RELATED:
Big attention grabber in the NYT with this picture splashed all over the front page.
The usual mixed emotions: (1) compassion and sorrow for these and other children caught up in horrific wars, (2) alarm at exploitation of the child soldier stereotype for Africa.Very crude data that I checked a while ago suggested that [only] about 0.2 percent of African teenage boys were child soldiers. (…)
However:
A Google images search for “child soldiers Africa” returned 2 million hits. The frequency of repetition of these photos perpetuate the stereotype of Africa as a barbaric place awash in child soldiers. Newspapers would be more likely to be sensitive in other areas, especially domestic ones, like say not frequently showing scary pictures of young black males toting guns in US cities…
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Granted, 0.2% of Africa’s population may well be 2 million, but I doubt they all just happened to have their photos taken individually and besides I’m too lazy to look it up.
UPDATE — racial profiling!!!!
…these blonde ladies didn’t look like his family or friends.
FINALLY: “Urban” is the new “black”, as you know…
Harenton’s campaign slogan is “Just One” — a campaign slogan that reflects Herenton’s contention that Tennessee needs one African-American U.S. representative to fight for Memphis, a majority black city. So Memphians are not to elect the best qualified candidate. Nor are they to take into consideration that Harenton is a crook that cost the people of Memphis millions. But they should support him because he’s a brother…and in the tradition of brother politicians…a corrupt brother! This was written in a report by Associated Press:
“This picture is totally unacceptable,” said Herenton, holding up a campaign handout with a photo of the state’s two U.S. senators and nine representatives.
“I’m truly urban (black). This is an urban (black) district. It has some critical urban (black) needs that you have to feel, feel within your belly.”
How much media attention would focus on Memphis if Harenton’s white opponent were to say voters should vote for him because he is white?
