Human beings are flawed and the BBC-Munchetty episode tells us why

If there’s one message coming out of the BBC –  Munchetty story that has played out in the Anglo Saxon media world for the last 48 hours, it is this – human beings are flawed characters. As a corollary, institutions we build and hold on for dear life are also flawed and must be subjected to periodic review especially in a democracy. Accepting that, I believe, will be a huge leap in correcting our steps. Denying that basic premise would be to pretend we are perfect. That, in a nutshell, sums up why BBC first upheld a complaint against one of its presenters and then revoked its decision.  The media’s role in course correction is constant and necessary. 

Subha Nagalakshmi Munchetty – Chendriah is a journalist with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The broadcaster said she had breached its guidelines over comments she had made about a tweet from United States (US) President about four female politicians of colour. Upholding the complaint against her, the BBC said Munchetty had cast aspersions on Trump’s motives in singling out the women politicians Alexandria Ocasio – Cortez, Illhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. 

“Why don’t they go back and fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” Trump tweeted on July 14th 2019. Three days later the comments were discussed on BBC Breakfast where Munchetty said “Every time I have been told, as a woman of colour, to go back to where I came from, that has emboldened racism…now I am not accusing anyone of anything here, but you know what certain phrases mean.” 

Her co-presenter Dan Walker agreed with her going further to say he spotted a thought out strategy to strengthen his (Trump’s) position to which Munchetty replied she wasn’t going to give an opinion on that. Viewers complained and the axe, strangely enough, fell on Munchetty on grounds that she had breached BBC’s editorial guidelines. The complaint against her has since been withdrawn after a well - deserved backlash that left the BBC with egg on its face. 

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This episode reminded me of an even worse one that played out on American television in August when presenter Alex Hudson of KOCO 5 News in Oklahoma City in the US compared her black colleague to a gorilla while both were watching a segment on an ape in a local zoo. Tears and pardon followed, as if on cue, with the lady saying she respected her community and all her friends and deeply regretted what she had said. Her co-presenter who’d been called a gorilla nodded in agreement. I would have thought the lady deserved the boot, but we watch and we learn. Watch

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Beyond the obvious, both incidents speak to an ugly coming of age and voicing of rot that is global in nature and local in its destructive impact. We in India have acquired some expertise as well. Putting people down based on colour, caste, education or simply because we don’t like the way they dress is par for the course. This type of rot, either curses people from the word go or bends over backwards to accommodate it (rot) both of which are deeply harmful for societies. You only have to listen to prime time television news in India to realise how deep hatred and drama come together to make us all flawed characters, some more than others. 

How many of us stop to ask if gora gadha – white donkey – a term we casually throw around could be racist and deeply hurtful? How different is it from calling someone black and stupid?  Where is that coming from? I believe it is coming from the same spot that allows people like Trump to look down on people of colour in America. Increasingly in India, it is coming from the same place where politicians are calling out Indians from other states as “outsiders.” It happens routinely in Karnataka (where I come from) where people from India’s North East are threatened with expulsion because they are easily identifiable. When New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal played the “outsider” tune this week, he was only adding fuel to the “otherness” fires that have been lit in other parts of India. Let that sink in. 

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The BBC episode is news because we in India have internalised “white” as powerful and expect them to be faultless just like the BBC has internalised that journalists of colour have a special responsibility to remain flawless. That’s tantamount to saying poor people should be happy with one meal a day considering they had nothing to begin with. There are reports that BBC is discouraging its reporters from talking about the incident, but anyone who has spent any time in a newsroom will tell you that’s an impossible task. 

The assumption that racism or calling out people as not belonging is a felt and lived thing that has to be experienced on a daily basis is partly, though not entirely true. That is partly true because it negates the fact that black people are not racists. All human beings are racists. We are all capable of using words and terms that are neither fair nor just. If you think English television in India crosses the line, listen to what passes for conversations in the many languages Indian news media beams into our homes. 

Since the BBC issue began with Trump’s twitter, let me make it easier. Take a stroll down people’s Twitter timelines to get a glimpse of where they are coming from. Pick an international group and compare what’s comparable. What people write and say to and of each other would make blatant racism and insulting others on television sound like a walk in the park. 

One more thing before I end. Remember the entertainment programme that preceded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official event Howdy Modi in Houston? We praised our professors and doctors, engineers and CEO’s as we must. Even our spelling bees got special mention. But we made sure we maintained that class divide. Texas’ very own son, the trailblazing Sheriff’s Deputy Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal (who was killed last week) didn’t make the cut.  In our collective Indian complexes that we nurture in our diaspora, we don’t think policemen are achievers. They belong with the Illhans and the AOCs. 

Yes, the BBC was wrong. It corrected itself. There will be other mistakes and more corrections. Accepting that we are all flawed is being human. Till people do not accept their daily warts and tumbles as normal they will not mature as a nation.  Language will be the first slip. On television it sounds and looks even more grotesque.

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(The views and opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Republic TV/ Republic World/ ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd.)