The Last World

When we initially started watching Mickey Mouse in class this week, my first thoughts were, excuse me people, this is Mickey Mouse and it’s watched by kids and its just for kids' entertainment. It surely cannot be harmful. Then it slowly began to dawn on me that Disney could and indeed seemed to have the power to, cultivate prejudices in those who watched its films.
The interpretation to the films that the 8 and 9 year olds had is what caught my attention. The one about the woman with a young son who heard young black people playing and laughing in the park and immediately thought of the hyenas he had seen in a Disney film drove the point home more than most.
Then we have the CEO of Disney saying that his company did not care for much, except making money! But when you have such immense power to influence a virtual generation, you also do have a responsibility to make sure that such power is not used to perpetuate prejudices and belittle other races—the Chihuahua case of Latinos being a poignant example.
I am grateful for this class, one that allowed the 15 of us to confront our deepest prejudices and learn from many different perspectives. I had not fully appreciated, before getting into this class, about the deep-seated racial issues that underlined Hurricane Katrina, the issues of white privilege, the presentation of other races in seemingly innocuous Disney films, the criticisms of rap music and the portrayal of women in the media.
Thanks for Grand Torino. It is a great movie and had it not been for the brilliance of Crash, I am sure this movie would have landed an Oscar.
And thanks for the opportunity to meet Dean Evans, the man who showed many of us that anything was possible, that it is never too late to follow up on your dreams
So, where do we go from here? How do we help break down decades of racism, classism, sexism, tribalism and many other isms that challenge our world? In the words of the great Martin Luther King Jnr., why can’t we all just get along?
Perhaps we can only get along if we have the opportunity that this class provided, to analyze the problem arrears, to listen to alternative perspectives, to disagree respectfully, to agree to disagree respectfully to realize that other people might be black, white, Africa, Mexican, gay, transsexual, Christian, Muslim—whatever—but that does not define or diminish their humanity.
This class on race, gender and the media is one that is playing, in its own small way, a role of giving people a platform to confront issues that are uncomfortable to them in a dignified and thoughtful manner.
Sometimes passions did rise, as you would expect from such a class, an occasional spark did fly, but that was in a contained manner. It allowed all of us to examine ourselves deeper and I think we came out better persons from this experience. Catch you on Twitter, people!

Something About White Collar Crime

Is that all, Bernard madoff goes to jail, then what?

I am thinking about the fraud that Bernard Madoff ran for so many years, robbing investors of a staggering $65 billion on the process. I look at the figure and my head reels. The estimate for the 2006 Gross National Income for my country, Malawi, is $2.1 billion.

The ammmount that Madoff syphoned is equivalent to the income of my country for 20 years, so you could understand how I am still battling to get to grips with this fraud. It beats me how this ponzi scheme went on for so long, when so much money was lost, and nothing was detected. It’s the ecomic downturn that did Madoff in when investors wanted to withdrwa ammounts that, Madoff could not pay. Otherwise the fraud who have run on for much longer!

Interestingly, when lives were ruined by Madoff, when families were driven to bankruptcy and some victims of his fraud committed suicide, the ‘plight; of the wife is what captured the imagination of the media. Contraty to popular belief, Madoff’s clients to his ponzi scheme were not exclusively wealthy people.

One of his victims was William Foxton, a 65-year-old retired British army major, who shot himself in a Southampton park in February after discovering Madoff had cost him his life savings. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8120411.stm

Madoff’s wife, Ruth, said in a statement released today that she felt "betrayed and confused”.
“The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years," she said. Well, its hard to believe that, I must say. And the wife seems more concerned with continuing living the high life, at the multi-million penthouse in Manhattan and her millions safely in the bank.

I ask, where is the justice for the victims. Its almost as if the media has agreed collectively to largely portray victims as supper rich individuals and corporations recruited on lush golf courses. In that way, the implication is that the people who lost money to the fraud probably had too much of the money anyway and therefore not deserving of too much public sympathy. Nothing could be further from the truth. There were thousands of School teachers, farmers, mechanics and many others who lost their life savings. The poor man who comitted suicide is only one of many such sad stories, rarely told.

I joke about this with my friends as we discuss the various justice systems of the world. I often joke with them that traditional African system is the best there is. If you steal my chicken and you are caught and taken to the chief and your guilt is proven, you are fined two chickens. One is given back to me, the other goes to the chief!

Today in court, Madoff was called "a monster who should be caged” by his victims. The judge agreed to that, called his crime “extraordinarily evil" and sentenced him to a maximum 150 years in a federal prison.

Dominic Ambrosino, a victim of the fraud, called it an "indescribably heinous crime" and urged a long prison sentence so he "will know he is imprisoned in much the same way he imprisoned us and others." He added: "In a sense, I would like somebody in the court today to tell me how long is my sentence." http://www.miamiherald.com/101/story/1118868.html

Meanwhile, Madoff’s wife goes home to the multi-million penthouse. His sons and brothers with whom he ran his companies were not charged so they will continue with their pretty lives. The burned investors in his scheme are left holding the baby.

I might be wrong about this but, is there a respectability attached to a crime called “white collar crime”?

Dean Evan's Dream.

Today, June 24, 2009, I met a man who has inspired me. Stanley L. Evans, the Associate Dean for Students at the University of Oklahoma’s Law School. Dean Evans served for 32 years in the U.S. army, retired at the rank of captain and, at the ripe age of 53, enrolled for his law degree and graduated in 2003.

He is the embodiment of a man who has lived his dream. “At 50, you are not too old to make something out of your life,” he said, “and at 20, 25 or 30, you are not too young either to make your dream come true.”

After the session was over, I lingered longest around him for in him I saw myself at 60! I saw myself having led a fulfilling life, achieved all that I set out to do and taking my turn to inspire a generation of young people with my story in the same manner that Evans did today.

Anyone who knows the everyday challenges that African people face will agree with me that to make something out of your life, you have to work twice as hard—successive governments almost always do not care, the teachers are underpaid, overworked and without morale, many schools are in a state of disrepair and struggle to do much with virtually nothing—if you are to make anything out of your life.

In Malawi, a country of 14 million people, we only have one major university where everyone struggles to get admission. Only the very lucky few make it to college.

So, here is my dream: (1) in a year from now, I should be done with graduate school and either heading back home to Malawi or getting into a PhD programme. I always get asked why I am eager to return to Malawi than stay here and my answer is that I am of much more use back home, helping my country, than I could ever be here. It is many people’s dream in Africa to come to the U.S. and as a result brain drain is such a huge problem. One example is that there are more medical doctors in the city of Manchester alone, in England, than there are in all of Malawi!

(2) In 10 years, I would have served as professor in the University of Malawi. One of my criticisms about the training that the school of journalism at my university offers is that it is not relevant to the needs of industry today as to render it redundant. I hope to help change that; my mission in this period would be to train as many quality Malawian journalists as possible.

(3) In 20 years, I would have retired from the university to run for public office as a Member of Parliament for my village. My village is one of the poorest in the country, with shocking illiteracy rates, high infant mortality, no roads, no electricity, no piped water, no clinics for many miles and no hope for the future. Elected officials are only interested in lining up their pockets. In 20 years, I will be representing this constituency and changing the face of local politics. In another 5 years after that, many of you will say this: “I know Idriss. He is a friend of mine. Oh my God, I can’t believe this. I went to school with him at OU!” By that time, I will be the President of the Republic of Malawi!

Thanks Dean Evans!

Our Male Dominated Newsrooms

I worked in a newsroom of one of Malawi’s largest daily newspapers, The Daily Times. When I arrived, out of 20 reporters and editors, there was only one female and she was a lowly reporter. The chief reporters, sub-editors and editors were all men.

There was a time when the newsroom was totally male, after the lone female reporter was sacked. Now I hear there are about three female reporters in the same newsroom. It does not seem to bother anyone though. In fact, the male journalists looked at the lack of female reporters in the newsroom with pride. One senior journalist told me with unmistakable glee: “Print journalism is hard work. Women belong to radio and TV.”

Well, he was right in some way. It was hard graft but this was due to limited resources, not because of anything inherently hard with print journalism that Malawian women could not do. Because of lack of transport, reporters sometimes have to walk to and from beats, because of very few computers in the newsroom, reporters have to wait in line and often knock off work late, because of the notion that women can’t make it in the newsroom, The Daily Times has only had a female in a high-ranking editorial position once, perhaps, and that was decades ago. The paper is 120 years old. So promising young female reporters often leave for employment elsewhere or easily get frustrated and lose their shine because of this seemingly unbreakable ceiling above them.

So, the rules of the game as defined by men mean that women are not seen as—and usually do not see themselves as—suited to this form of journalism.

Without a doubt, when it comes to diversity, the composition of a predominantly male newsroom does not at all reflect the state of Malawi’s gender mix. What is troubling is that, apart for the most part, no one seems to think this is a problem.

What has been the result of this composition? A study by The Media Institute of Southern Africa, which examined the composition of African newsrooms and its impact on editorial content, reported that in Zimbabwe only 17% of voices heard in the media are the voices of women. This was because of the domination of male editors. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/AMDI/zimbabwe/amdi_zimbabwe4_review.pdf

Interestingly, U.S. newsrooms have the same concerns of male domination—perhaps the difference with my Malawian scenario is that here people do care, they carry regular studies, compile statistics and lobby for change.

A 2001 Harvard report, http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=101542, had interesting findings about the demographic composition of American newsrooms. The report said that women were constantly under-represented and one major obstacle they faced was male attitudes in male dominated media organizations where they are judged by male standards.

The report says “Perceptions of editorial management as a tough and virile domain, where decisions are made by men in smoke-filled rooms, are enough to stop some women from trying to become part of a world they regard as alien. More importantly, they affect the promotion prospects of many women who do aspire to senior positions.”

You could say this very same thing about many newsrooms in Africa.

But this obvious sidelining of women comes at a cost. One way to address this is to change the whole organizational culture, and prejudices in the workplace should be seen as a human, not only female, problem. And attitudes need to change. In this day and age, why can’t we all just get along? In a world devastating natural disasters, hunger, disease, economic problems and war, who needs the added strain of prejudice based on gender, race, culture, class, sex?

No Easy Fix to Prejudice

Some things are just easier said than done. Take Professor Ray Chavez’s talk in class today for example, that the way to go in stopping your biases from developing into irrational prejudices is to take a step back, acknowledge that you do have inherent biases and work to correct them!

Tell that to a person with long held prejudices against a different race, gender or sexual orientation. That prescription will probably not work much in changing their views. Most of the prejudices are said to happen outside a persons’ conscious awareness—almost automatically—and the case of the Media and coverage of Hurricane Katrina is a poignant example.

While journalist is by training and by the demands of the profession asked to remain as accurate and impartial as possible, they failed to combat racial biases in this case.

Long-held stereotypes about black people activated this image of them as looting criminals—even at the times of desperate need—who were less deserving of help than would had been the case had the race been white, and it showed in the type of coverage of the survivors of the Hurricane.

What would remedy this situation? The reading on Hurricane Katrina offers the same advice that Professor Chavez gave...“conscious effort by journalists to compensate for potential biases by forcing themselves to report on an equal number of positive and negative story angles regardless of a subject’s race”.

But that seems a simplistic solution really and had it been all it takes, perhaps the media coverage would reflect that. An editor would simply call aside a reporter and tell them to remember to compensate for biases before sending them off on a beat.

My solution is this: In the case of Hurricane Katrina for example, black reporters should have been the majority tasked to do the stories. This is so simply because it is human nature to feel greater empathy toward victims similar to you. The story, had it been covered by black reporters would have focused on the very plight of a people without food, shelter, hope.

But the media had a fixation on reporting on ‘violent crime wave’ which, it later turned out, was false.

And when I look at the images of the trail of destruction that Katrina was, I ask myself why it was not possible, for just that moment to set aside racial prejudices and instead report of the destruction of a city and devastation of a people.

The more I think of it, the more I realize the remedy is not as simple as my good old professor suggested in class today.

Wrong place, wrong time, wrong color

My family back home worries for me a lot and their worry was heightened especially in April when about 54 people were killed that month alone from gunshots, including in the senseless slaying in New York of 14 people at an immigration center: http://www.rushmoredrive.com/LatestNews/Binghamton_Shooting_Update_14_Dead_at_Immigration_Center.aspx?ArticleId=14711465047545925920. Like me, most of the victims were recent arrivals in America.

My family must have worried too at the news on Wednesday of the killing of a black security guard, Stephen Johns by an 88-year-old white supremacist at a Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC. I once visited that museum and, at the back of my mind I shudder to think, by chance, would it have been me if I was at the wrong place at the wrong time? I share the family's pain:http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=13934910.

The old white supremacist carried his gun into the museum—and along with that was his hate for Jews and black people, any black person. The irony is that the black man killed, Stephen Johns—said by family and friends to be a kind man—had opened the door and held it for the 88-year-old. His act of kindness was repaid by a bullet in the heart: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090612/ap_on_re_us/us_holocaust_museum_shooting_guard.

Does that make me uncomfortable living here? Of course my family worries but I live an insulated life here, largely because Norman is a university town and with it comes the benefits of a cosmopolitan existence. But it still begs the question why an 88-year-old could still harbor so much bigotry and hate and racism to want to do such a despicable act?

I am closely watching the coverage of this killing in the media. So far, it has been muted. I was expecting a torrent of outrage, especially against the known white supremacist groups this killer was a member of. So far, I have been disappointed.

Thank God, I Dont Fit The Profile

I have been told of all the horror stories of officers on the highway patrol. I have seen some of the terror, too, on trutv and many other clips posted on youtube of the victims of overzealous law enforcement agents. I have been told that the worst treatment is usually reserved for young black men—racial profiling.

I have been pulled over twice so far, once for speeding in Norman, Oklahoma and, two weeks ago, by an officer looking for drunk drivers just outside Oklahoma City. I am from Africa where police officers carry undiminished authority so my demeanor probably told. Maybe it was my English. But on both occasions, the officers were exceedingly friendly and on the last occasion we ended up chatting about Africa and safaris and how I liked Oklahoma and what I was studying and when I graduate and what I will do.

Friends have said that I am lucky I do not fit the stereo-type of the African-American male so I can escape with a little misdemeanor on the road. The implication is that African-Americans don’t have that luxury.

The flip side of that argument is that whites in America do not have to worry too much because they are not racially profiled because they are products of a system of privilege.

Anti- racist activist Tim Wise speaks on a subject matter that would make many people uncomfortable but he makes no apologies for it. Actually people make excuses for him: that he is white so he can make fun of his own race in the same manner that blacks can say the n-word and the rest of the people cannot.

Wise has published four books, as of 2009. Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White (2005), White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son, Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male (2008) and Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama (2009), which explores how Barack Obama's emergence as a political force is taking the race debate to new levels.

Wise argues that tragedies that Columbine and the attacks of September 11 shocked white Americans more than they did blacks. His argument is that black people have a love-hate relationship with the nation.

He claims blacks have seen worse from American society and that the suffering of black people in New Orleans after being hit by Katrina is one example.

Two years ago, I watched an American comedian when he visited Africa.

“To a black man”, Chris Rock has told his audience, “America is like a generous uncle that paid your way through college…and then molested you. I bet you that there is no white man in America who would change places with me. None of them, and I am rich. That is how good it is to be white in America. When you are white, the sky is the limit. When you are black, it limits the sky.”

Ok, Rock might have exaggerated this for purposes of providing comic relief but for me, when I am stopped by officers of the highway patrol, I play my little card of privilege—that I am an international student from Africa!