Post by Admin on Oct 21, 2019 15:38:26 GMT
www.rt.com/op-ed/471376-guardian-diversity-white-kids/
The Guardian's latest piece on modern schoolchildren trying to make sense of 20th-century tech is indicative of the times in more ways than one. None of the kids can use a rotary phone – and none of them are white, either.
The Guardian has published a feel-good article describing how modern-day 15-year-olds try to complete everyday tasks using old-timey equipment (actually, it's not even all that old-timey, it was mostly still widely in use in the 1990s). It's a tried and trusted trope – Youtube is full of 'modern teens react' videos – that stokes older readers' nostalgia, employed in a light-hearted manner, with kids even given grades for their (lack of) success in adapting to old tech.
But there's a subtler aspect to it as well. Intentionally or not, none of the six "kids these days" fumbling around with clunky old phones and cassette players in the Guardian's pictures are white.
It's not a piece about race, or inclusivity. That aspect isn't even touched upon. It, presumably, doesn't need to be – the goal has been achieved, inclusivity is now part of the mindset. Just look at all the different-race kids and... why do I have this feeling that we excluded someone?
Don't get me wrong. It's awesome that media coverage is reflective of reality, and that non-white people, including children, are no longer seen as an oddity, shunned or sidelined. But how do we go about that without shunning and sidelining white ones?
“Move aside whitey, you've had your time in the spotlight” isn't inclusivitiy. Inclusivity is a diverse cast of kids having fun with the old gadgets together. Imagine if all the children in the pictures were white? That wouldn’t be very inclusive eithe
The Guardian's latest piece on modern schoolchildren trying to make sense of 20th-century tech is indicative of the times in more ways than one. None of the kids can use a rotary phone – and none of them are white, either.
The Guardian has published a feel-good article describing how modern-day 15-year-olds try to complete everyday tasks using old-timey equipment (actually, it's not even all that old-timey, it was mostly still widely in use in the 1990s). It's a tried and trusted trope – Youtube is full of 'modern teens react' videos – that stokes older readers' nostalgia, employed in a light-hearted manner, with kids even given grades for their (lack of) success in adapting to old tech.
But there's a subtler aspect to it as well. Intentionally or not, none of the six "kids these days" fumbling around with clunky old phones and cassette players in the Guardian's pictures are white.
It's not a piece about race, or inclusivity. That aspect isn't even touched upon. It, presumably, doesn't need to be – the goal has been achieved, inclusivity is now part of the mindset. Just look at all the different-race kids and... why do I have this feeling that we excluded someone?
Don't get me wrong. It's awesome that media coverage is reflective of reality, and that non-white people, including children, are no longer seen as an oddity, shunned or sidelined. But how do we go about that without shunning and sidelining white ones?
“Move aside whitey, you've had your time in the spotlight” isn't inclusivitiy. Inclusivity is a diverse cast of kids having fun with the old gadgets together. Imagine if all the children in the pictures were white? That wouldn’t be very inclusive eithe