Maker of anti-harassment video apologizes for "unintended racial bias"

[garf]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/30/living/women-catcalling-white-men-race/index.html

Director of catcalling video responds to race debate

October 31, 2014

"First, we regret the unintended racial bias in the editing of the video that over represents men of color," Hollaback! said in a statement released Tuesday. "Although we appreciate Rob's support, we are committed to showing the complete picture. It is our hope and intention that this video will be the start of a series to demonstrate that the type of harassment we're concerned about is directed toward women of all races and ethnicities and conducted by an equally diverse population of men."

[Warpy]

1. That's really nitpicking

It looks like any inner city including my own, although mine is a lot shorter.

Men of all colors and all walks of life like to make sure we're reminded that we're on their streets, in their world, and have no right to go anywhere lost in our own thoughts.

[LostInAnomie]

2. Pretty stupid thing to apologize for.

You either present the instances of harassment as they occured, or you don't. If most of the instances of harassment came from Africa Americans and Latinos then that is what you present.

What should the maker have done? Walk around in front of white men until the meet some kind of quota for cat-calls?

[gollygee]

3. They said that they had harassment from men of all races

but that they went to areas that had few white people first, and that the battery ran our or they ran out of something before they got to areas with more white people, and also that instances where white men were saying something had a lot of background noise.

That all sounds like excuses to me. They should have been prepared and had more of whatever they needed, and they didn't have to start out in an area that was mainly the home of people of color. But my point here is that it wasn't a case of only or mostly men of color doing the harassing.

[nomorenomore08]

4. I understand the concern RE: perpetuating stereotypes, even if unintentionally.

And while I would tend to agree that that is of secondary importance, compared with the main purpose of the project, I can see why she apologized.

[belzabubba333]

5. she should walk through an all white area and show us the video of all the cat-calls to eliminate

race from this

[Shankapotomus]

7. I doubt that would help

I think the problem could be deeper than anyone realizes. Wealth and social status could also be factors in whether someone is prone to overt displays of sexism. Being less well off could influence a person's decision to engage in more risky and socially frowned upon kinds of self-fulfillment.

I'll add, this sounds like classism but it's really about energy transference. If you are denied appropriate ways of self-fulfillment, you will sometimes gravitate towards the inappropriate.

[kelliekat44]

6. She should walk through Wall Street or a GOP fundraiser. nt