Sorry (Not sorry) : PR Strategy fail

A week ago, The Spectator published an article where writer Ron Liddle called the Woolwich murderers/terrorists/persons with mental illness/etc. “black savages.” He apologized after the (obvious) backlash. This is what he said:

“To avoid the ludicrous phrase ‘men of Muslim appearance’ I originally used the word ‘black’ to describe the appearance of the knifemen. If anyone took that wrong way, I’m very sorry.”

Let’s move away from the following facts that I need to note because of how they annoy me:

1. “black savage” does not mean “man of Muslim appearance”

2. Considering Muslims number over 1.6 billion people and it’s a religion, not a physical trait, there cannot be a definition of “of Muslim appearance”

3. In what world is “black savages” appropriate!? Is this meant to be an imitation of Joseph Conrad?

As I said, let’s now move away from those facts. What I’m going to focus on in this blog post is the second part of his statement: “If anyone took that the wrong way, I’m very sorry.”

This is a common PR statement used after a “slip of the tongue.” We’ve seen it before:

Numero Magazine’s “apology” for blackface Ondria Hardin – Called the offense a “misunderstanding”

“Ben Carson for comparing homosexual men to NAMBLA – says “If anyone was offended”

And more.

So, what’s the problem with the “if anyone was offended” or “if anyone took it the wrong way”? Well, it’s the “if.” When one says “if” it implies that the resulting offense was not necessary or obvious. It implies that the writer isn’t sorry for what s/he’s done, s/he’s sorry for the reader taking it the wrong way. (Death of the ‘Death of the Author’ style?) And let’s be hones, what it really means is “Sorry, not sorry – actually, I’m right and you’re oversensitive. I apologize for your oversensitivity.”

And that’s what makes it bad PR. People and organizations can’t tell their stakeholders “You are wrong; my behaviour will continue (or subside begrudgingly).” It reeks of “I don’t care” and “I am superior.” If an organisation doesn’t care, then the ‘What’s In It For Me’ completely disappears. There is nothing in it for me – so I won’t buy your product or read your article. Let’s see your PR when I shut off.

Let’s examine this now from a more moral perspective: from the heart rather than the head. Saying “I’m sorry” means you regret what you’ve done. It means, you see now that what you did was wrong. Liddle clearly does not believe what he did was wrong, and he proves this by saying “If anyone was offended…”

And it’s not as though anyone believes Liddle (or any of the others) are sorry. It’s a completely useless gesture other than to be able to say “Well, I said I was sorry! The word ‘apologize’ is printed right there!” Nothing is won or lost (or regained in this situation) by this statement: there is no PR currency and therefore it’s a complete waste of time. It is simply an act of (tapping into my OCD here) washing one’s hands. An “end of discussion,” and “no comment,” that for some reason or other, still persists as a legitimate form of PR strategy.

Signed,

Rosie

From a Loving Fan of Period Dramas

As a post-colonial neo-colonial watching UK produced historical dramas, is it fair that you colonize me, force your language on me, erase my history, teach me your own and then refuse me the image of which my ancestors were a part of? That is to say, you force your history on me and therefore make it my own – I know nothing of my ancestors but I know everything of yours. Your Kings and Queens are mine, your myths and legends are mine. So why is it that when I ask for portrayal in that history, in your costume dramas, for instance, you deny me this place? You romanticize England as a pure, white and independent existence. You make no mention of India in Downton Abbey, you say nothing of the West Indies in your miniseries and films. Your characters work in stocks and bonds, yet they know or care nothing about foreign investments with which your Empire grew and flourished.  But worst of all you erase my personage from your depiction. Even down to the extras, people of colour do not seem to exist when, in actuality, they did. They even appear in literature and artwork of the time (e.g. Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Morien, son of Sir Aglovale of Round Table legends) No, not many, but would it be so wrong to grant one of the few some screen time? Some admission of presence? Would it sully your fantastical portrait of past England so much to see a person of colour working at the docks (which they frequently did) or as a manservant?

No one wants the writer to go out of his way to write a person of colour into his script. That is entirely unnecessary. Anglo-saxon culture is lovely, just as every other culture, and no one wishes to somehow take this away from you. There will certainly be costume dramas where people of colour do not appear, this does not bother me. What bothers me is this deliberate white-washing of the English landscape between 1600-1980 despite the fact that it’s success was borne upon the shoulders of people of colour. What bothers me is the national pride you are allowed to find in that success through the idea that these characters and at the very lowest white factory workers or miners are the sole catalysts when, in actuality, thousands of miles away and even right on you front doorstep, there were slaves and indentured servants and domestic servants working for little to nothing. Because after all, it is our (POCs) history now as well, and we’d like to have our rightful place in it, as low as we may have been.

“Modern Television Racism” or “Dear Kunal Nayyar, please leave The Big Bang Theory”

Please note: This is not an academic paper. It’s a blog post. Some ideas you will not agree with. Some of you will say this is poorly written to which I will agree, it is poorly written because it is more an emotional piece (me rage-crying for equality) rather than an argumentative one.

People seem to be assuming that the only problem with hipster racism in shows like Girls is the lack of diversity in the cast. But for me it’s something different, it’s the idea that it is normal for the white people in shows like Girls, Friends (to harken back further), The Big Bang Theory and HIMYM not to know or have any friends of colour. For instance, many people say “there are so many POCs in New York, why are there none in Girls?” I agree with this question, not because I think they should throw in some token POCs but because, unless you’re in some magical fantasy-world (your fantasy apparently not having space for POCs), you, as a New York resident, interact with POC on a daily basis. So it’s not that people want to have their colour shown in order to be more represented (although POCs are disgustingly underrepresented; it seems to be 1 POC per every 3-4 white people is the safe amount) for the sake of being seeing someone they can relate to or images of themselves, it’s that in not representing a POC in an environment in which one would obviously see one, the writer(s) of such shows is consciously denying the existence of POCs in the environment where in reality, they are! The writer is essentially saying “They are there in real life, but this is TV and no one wants to see POCs.” And why would it be so strange for some white people to have some friends of colour in the first place? You know, other than the fact that once television characters seem to have friends of colour, they think they have license to be racist, thus making no POC want to be friends with them for an extended amount of time. You know, other than that. That to me is the problem with much hipster racism today. Btw, how many times did I just use the term “POCs?” Jay-sus!

There’s also the idea that having one POC equals having covered all your bases in terms of diversity. I.e. having a Korean means you don’t need to have Black person or having an Indian means you can forego any other ethnicity outside of White.

And finally, there’s the hood-pass. For me the most insulting and horrific aspect of hipster racism. I call it the hood-pass because, as any educated person would tell you, there’s no such thing. The hood-pass is what the media likes to call a white person who is “cool” to POCs. Who can get away with dreds or making racist tweets because it’s “ironic”; it being ironic because they have a Black friend or because “racism is over.” Of course, no one POC can issues a hood pass because no one can represent an entire community’s opinion. Amazing revelation, isn’t it? So no, no one has a hood pass. Now onto how this applies to television. Show writers generally seem to think that if their characters have a POC friend, they can make racist jokes and, it’s cool because they are still friends. Newflash, sweetheart, no POC would remain your friend if you keep insulting his/her culture and making dumbass jokes – unless of course, that person is self-hating or an apologist of some kind, in which case why are those few people the only ones portrayed on television?

To further elaborate on these ideas, I’ll use the example of Indians and Raj on The Big Bang Theory, something which my friends know drives me crazy. First off: The presence of diversity in The Big Bang Theory. Having watched most of the series (perhaps missing one or two episodes), you (writers, casting director, whoever) mean to tell me that after years living in an urban California centre, this group of people have only ever met Indians? Actually? Or perhaps they have met people of other races, but not one person in them could amount to becoming a friend or a reoccurring character? Never mind the fact that the only reason they met any Indians in the first place is because they are related to their one token Indian friend, Raj. Apparently, the characters live in an ethnicity bubble that only Raj has managed to penetrate and remain in, perhaps because of the hood-pass?

Yup, Raj offers up a huge hood pass for the characters to make fun of him as they wish. I think perhaps Leonard is the only character who doesn’t make comments about his ethnicity and stereotype him but I could be forgetting instances or completely wrong. Let’s first use Penny, who seems to be disgusted by Raj’s indianess. Forget the fact that he’s the most attractive member of the entire cast (that could just be me); Penny makes it pretty clear that having sex with Raj is disgusting. Now that would be fine if we could say that she hates the idea for a reason other than his ethnicity, but I don’t think we can. If it were Howard, we could say she was disgusted because of his misogynist comments or explicit come-ons from earlier seasons, if it were Sheldon we could say she was disgusted because he is unintentionally rude and arrogant, but Raj has no social issues other than not being able to speak to women unless drunk which is hardly a disgusting quality as long as he doesn’t drink. So the only difference between him and Leonard, who can speak to girls but doesn’t seem able to actually say anything that would make him severely different from Raj, is that Raj is Indian. Not to mention Penny makes comment such as “Oh God, did you pull some weird Indian crap on me?” and her friend equates “shagging a little Indian boy” with bestiality. Maybe this is the reason he can’t seem to get a girlfriend? Or is it because the Big Bang Theory writers have decided to perpetuate a tradition of making men of colour effeminate (as problematic as that word is, I’m using it only in reference to a media tradition) in order to lessen their threat of being protagonists or dirtying white female bodies by being love interests for them.

Then of course, there’s Howard, who, by virtue of being Raj’s seemingly only friend (Sheldon and Leonard hardly ever seem to speak to him) and Jewish, gets to make as many racist jokes as he wants. Here are some examples:

Howard: Actually, Indian Monopoly’s just like regular, except the money’s in Rupees, instead of hotels you build call centers, and when you pick a chance card, you might die of dysentery. Just FYI, that was racist.

Here we have Howard saying something racist, but pointing it out. Because, you know, that makes it ironic. /sarcasm

—

Raj: Excuse me. I can’t be drinking, I’m about to make an important scientific discovery here.

Howard: What? Galileo did his best work while drinking wine.

Raj: How do you know that?

Howard: Well, he was Italian. It’s a reasonable assumption.

Raj: Dude, can you even open your mouth without spewing a cultural stereotype?

Howard: Oh, I, I’m sorry, Galileo drank diet sprite. Look, you’re my best friend, she’s my girlfriend, you should bond. You know, like you and my mom did.

Raj: Your mom creeps the hell out of me.

Howard: Yes, but she’s stopped calling you slumdog millionaire.

Raj: I do appreciate that.

Here we have Raj about to call Howard out on his bullshit (yay for solidarity as well!) but then accepting his bullshit because it’s not the main point and of course, because his mom became slightly more progressive which he “appreciates” because apparently she is going out of her enlightened way not to offend him by making racist comments. Thanks, white people. We appreciate your sensitivity. Allow us to create the White Friends Award ceremony so that we can actually give you trophies for your humanitarian work of not saying ignorant shit.

S05E02

Howard: Well, if you don’t, you’re gonna lose Priya to some fancy guy in a turban who grew up with Kama Sutra coloring books.

Raj: How can you be so racist?

Howard: Oh, come on, tell me I’m wrong.

Spoilers: He doesn’t tell him he’s wrong. Good job, Howard, instead of maybe noticing a trend throughout the series of your Indian friend calling you racist and re-examining your comments you say “Tell me I’m wrong” and continue.

Of course, Raj himself enjoys making fun of his own culture (back to the apologist of self-hating POC)

S03E04

Raj: I don’t want to go back to India. It’s hot and loud, and there’s so many people. You have no idea, they’re everywhere.

I think that’s enough. There are plenty of academic blog postings about the topic if you’re really interested enough to look into it. For example:

http://nimbygirl.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/anti-asian-sentiments-in-modern-media-the-big-bang-theory-and-beyond/

http://www.womanist-musings.com/2011/09/big-bang-season-opener-slut-shaming-and.html

Of course I haven’t included Sheldon, who is constantly undermining Raj’s opinions and discussions on his own country (although I do grant that, as proved above, they are ofttimes inaccurate and simplistic, at one point he even says Hindus worship cows) in a very imperial manner.

I guess, in the end, what I’m really trying to say is, no vaguely educated POC would ever be friends with the asshole White people we see portrayed on television. So how about we get some shows with some decent White people hanging out with normalized POCs (in that whether they adhere to their ethnicity’s culture or not, they are portrayed as normal individuals)  or maybe even a show about POCs that hang out with a few White people? No? That last one asking a bit too much of any channel beyond BET, huh?