This guy’s takedown in a debate about racism in the media is 10/10
It started when a chap called Ketan Joshi took issue with an article in the Australian newspaper.
Another example of how Australia's predominantly white media industry includes unneccsary tagging of racial characteristics in order to build and expand their explicitly xenophobic worldview:https://t.co/0XcXMGFuYv#racetagging pic.twitter.com/qC3HaHgTVv
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
And it wasn’t the only one he highlighted.
This is so transparent. They're not even trying to pretend anymore. https://t.co/v88TZ4jq7D pic.twitter.com/V02ux5wFSu
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
Which is when this person from the Australian got in touch, and had this to say.
Ketan, how do you know that African background is irrelevant? What if there is a link between criminal/risky conduct, home country conflict trauma and difficulties in refugee resettlement? Why don't you trust readers to make their own assessment of the possibilities?
— Bernard Lane (@Bernard_Lane) January 14, 2019
And Ketan Joshi’s response was 10/10.
Haha, okay, here we go
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
1 – What you're saying here is that the characteristic 'African appearance' is a trait from which you can assume behavioural characteristics. I'm pretty sure this breaches both the @withMEAA and the racial discrimination act; in addition to being wholly immoral and unethical.
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
2 – Even if a particular migrant group did have a statistically-verifiable skew in characteristics relating to crime or a set of crimes, it's still an act of raw, race-driven pseudoscience to tar every single member of that community with that probabilistic skew.
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
(for eg: Australian-born individuals in Victoria are over-represented in both general crime, aggravated burglary and car theft. However, you would not make a point of mentioning the racialised appearance of white Australians in car crashes) pic.twitter.com/Cq0Lrr8asa
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
3 – If you wanted to examine whether this car crash was linked to, say, "home country trauma", building that case would require evidence, investigation, patience and logic. The short-hand schema of 'their skin was black' is illogical, cruel, and lazy.
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
(again; this isn't 'these phenomena don't exist', it's:
'you don't apply the logic of applying skin colour tagging to every systemic and verifiable crime-related phenomenon. You only do it for black people')
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
4 – Finally, you're failing to consider the self-sustaining self-reinforcing feedback loop of clumsy, racially-driven generalisations (as opposed to careful, evidence-based investigation) in worsening and catalysing social phenomena (like crime).
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
(see: Anning refers to 'media reports' as justification for his remarks about banning black migration to Australia and evidence of excess criminality)
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
5 – Assessment of possibility is driven, partly, by the mode in which characteristics are framed and presented in media reports. It's extremely naive / insincere / bad-faith to pretend that this has zero impact on public perception of groups.
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
6 – I should also clarify what I mean by 'explicitly xenophobic' – I mean that 'over-representation in crime based on [x]' exists outside of 'people born somewhere in Africa'. But it's only for this group that 'Okay, people with black skin must be tagged accordingly' is used.
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
(so, from a mathematical / evidence-based / statistical viewpoint, it is extremely clear that a set of standards around generalisation / skin colour is being applied selectively in such a way that absolves one group and damns another)
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
So yeah. Evidence-based reportage would look very different. This is skin-based reporting. It's vaguely surprising to see an anti-maths, anti-evidence philosophy of collective crime-guilt based on "African appearance" being openly advocated for, but it's 2019 after all. The end.
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
Appendix: for posterity, this response is a good example of how crime-related characteristics of a group are seen as a valid way of "tagging" or labelling individuals who share that physical trait.
This is a neat little summary of how racism works. pic.twitter.com/WyihAqp5qH
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
And this is what people made of it.
A half second of silence please for Bernard and his bad hat, both metaphorically roasted to oblivion on twitter today.
— Thanos but with a Sick Hat (@AaronJMitchell) January 14, 2019
outstanding response thread @KetanJ0 . comprehensive AND succinct
— UseYourBrain 🏳️🌈 (@PlsUseYourBrain) January 14, 2019
If only we could harness a Twitter pile-on as a source of renewable energy. Ah, well.
— Bernard Lane (@Bernard_Lane) January 14, 2019
To conclude …
https://twitter.com/mrbenjaminlaw/status/1084640120815247360
