(Writer taps on microphone repeatedly.)
(Writer steps to front of imaginary stage, addressing audience.)
Me: Friends, North Americans, and global citizens, lend me your ears.
Our media, our North American media, does not report what happens in the world without bias. The news outlets ignore what happens to people in countries that are not dominated by white people. Our news is racist and religiously prejudiced. Huge focus stays on events in countries deemed "like ours" as if Canada and the US (and the countries whose news gets reported here) are free of the scandal and government corruption making other countries deemed "not like us."
Not everyone in North America is white. Shock. Not everyone in North America has European heritage. Shock. In fact, Canada has the highest percentage of foreign born citizens in the world, one of the highest immigration rates, and immigrants from Asia account for more new immigrants than any other demographic region.
Yet the news we receive is weighted heavily towards domestic events (excluding news about FNMI people, whose abuse, murder, racist attacks are vastly under-reported) and European events to the exclusion of the rest of the world. Unless, of course, the news event affects "people like us" (ie. white people of European descent.)
Right now, CBC has as its World News headline:
Police say Munich gunman who killed 9 had no apparent links to militants
Right now, the BBC has as its World News headline:
Death toll in China floods passes 150
Our media, our North American media, does not report what happens in the world without bias. The news outlets ignore what happens to people in countries that are not dominated by white people. Our news is racist and religiously prejudiced. Huge focus stays on events in countries deemed "like ours" as if Canada and the US (and the countries whose news gets reported here) are free of the scandal and government corruption making other countries deemed "not like us."
Not everyone in North America is white. Shock. Not everyone in North America has European heritage. Shock. In fact, Canada has the highest percentage of foreign born citizens in the world, one of the highest immigration rates, and immigrants from Asia account for more new immigrants than any other demographic region.
Yet the news we receive is weighted heavily towards domestic events (excluding news about FNMI people, whose abuse, murder, racist attacks are vastly under-reported) and European events to the exclusion of the rest of the world. Unless, of course, the news event affects "people like us" (ie. white people of European descent.)
Right now, CBC has as its World News headline:
Police say Munich gunman who killed 9 had no apparent links to militants
Right now, the BBC has as its World News headline:
Death toll in China floods passes 150
Through the BBC, news of an attack in Kabul has killed at least 80 people and injured more than 200.
Neither of these stories are present on CBC AT ALL. Why?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And humans have lost their reason.
Racism and prejudice are fundamentally unreasonable. Yet why else are we not told about events unless white Westerners are involved or "can relate"?
I am outraged at the blatant disregard for news assumed of no interest to an assumed white readership. I am outraged by the systemic racism in Canada and the US. I am outraged at the lack of outrage.
I have a million more things to say; I could fill a book with my reasons for anger at the lack of news coverage of people dismissed by the media, people "not newsworthy." This is just a blog post. A fast, angry, blog post.
Racism and prejudice are fundamentally unreasonable. Yet why else are we not told about events unless white Westerners are involved or "can relate"?
I am outraged at the blatant disregard for news assumed of no interest to an assumed white readership. I am outraged by the systemic racism in Canada and the US. I am outraged at the lack of outrage.
I have a million more things to say; I could fill a book with my reasons for anger at the lack of news coverage of people dismissed by the media, people "not newsworthy." This is just a blog post. A fast, angry, blog post.
My heart is in the coffins there with the dead, unacknowledged by this continent
And I must pause till it come back to me.
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