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发帖数: 58 | 1 Gabby Douglas’ hair, female Chinese athletes as stoic automatons, ‘plastic
Britons,’ and advertisements featuring monkeys on gymnastic apparatus—if
one thing has characterised media coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics, it’
s rampant racism. While the Olympics are ostensibly an event that brings the
world together, the racism that runs through much of the coverage serves to
underscore the differences between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ whether
commentators are making snide references to African runners or focusing on
white, glossy female athletes to the exclusion of the women of colour on
their teams. A white-dominated media dictates the tone of coverage of an
event held in the capital of a major Western power, and a power that has
been struggling with racial tensions of its own in recent years, thanks to
the rise of organisations like the EDL.
Viewers of colour interested in following the London Olympics are forced to
wade through racist commentary to track their favourite athletes and events.
Every move of athletes of colour is carefully scrutinised and found wanting
, from cries that a celebratory dance is ‘unsportsmanlike’ to sharp
comments about personal appearance. And when fans of colour dare to discuss
the racialised nature of Olympics coverage, they’re told to ‘stop bringing
race into it.’
There’s a firm belief in the minds of white arbiters that we live in a post
-racial society and that a ‘colorblind’ approach is the best approach to
racial equality. As the Olympic coverage, which forces people to grit their
teeth through racism on a daily basis, illustrates, racism is alive and
thriving, and ignoring it does not, in fact, make it go away. Such a high
profile event provides an important opportunity for discussing the impact of
racism in the media, but many whites appear reluctant to engage with the
conversation.
Perhaps the most noted instance of sustained racism in media coverage has
surrounded US gymnast Gabby Douglas, who earned herself a spot in history by
leading her team to victory and taking individual all-round gold. Yet, she
was almost entirely absent from coverage of the US gymnastics team until she
became an inescapable champion with her individual gold, and even then, the
US media took time to comment on her hair, slam her mother for giving her
all to get Gabby to the Olympics, and imply that her military father had
abandoned his family while he was actually fulfilling the terms of his
service.
As if that wasn’t enough, US network NBC felt it necessary to air an
advertisement for its new show Animal Practice featuring a monkey on a set
of gymnastics rings sandwiched right in the middle of its Douglas coverage.
Evidently no one on the ad development team thought there might be a problem
with running an ad with heavy racial overtones in the midst of overall
Olympics coverage, where scores of Black athletes represent nations from all
over the world, let alone with airing it literally seconds after showing
Douglas’ face.
Commentators on NBC as well as other networks have made scores of racial and
cultural gaffes over the course of the Olympics, from confusing the
location of various nations—poor Australia and Austria were confused yet
again—to getting the names of athletes wrong. They also indulged themselves
in a number of blatantly racist comments about athletes; union organiser
Julia Wong, for example, pointed out that ‘Next time a commentator goes on
about how stoic & unfeeling the Chinese are I’m going to lose it.’
In the world of NBC commentators, female Chinese athletes are robots,
unemotional and focused utterly on winning at all costs. And, of course,
many couldn’t resist the opportunity to incorporate a Mao reference or a
joke about China’s controversial family planning policies. The sheer level
of Orientalism and xenophobia present in Western coverage of Chinese and
other Asian athletes speaks to deeper undertones and a long history of anti-
Asian racism in the US. Commentators apparently missed the memo on a spirit
of cooperation.
Meanwhile, in Britain, The Daily Mail as well as other conservative
platforms are crying foul about ‘plastic Britons,’ athletes competing
under the British flag despite coming from other nations. The practice of
competing under different flags is extremely common, yet racist agitators in
Britain have turned it into evidence that Britain is being overrun with
terrifying infiltrators; notably, of course, the ‘plastic Briton’ scandal
focuses on athletes of colour, many of whom are leading team GB to victory,
which should be satisfying the nationalistic sentiments of these aggressive
hatemongers.
The manufactured uproar over ‘plastic Britons’ is reflective of a larger
turn towards the far right in Britain as well as Europe in general, and a
growing backlash against immigrants. Athletes who have lived and worked in
Britain for decades are being challenged on the grounds that they are ‘not
British enough,’ and it is not coincidental that they are athletes of
colour; no matter how much they contribute to society, including upping
Britain’s medal count, they won’t satisfy members of the right who would
prefer to see a uniformly white Britain.
To say nothing of the two athletes suspended for racist Tweets, indicative
of a deeper culture of racism among the athletes themselves, not just the
media commenting on the Games. Organisers were ill-equipped to handle the
onslaught of social media with this year’s games, and one can hope they are
thinking ahead to 2016, when social media activity will undoubtedly be even
higher, and even more of the general public will be engaged on social
networks.
Many athletes have been using their Twitter accounts to great effect to
reach out to fans, advocate for their sports, and support team members.
Others have apparently chosen to use them for personal political platforms,
spurring the hasty creation of a social media policy; evidently athletes
needed to be specifically told that they should keep their racist thoughts
to themselves rather than broadcasting them to the Internet at large.
But really, who can blame them for assuming it would be okay? After all, the
sports commentators covering the Olympics certainly don’t feel any need to
curb their blatant racism in the spirit of international cooperation.
http://globalcomment.com/2012/racism-in-olympic-coverage/ |
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