Racism is more than a hat you put on in the morning.

[penguinparity]

There have been a lot of thoughts and words already written on the J2 Haiti story in the past few days.  Most of them have been much more eloquent than I am at the moment and I do not feel the need to repeat their sentiments.  I have not read the story itself, nor am I going to.  I've read the excerpts and a fair number of posts of people who have

Comments

[stickmarionette]

What a great post. And just on the World Cup portion of your post: ever since we started getting World Cup-themed advertising, I've been becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the undertones inherent in a lot of the rhetoric/imagery. 'Oooh, look at all this pretty scenery, all these poor, smiling kids' etc. That trend has only gotten worse once the tournament itself got underway.

[penguinparity]

Yep yep yep. It's just gotten worse too. This whole business with France, I don't know what to make of it, is it really class/religious differences that caused such division within the team?

Then there are articles like this, about exploitative training camps and agents who steal money from families on the dream that their kid might get a tryout at a European club. Which makes the Western coverage of the poverty all that much more problematic for me.

[stickmarionette]

The whole business with France is incredibly distressing. I find the way it's being analysed and reported so problematic.

Oh lord, the way African kids are picked up by European clubs and the entire system involved (agents, training camps and all) is so fucked up. I believe there have been several investigations in France into this.

[meresy]

Thanks for this post.

[vikki]

Thanks for this particularly elucidating post about white media in particular, but also in explaining why this story didn't come from a vacuum.

This is why we should be talking about it.

[penguinparity]

Yes, exactly.

[evewithanapple]

but I think the individual stereotypes aren't even the most telling point

No, I'd say that the most telling point is when Dean referred to them all as "chimps."

Whenever a discussion about racism and other erasure in education comes up, I like to tell a story about my twelfth-grade World History class. It was called world history, but it wasn't- we only focused on Europe and Britain, and even then only on the white males of Europe and Britain. At one point, I got fed up and said "We're not learning history, we're learning dead white man history!" To which one of my classmates responded, without missing a beat "That's because dead white men made history!"

Says it all, really.

[penguinparity]

No, I'd say that the most telling point is when Dean referred to them all as "chimps."

*facepalm* Sigh. So full of fail, show, so full of fail.

I remember my High School's English program was branded 'radical' by our PTA for including a lot of non-White authors in our curriculum. Several (white) parents complained that we were "sacrificing" the quality of our education to appease 'minorities.' It was so fucking ridiculous.

Note:

[ext_82617]

The comic's by Glockgal, not Dhobikikutti.

http://glockgal.dreamwidth.org/377764.html?style=mine

And she's done another.

http://glockgal.dreamwidth.org/379836.html?style=mine