Society
Urban life - Darcus Howe swims in polluted waters
Published 06 February 2006
Newspaper staff are invariably hideously white. They do not know; they cannot tell
A few weeks ago I referred to the ability of Sir Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to stumble on slippery ground without falling. He hasn't let me down.
Once more his detractors are calling for his resignation, after he accused the press of being institutionally racist for the discriminatory way it reports murders.
Blair gave a telling example. On one particular day three murders were committed in the capital. A black woman was hacked to death in south London, an Asian man was murdered in east London, and a white lawyer in north-west London. Only the last one received high-profile treatment. To illustrate his point, Blair strangely included the case of the Soham murders, an unnecessary and crass thing to do. He apologised. Undeterred, the media snatched
at this and pilloried the commissioner, as they sought
to evade the central issue: their biased reporting.
The black and Asian communities unanimously support the charge of racism. So do I. In their vindictive and merciless attack on Blair, the papers pointed to the murders of Stephen Lawrence and Anthony Walker, both young black men killed by racist whites. They omitted to mention that both these murders were forced on to the front pages only because of a groundswell of public concern and campaigning, particularly in the black community. Without this, both would have gone the way of all dead black flesh.
Newspapers play up to the semi-literate perceptions that readers harbour about work-shy asylum-seekers, child abusers, gunslingers and the rest. Their staff are invariably hideously white. They do not know; they cannot tell.
We once expected the handful of blacks and Asians recruited into journalism to provide new context and comment. The opposite took place. These men and women are eager to be seen as mainstream, preferring to indulge in tittle-tattle than bring to the fore issues that preoccupy their communities.
You see, blacks and Asians are not mainstream. We swim in polluted tributaries.
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