Tag Archives: race

How can radio continue to be so stupidly racist?

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Yellowface afootI know, I know, I’m painting all of the radio industry with an awful broad brush. But let’s face it, no one’s doing this kind of stuff on TV.

A year and a half ago, I wrote my (embarrassingly, most recent) Nikkei View column about Hot 97, a station in NYC, which broadcast a tasteless and racist satire making fun of dead Asians after the tsunami. But similar incidents continue, even up to this month. Continue reading →

Religion, media and offense

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The current protests throughout the world by Muslims who were offended by caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (the cartoons caused riots in Afghanistan) that originally ran in a Danish newspaper, sparked an interesting discussion among some friends of mine, about the nature of offensive imagery and the role of the media and even of cartoonists. The most inflammatory cartoon was one of Muhammad with a bomb as part of his turban, suggesting that all Muslims are terrorists.

Below are edited excerpts from the e-mail discussion. Continue reading →