Perpetuating Racism in the Media?

I have to say I was a bit disappointed to pick up my Edmonton Journal this morning to see the headline in massive size “Day care owner charged with sex assault” with a beautiful smiling picture of Ali Mohamed Abdi right below. At that instant, I couldn’t help but wonder what a lot of people I know who aren’t tuned into understanding the complexities of racism in our community would be thinking.

I could hear them – coupled with the media around the murder of young Canadians of Somali heritage over the past years – a media article like this doesn’t reinforce a positive image of the Somali community and I’m betting that most people didn’t even get to page A2 (or let alone read the subtext of the title or any of the article itself) where doubts are highlighted about the charges.

An article like this can be severely destructive and I really wish that those at the Journal would realize that when they publish an article. Sometimes we need to step back and really look at something to understand it and think about what message it conveys– perhaps there wasn’t an effort to step back and really look at this article before it was printed and the message it sends.

Here is a man who hasn’t had the chance to a fair trial or judgment before really facing now public trial.

I see this so often in articles and it saddens me when we see the impacts of racism in the community. If he is innocent, it is too late… he’s now already going to suffer in his source of livelihood and dignity in the public.

Additional thoughts later:

I feel like I may need to explain myself a bit more. The article, the written aspect of it, isn’t racist at all. We have to be sensitive however in the visual aspects of media which speak loud. There are a lot of stereotypes and prejudices with Canadian Somalis are confronted with right now and the visual aspects of this article are what is frustrating. The community is struggling right now and there needs to be sensitivity to quick visual images. People who carry these judgments would have an immediate quick reaction to the front page – and not good ones.

A lot of people have a fear and anger towards immigrants. I just recently received a forward email from the community which was ill informed and angry about MP Dhalla’s current Bill on pensions for immigrants. There is anger and fear out there – to ensure we are supporting understanding and acceptance – we have to be sensitive is what I am saying. Not everyone is conscious of prejudice and the dynamics of racism. Seeing crime and Somali front page right now doesn’t help that community. It reinforces misdirected judgments that paint this community as something problematic in Canada and that they are severing our so-called safety.

The timing of this front page was really unfortunate. I’m not against the article – but perhaps in a different visual context may have been more appropriate.

Source: akafeera.wordpress.com