![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Tags:
Do we have a label for "media doesn't bother reporting when the majority/dominant/privileged group is involved in a crime?" Or "media downplays affiliations to privileged group even when overwhelmingly obvious?"
California Preschool Closing After Alleged Sexual Activity Between Students
A Christian preschool was cited for sexual activity between the students and failure to provide adequate supervision. While school and church officials insisted that their religion has nothing to do with the several incidents of oral sex between students, at least one parent admits that his child is a sexual predator.
No, wait. That's not quite what happened. ( It's not very far, though. )
California Preschool Closing After Alleged Sexual Activity Between Students
A Christian preschool was cited for sexual activity between the students and failure to provide adequate supervision. While school and church officials insisted that their religion has nothing to do with the several incidents of oral sex between students, at least one parent admits that his child is a sexual predator.
No, wait. That's not quite what happened. ( It's not very far, though. )
Tags:
The headline nobody is carrying: CRAZED CHRISTIAN GUNS DOWN SCHOOLCHILDREN.
If Adam Lanza had been Muslim, the early reports would have blared that loud and often, and there'd be a whole drama, possibly bigger than the gun-control debates, about whether Islam is, or is not, an innately violent faith. If he had been atheist, the fundamentalist crowd would've jumped on that as proof that America's future safety lies in a return to church-based laws and mandatory attendance. Had he been any kind of Pagan, there would've been a flood of articles wondering if he thought the shooting was some kind of bizarre human sacrifice.
Since he was, instead, Catholic, there's only a side mention of his religion, buried in an article about how the community is mourning at the church he and his family attended.
Because it's not *news* when a Christian is a violent criminal. His religion can't possibly be part of his psychological problems; it doesn't matter if his religion allowed him to justify his acts by thinking "they're innocents; they'll be going to heaven anyway." No media campaign wants to inform the public when the disturbed criminal whacko is Christian, just like no media campaign calls Adam Lanza the "white" shooter. However, while his race is obvious, his religion is not--and that feeds into the privilege-blinders that allow Christians to believe that their religion is "better" than other ones.
If Adam Lanza had been Muslim, the early reports would have blared that loud and often, and there'd be a whole drama, possibly bigger than the gun-control debates, about whether Islam is, or is not, an innately violent faith. If he had been atheist, the fundamentalist crowd would've jumped on that as proof that America's future safety lies in a return to church-based laws and mandatory attendance. Had he been any kind of Pagan, there would've been a flood of articles wondering if he thought the shooting was some kind of bizarre human sacrifice.
Since he was, instead, Catholic, there's only a side mention of his religion, buried in an article about how the community is mourning at the church he and his family attended.
Because it's not *news* when a Christian is a violent criminal. His religion can't possibly be part of his psychological problems; it doesn't matter if his religion allowed him to justify his acts by thinking "they're innocents; they'll be going to heaven anyway." No media campaign wants to inform the public when the disturbed criminal whacko is Christian, just like no media campaign calls Adam Lanza the "white" shooter. However, while his race is obvious, his religion is not--and that feeds into the privilege-blinders that allow Christians to believe that their religion is "better" than other ones.
Tags:
Front-page article from yesterday's Metro. Metro is a free newspaper that gets handed out at commuter stations in major British cities and consequently has quite a wide readership. The handling of this story is notably different from the treatment Christian holidays get, especially Christmas; the British press is quite obsessed by a sort of urban myth according to which the Forces of Political Correctness are out to destroy Christmas. Note the snide "claim to follow" and the perpetuation of the claim that The Wicker Man is a representation of actual Wiccan practice. And Imbolc is reduced to "festival of the lactating sheep", with no mention of the fact that that's one of the festivals we stole and its celebration in Britain goes back to before Christianity was even heard of here. (Roman Catholics call it St. Brigid's Day, Anglicans call it Candlemas.) I can't imagine a comparable article in the British press on Christianity, unless perhaps it was written by someone like Richard Dawkins; there's no way it would go out just under the paper's own masthead.
(I'm aware that "prisoner free exercise cases" are a frequent religious/cultural battleground in the US; they've been less so in the UK, although our recent moral panic about alleged Islamist extremism is starting to provoke a few.)
Mods - not sure if we have a tagging policy for the community yet - I will check the rules post again later and fix if needed, but have to get to work now. ETA: Okay, I don't see any mention of tagging yet, and it looks like only the mods can create them. Maybe country plus general topics the post relates to would be useful, e.g. in this case something along the lines of "uk, holidays, media, prisons, freedom of religion"?
(I'm aware that "prisoner free exercise cases" are a frequent religious/cultural battleground in the US; they've been less so in the UK, although our recent moral panic about alleged Islamist extremism is starting to provoke a few.)
Tags: