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Rastafari Speaks Archive 1

'white' damsels in distress....help...help... help *LINK*

peace and hotep,

Cable Can't Get Beyond the Pale

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, August 12, 2005; A19

The pathological cable news obsession with young, attractive white women who unfortunately vanish continues unabated. Yes, the nation is still transfixed by Damsels in Distress -- only now it's gotten worse: The media are suddenly obsessed with their own obsession.

Won't somebody please just make it stop?

How silly of me; of course no one is going to make it stop. Certainly not Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren, who's spent so much time in Aruba looking for blond, missing Natalee Holloway that she probably qualifies for a Dutch passport. Leaving no stone or sand dollar unturned, Van Susteren has ridden this sad little story to her best Nielsen ratings ever. Hey, who cares about Iraq? They're draining the pond! They're digging in the landfill!

At least Van Susteren is upfront about why she sticks with the story. "I'm always happy when the viewers are happy," Van Susteren told the Associated Press. "I obviously don't program for the people in the newsroom or my friends or the people I went to law school with. I program for the viewers."

On the other hand, fellow passengers on the Damsels bandwagon -- CNN, MSNBC, and, to a lesser extent, the broadcast networks and the major newspapers -- are so eager to display their high-minded earnestness that they've been running stories about "the phenomenon" of missing-white-woman coverage. They act as if said coverage were a natural disaster, like an earthquake or a tornado, rather than a series of deliberate decisions made by executive producers and editors in chief.

Meanwhile, the case of Latoyia Figueroa, a pregnant 24-year-old woman of color missing in Philadelphia, is being used as a kind of make-up call. You know what a make-up call is: When a referee in the NBA calls a foul on one team and then the replay shows it wasn't really a foul at all, he quickly calls a cheap foul on the other team as a way to even the score.

In this case, the replay showed that the number of missing women of color who had received the full 24-7 Damsels treatment was precisely zero. So, nagged by a persistent blogger, the cable networks grudgingly devoted a couple of days to Figueroa. Then they dashed back to Aruba and breathlessly reported the latest "developments" in the Holloway case.

Never mind that there haven't been any real developments. The same guy's been in jail for weeks, and the crack Aruban authorities still can't even say that a crime has been committed, much less by whom. People aren't watching this story to follow an unfolding mystery, because it refuses to unfold. There must be another reason why producers and viewers love it so.

Does the whole Damsels thing result from a lack of diversity in television newsrooms? Maybe in part, but I don't think that can be the only answer. Television newsrooms are generally more diverse than newspaper staffs, so if lack of diversity were the only reason, you'd expect newspapers to be leading the Damsels charge. But newspapers aren't opening ad hoc bureaus in Aruba; cable networks are.

That leaves one other possibility: Cable television executives, producers and anchors have decided that viewers will stay glued to the set to hear endlessly about young, photogenic, missing women -- but only if they're white.

This country has made undeniable progress against racism in my lifetime, but the Damsels coverage suggests to me that on some visceral level people of color are still seen as The Other. It suggests that for some reason, many Americans can become emotionally involved with the travails of a distraught family that happens to be white, but not a family of color.

That's despite the fact that in the two most populous states in the nation, California and Texas, minorities now form the majority; the same will soon be true of the third and fourth most populous, New York and Florida. The nation as a whole is one-third minority. At this point, no one can think of black, brown and yellow people as rare or exotic. So why do we seem to be missing from the majority's national self-image?

I've heard the blanket coverage of the Holloway story defended on the grounds that the scenario -- a beautiful young daughter vanishes on a class trip to the Caribbean -- is "every parent's nightmare." But then is Latoyia Figueroa's disappearance nothing more than "every black and/or Latino parent's nightmare"? Would it be different if she were rich?

Or is her ethno-specific name the stumbling block? Could she be a proper Damsel if her name were not Latoyia but Jennifer? Or Jessica? Or Laci?

freedumisahappyslavic

Messages In This Thread

Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
cause Blacks arnt usually Racist
reverse racisim ?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Wadada Sabbah *NM*
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
ras marcus-is bob marley a racist? *NM*
removed the locks from his head, delilah
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
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Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
so true. *NM*
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Please Advise!!!
Re: Please Advise!!!
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Race , caste , tribe , where do we draw the line?
Re: Race , caste , tribe , where do we draw the li
Re: Race , caste , tribe , where do we draw the li
Re: Race , caste , tribe , where do we draw the li
Yeah but those people are idiots *NM*
Shaka was a "bastard" who came back to conquer
Re: Shaka was a "bastard" who came back to conquer
there are clans within the tribe
zulu became a nation by maryn zulu *NM*
Re: there are clans within the tribe
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Children in care
Re: Children in care
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Heeding HIM words isa now a european tactic lol!!
be as pissed as you want , you will never stop InI
Re: be as pissed as you want , you will never stop
I didnt say the giddion was over, Jah bubbla
That's why is seen as joke today
That's why Rasta is seen as a joke today!
Smoken herbs n reggae, ?How did you learn fari?
Re: Smoken herbs n reggae, ?How did you learn fari
Re: Main focus
Re: Main focus
Re: Main focus, mine as well
New name ?
Yes, I changed it when I couldnt get iN
Re: Yes, I changed it when I couldnt get iN
I know alot of ones like aincent youth have 2 name
Re: I know alot of ones like aincent youth have 2
Re: Smoken herbs n reggae, ?How did you learn fari
Re: Smoken herbs n reggae, ?How did you learn fari
BROTHER DONT GET IT TWISTED
Re: BROTHER DONT GET IT TWISTED
so whos to blame for the bi racial youth that are
Re: be as pissed as you want , you will never stop
GUESS WHAT
intended for Michael not lioness *NM*
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
GIVE THANKHS EMPRESS
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
"my girlfriend is Indian"lololol *NM*
the truth is a funnie thing! *NM*
Re: the truth is a funnie thing!
hypocrites *NM*
What is original?
it isn't really that funny. *NM* *LINK*
Perfect 360
Re: Perfect 360
Re: Perfect 360
Re: Perfect 360
Re: Perfect 360
seek knowledge b4 vengeance *NM*
So everyone but blk n wt. is really ok ?lol
racism(whitesupremacy) places white over nonwhite *NM*
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
Re: Why do black Rastamen date white women?
What vaugn to I personaly
Re: What vaugn to I personaly
my skkkin is 'white'....peace "anglo"
Re: Where's peace angel!
where's a piece of anglo
mannish dogs and cuddly pussycats *LINK*
'white' damsels in distress....help...help... help *LINK*
The Perils of Pauline (Pearl 'white')1914 *LINK*
KKKing KKKong, 'the tallest, darkest leading man *LINK*
I am throwing Iself to the dogs
Re: I am throwing Iself to the dogs *NM* *LINK*
a white person asked this *NM*


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