The Media We Deserve?

by Les May

I STARTED reading the Manchester Guardian in 1960 when I left school. I continued to read it until the early 2000s.  I gave up after it published an article with a title something like ‘How we took on the builders’.  It turned out to be an account of their experiences by two feminist academics who had worked on a building site for all of a fortnight.  It seemed to me a total fraud, not least because working for two weeks in the height of summer and then going back to a nice desk job, is not quite the same as spending your working lifetime at the job and enduring the rain, sleet and mud of British winters. 
 
Last Thursday I picked up and read a discarded copy. It seemed much improved so I bought a copy the next day and began to think of once again becoming a regular reader.

Then I read the following and understood why someone went to the trouble of coining the acronym GROLIIES* (pronounced ‘grolly’).

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/commentisfree/2020/jan/20/id-never-heard-of-laurence-fox-until-he-started-lecturing-us-about-racism
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2020/jan/23/want-to-know-what-racism-feels-like-ask-laurence-fox
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/26/laurence-fox-actor-fantasy-film-gor-stewart-lee

Now remember this is supposed to be a newspaper catering for the more thoughtful, more astute, more liberal minded reader. Really?

So if you want a more liberal, more nuanced view where do you turn? Surprisingly it is to an article in The Sun newspaper by Katharine Birbalsingh who had a Jamaican mother and an Indo-Guyanese father.

‘Laurence Fox was rude that night on Question Time. But he was not racist. I would have put him in detention for sighing and dropping his head on the table. But I would have been interested in what he had to say.
'Sadly, Rachel Boyle, the black woman he was arguing with, attempted to shut down the argument by suggesting Fox’s opinion was worthless because of his white privilege. White people are tired of being told they are privileged or racist. And I get it.  The same goes for calling the country racist.
'I say this as someone who believes there is racism in Britain, that racism is not a blunt instrument, and I believe it exists on both the Right and the Left. But to say that Britain is racist as a country in 2020 is too crude. Are our laws and institutions racist? Is the media racist?
'Sure, there will be elements of racism here and there, but to make such a generalised, un-nuanced statement seems to me to ignore the great journey of tolerance Britain has made over the past 60 years. I believe this journey makes Britain one of the least racist countries in the world. It is one of the reasons I feel proud to call myself British. I can be both black and British and few would take issue with my identity.
'Some would say that Harry and Meghan’s experiences show how racist the country is. It is assumed that criticism of Rachel or Meghan is an example of racism. But surely we black people should be open to criticism?
'If all criticism of black people is an example of racism, it becomes impossible to hold any of us to account for our behaviour. In many ways, this patronising assessment is in itself racist because it does not allow black people to be treated as equals with whites: Whites can behave badly but blacks cannot.
'Didn’t get the job? Got excluded from school? Failed a test? It must be racism. But what if you just did not revise?
'In this debate, one side thinks all negative commentary of the royal couple confirms how racist we all are. The other side thinks that racism no longer exists. Either you are with Meghan or against her.  But the truth is somewhere in between.
'Of course Meghan will have suffered racism in her very high-profile position. It would be silly to suggest otherwise. That photo of the baby chimpanzee outside the hospital is just one example of such racism.
Rachel, too, has received racist abuse since her argument with Fox on Question Time. But does that mean these women are beyond criticism?
'Laurence Fox is not a racist. He is just a white guy who wants some respect. Funnily enough, that is just what black people want, too.
Sadly, the woke have little respect for all of us, whatever our colour.’

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10821066/laurence-fox-question-time-not-racist/

If you see yourself as being ‘of the left’ it is easy to dismiss Birbalsingh because she was invited to the Tory conference by Michael Gove. But if you ask yourself who you would prefer as a neighbour, Rachel Boyle, the black woman who could not bear to be contradicted in her view that media coverage of the doings of Meghan Markle has been racist or the more open minded Birbalsingh, what would your answer be?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Birbalsingh#Conservative_Party_conference
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/feb/27/katharine-birbalsingh-interview

Note in the link below how The Guardian makes Fox look like a gormless Guppy. We don’t make the news, the media does.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/18/question-time-clash-lecturer-tells-of-hate-mail

* Guardian Reader Of Limited Intelligence In Ethnic Skirt.

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