NEWS: UK Media - "Institutionally Racist"?

CULTURE: UK Media - "Institutionally Racist"?

Sir Ian Blair, head of Metropolitan Police told a conference that the UK media was "institutionally racist".

He has a good point. Compare the coverage of the Soham murders (two young white girls) with an equally horrible attack, Adam Morrell (a young black boy).

Adam was abducted by a gang of teenagers, tortured for several hours, killed, then chopped into pieces. His body parts were scattered around town. That case got very little coverage; how many SG:UKers have heard the name "Adam Morrell"? I think that all of them know about Soham.

Criticising the UK press is a risky business. I reckon he'll have to suffer pages of abuse from the red top rags who had reams of coverage of Soham.

Trident murder? Hmm, the police might want to take a look at this guy:

Institutionally racist, sexist, homophobic... take your pick, the Sun's got it all. They take dead aim at their preferred readership- the racist, sexist, homophobes of our fair nation who seemingly number high enough to make the Sun (et al) so successful. I couldn't help but laugh bitterly as they accused Abu Hamza of inciting racial hatred, when the whole newspaper industry is much more accomplished at perpetrating this.

This is true of the media in the US too. Hundreds of kids go missing every day, but the moment it's a blonde haired, blue eyed white girl...

Of those hundreds of kids who go missing each day...how many of them disappear under suspicious curcumstances, with ominous overtones, while on a school-sponsored, international fieldtrip?

Of those cases where there are suspects...how many of the suspects are the children of high-profile members of a foreign judicial system?

At exactly the same time of this case, a young girl went missing in Pennsylvania, she was young, attractive and most importantly went missing in this country, where she might have been found. There was no attention paid in the mass media because she was black. Period.

The main suspect being the son of a judge wasn't discovered until the media frenzy was well underway, you know. You don't remember the two security guards who had their names slandered by the press before they were exonerated? Wonder what race they were?

[Edited on Jan 27, 2006 by PointBlank]

Same thing happens in this country whenever a pretty young white girl is kidnapped.

Right. There was a reporter who got wind of an attractive missing child in Pennsylvania...but shelved the idea when he found out she was black.

OR:

Maybe a black reporter covered the story and when she brought the story to her editor...the editor laughed and said "Simmons...what are you crazy? We can't run this story...She's BLACK for God's sake"

Do I think there's a certain degree of racism in virtually every aspect of life...yes, probably. However, your assertion that the story wasn't run with the same zeal as the Holloway story ONLY because the missing girl was black...fucking ludicrous. I find that line of thinking almost as despicable as overt racism.

Yeah, If you think that's how racism happens, then I guess it wasn't racist. I also don't think there's much reasoning with you.

Name the last high-profile case of kidnapping where the victim was black.

Rilya Wilson.


Well, okay, that's not exactly kidnapping, but it's a "missing child" case that was well-publicized.

[Edited on Jan 27, 2006 by Shalome]

There's no reasoning with me because I don't suffer the same degree of white guilt that you do?

To be honest...I can't remember the last high-profile kidnapping case other than Natalee Holloway...regardless of the race of the victim. I only remember her because it was so recent...and plastered everywhere.

...and as far as the national media in the US not covering African-American children...do a little search for Raymond & Vanessa Jackson....then look up Fahim Williams. Granted, those are cases of abuse & murder respectively...not kidnapping, but they're not getting swept under the rug in exchange for higher-profile "white" cases as you would have me believe.

[Edited on Jan 27, 2006 by Cash]

Ludicrous? Look around: When a white girl is kidnapped, the media pays attention. When it's a black girl, they don't. Explain that. Not all racism is "overt" but this is one example where it is pretty damned overt. And I fail to see how accusing the media is anywhere near as damaging and offensive as outright racism is and has been historically.

It's this attitude that people have where accusations of racism become "almost as bad as" being a racist that is most disturbing.

Yes, a case where the girl was abandoned, no one noticed she was missing for 16 fucking months, and wound up dead. But still, not as much attention as Elizabeth Smart, who was gone for nine months.

Look, no one sits down and says "we're not going to run this story because the girl is black." But that's not how institutionalized racism works. If you want to keep lobbing insults like "white guilt" at me, then fine. Go ahead. Heaven forbid anyone should actually look at the facts and see that *gasp* there is a lot of racism in the American press.

Two words: Laci Peterson

Cutting off what I was actually responding to (your laughable idea of how racism works) in order to paint me as suffering from white guilt is pretty lame. If you can't argue your point, then don't bother.

You're not presenting fact. You're presenting your opinion.

So where are your facts, Cash?

When Laci Peterson was missing there were prime time specials about her and Larry King was all over that shit ... but what about the numerous pregnant black women that go missing?

Do they get prime time coverage or a national call-in show with a guy that looks like an owl?

No. They get forgotten.

If you want to deal in facts...we can say that as of 2002 data, this country is 69% non-Hispanic caucasian and 13% African-American.Source

Given that information, would it be wholly irresponsible to think that the reason we don't see more cases of African-Americans being kidnapped might be because the overwhelming majority of people being kidnapped are white?

No, and I never said that I was. What I said, again, is that I'm LOOKING at the facts (that when the victim of crime is white the story is far more extensively reported on than when the victim is black) and coming to the conclusion (yes, my opinion) that there is media racism. You've chalked that up to my "white guilt." Fine.

I don't know...how many pretty, pregnant black women were murdered by their husbands in 2002?

Conversely how many unattractive, pregnant women were murdered by their husbands in 2002?

Do I believe that Laci Peterson's case was more visible because she was a pretty girl-next-door type? Absolutely, I do. Do I think it's because she was white? No, I do not.

Why did her case get big? First...Laci, Scott Peterson, Amber Frey...all of the principal characters are above-average looking. It also involved a pregnant woman, sex & murder...not to mention the piggy-backing of the religious right and Laci Peterson's parents using the case to further the case for deciding when a fetus is a person.

THAT'S why the Peterson case trumpes any of the others. You find me a more media-friendly case of a pregnant woman getting murdered by her husband...and I'll start to wonder. Until then...it's because of the sensational elements of the case...not the amount of melanin in the victim's skin that makes cases like this big.

support your facts with documentation then.

Another story.

Amazing that other people have noticed this connection between race and media coverage, huh?



[Edited on Jan 27, 2006 by PointBlank]

Tell me this then....why was the OJ Simpson case so publicized? Was it because of the sensational details of the case...or was it because he killed a pretty, white woman? Do you honestly think the Simpson case would have been buried in the back pages if Simpson's wife was Shaneequa Jackson instead of Nicole Brown?