK has had an ongoing (although certainly reduced, or at the least, less overt these days) problem with football hooliganism, and racism/anti-semitism was always part of that… but in 2009? Come on!

It also seems to be specifically a European thing – I can’t imagine that happening at a basketball or football game here in the US.

So what’s going on? Why is it that people feel comfortable in a sports setting espousing views and doing things that wouldn’t be tolerated elsewhere? Does it say something about the sport? Does it have to do with group mentality? 

Let’s discuss…Why do you think racism is still raising its ugly head in the world of European sports?

The answer to my own question in the headline is a resounding YES. But let me qualify that by saying that we need GOOD black media (and indeed other ethnic media). Black media that perpetuates stereotypes and limits the scope of our interests to crime and entertainment stories, and doesn’t take into consideration the changing nature of the black experience, is a waste of time in my opinion. 

This post over at Advertising Age is very interesting and makes some pertinent observations. The first being: 

Given the web’s format, where one can interact with information and people anonymously, it’s no wonder that many marketers and some consumers view targeted sites as separatist or discrimination in disguise. 

Smikle fires back, responding to the marketer’s question: “Why do we need hockey websites? No one would question the need for hockey info.”

So what are Blacks doing differently in the digital space that warrant Black websites?

First of all, we need to understand what the role of black media is. If you think it exists as an anti-white, blacks-only space then I might see why you’d find it discriminatory. But the role of the black media, in stark contrast to what many might assume, is actually to broaden the media and make it more inclusive by presenting voices, perspectives and stories that often go untold and unheard.

In fact, media that does not have space for the perspectives of other groups is what’s actually divisive, exclusive and problematic. I also see black media as a space for non-black people to learn and understand more about what’s going on in black culture, just as I read newspapers targeted at Hispanics and watch Telemundo every now and again to see what’s going on in Hispanic communities. 

Those who say that there should be no such thing as ‘black’ (or ethnic) media have – probably unwittingly – bought into the notion that the mainstream perspective is THE right and only perspective, that how a dominant group of people views the world is how it is. And it’s precisely for that reason that black media exists and is needed.

On a number of occasions, I have pointed out magazines which I know are not not talking to me as a black woman. They do not have ‘white’ written on them, but I know that’s the target audience. Let’s take for example a magazine which talks a lot about tanning, or that never mentions afro hair, or shows particular colours of makeup that a dark skinned woman like me could never wear. If black media doesn’t exist, where would I go to get that type of information that pertains to me? 

Futhermore, while we all know that we all belong to the human race, it’s delusional to believe or act as if there are no differences in culture, perspective or experience. I am a well-educated, well-travelled, middle class black woman and I can guarantee that my experience of life and how I see it is different from my well-educated, well-travelled middle class white friend. That’s not necessarily problematic – it just is what it is. I wouldn’t assume that I have the same experiences as a Chinese person or an Indian person and I’m not offended by Asian magazines because I accept that there are differences in culture. 

In any case, we don’t live in a ‘post-racial’ age… and even if we did, would that mean that we wouldn’t need black media? Would that mean that I wouldn’t have questions about my hair, or skin care, or health concerns (e.g. black women are more likely to get certain types of cancers), or that I wouldn’t have any cultural aspects to discuss? I don’t think so. 

Differences aren’t a problem to me, it’s how we view differences that’s the problem. The world is full of people with different experiences and perspectives, and our media should reflect that.

I want to hear your views on these issues! Let me know your thoughts! 

Here are a few interesting articles/comment pieces that have come to my attention in the past couple of days…

From the UK:

The Guardian: “Don’t Leave Migration Policy to the BNP”.

For those who don’t know, the BNP stands for British National Party – it’s a far-right party who have started in recent years to portray themselves as a legitimate political party. Unfortunately some people in the UK really think they might be a viable alternative to the Conservative or Labour party and it is feared/thought that they will gain more traction at the next election.

I find it hard to believe that anyone who votes for what is clearly a racist party is doing so merely because of the recession or because of their fears about immigration. I believe that anyone who votes for a far-right group already had those kinds of leanings and is now able to use external factors to justify their beliefs.

It’s hard to tell, realistically, what people really think about the BNP but if their rise is to be believed, I really think it becomes hard for people in the UK to claim to be living in a multi-racial land of tolerance and love – something which we Brits love to claim that we are.  (Apparently there’s no racism in Britain you see.)

The Times: Blacks bear brunt of rise in stop and search

Black people are almost eight times as likely as whites to be stopped and searched a decade after the Stephen Lawrence inquiry branded the police “institutionally racist”.

This story is no particular suprise…Stop and search by the police has always been contentious.

I’m still interested in the reasoning for such disproportionate rates though. Are black people 8 times as likely to be criminals? 

From America

New York Times: No Racial Gap in 08 Voter Turnout

The longstanding gap between blacks and whites in voter participation evaporated in the presidential election last year,according to an analysis released Thursday. Black, Hispanic and Asian voters made up nearly a quarter of the electorate, setting a record.

This is really really significant. How can we ensure that people of all races turn out to vote like this again in the future? 
 

From Africa

Global Post: Kenyan women call for sex boycott

In this post, the writer asks: 

The questions that remain to be asked is such a strategy [boycotting sex for a week] viable in a Country where Gender Violence,discrimination, inequality, marital rape, abuse etc are rife? Will not this call endanger the lives of many women in abusive marital relationships ? Is it perhaps an elitist feminist agenda ment to gain popularity for a few and that will eventually receive little or no support from the grassroots? Futhermore such a move pushes to the fore ‘the sex agenda” whereby women are viewed as only good for sex and as using sex to gain favors from men? Would such a view be advantageous to the Kenyan women?

I’ve just written a piece on this for The Guardian which I will post later…I personally think this sex boycott has highlighted a number of issues and is perhaps signs of a growing feminist and women’s rights movement in Kenya, and perhaps across Africa.