Brother Peacemaker blogs about America’s infatuation with white women:
It would be easy to blame the media for such obvious white women favoritism. But the real problem is our culture that places such emphasis on looks, youth, sex, race, money, and other features and factors people use to compensate for the shortcomings of their character. Media is only a hapless pawn serving to feed the insatiable hunger of its master the character weak, wealth exchanging, public so tremendously concentrated in the white community. Until we have a more even distribution of wealth among all racial communities and/or a realignment of people’s priorities away from the secular and more towards a true all encompassing community oriented spirit, be prepared to hear more stories in the news from the undiscovered Susan Smiths and Natalie Holloways that are destined to become pawn in society’s perpetual endeavor to make pretty white women the focus of our attention.
Ok, I’m really confused. Are you endorsing the post you linked to? Because it strikes me as egregiously sexist. I mean:
“[A]ct like a tramp“?! You must be fucking kidding me. There are legitimate, interesting ways to talk about the media’s fascination with victimized white women, as well as the discrepancy in coverage between missing black and white women. But this is just a particularly sexist, slut-shaming version of old-fashioned victim-blaming. Was that the point of linking it here?
I agree with Sally. The problem with the media’s fascination with missing, murdered or otherwise victimized white women is not the behavior of the white women themselves. Natalie Holloway did not deserve to “disappear” (whether that means she was murdered or fell into a ravine or whatever) just because she was drinking and flirting with locals. Promiscuity should not be a death sentence.
Another quibble: The author mentions the Jessica Lynch hero worship and wonders why Shoshanna Johnson was shown less respect, without noting that the Pentagon completely fabricated Jessica Lynch’s story, to the point where Lynch herself came out publicly to denounce the propaganda. Certainly both Lynch and Johnson deserve respect for their service and heroism, but part of that respect comes through telling the truth.
For a better written and more thoughtful commentary on “missing white woman syndrome” see Eugene Robinson’s column written shortly after the Holloway disappearance.
Uh…what was the point of this post again? Ugh.
Yeah, I agree; the slut-shaming going on in that post is, well, shameful.
I agree; the slut-shaming and victim-blaming is seriously problematic. I think BP is definitely wrong for that.
However.
His sexism doesn’t invalidate his complaint about racism. It weakens his argument, yes, but he still has a point. Women of color who are “blameless” go missing all the time, and they get ignored by the mainstream media. If there is some blemish on their character, it seems to get exaggerated far beyond its relevance. Meanwhile white victims who *do* have character blemishes still get the lion’s share of crucial, possibly life-saving media attention. As with Natalie Holloway, we don’t hear much about their blemishes.
Granted, blame and character should have no place in the discussion when you’re talking about the victim of any crime… but we all know the media doesn’t follow those rules.
Hmmm…guess that’s my selective reading. Kinda skimming through the post and found that good paragraph. Maybe I should read less posts and read those fewer posts through and through (as supposed to thumbing through literally 100 each day on my Google Reader). It’s a shame that the author had to stoop to words such as “tramp,” and “debauchery.”
I do tend to agree with Nora, but I also agree with everyone else. The sexism in that piece does dampen his cause. However his point on race is valid. Just as Malcolm X’s sexism and Gandhi’s casteism both were extremely wrong they still had valid points in other realms. But I do regret posting it, however valid his argument may be in certain points. But that’s about as far as I’ll take it. I’ll leave it up to his Afro-Spear brothers and sisters to further critique that post (and others if he has done this in the past).