NPR Hounded for Calling Africa the 'Dark Continent'

Photo of Tim Graham.

New NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard took up a flurry of complaints when veteran news anchor Jean Cochran told listeners President Bush was traveling to Africa, the "dark continent." They insisted NPR was sounding racist:

"I thought that we had wrested that comment along with 'colored' and other euphemisms for Africans or Afro-Americans," wrote one listener, summing up how others felt. "Could you please report my comments to NPR management? I almost drove off the side of the road to start a protest!!!"

"This is simply an outdated reference as well as being outrageously offensive," wrote another listener, Karrye Y. Braxton.

The copy, which had been approved by an editor, was pulled and Cochran agreed to never use the expression again.

"I had no idea the term would be found offensive," said Cochran, who joined NPR in 1981. "I will concede antiquated but I was unaware it was 'racist and irredeemable,' as one person put it in an email. I was floored. Am I insensitive? I don't know how that could be since I didn't know there was anything to be sensitive about. I understood the term to refer to the African jungle. It's a canopy blocking out the light. A geographical term."

Official apologies soon followed:

Cochran issued an on-air and online apology four days later at exactly the same time her "dark continent" reference first appeared: "My deepest apologies for using such an antiquated and pejorative term."

Did NPR owe an apology?

After the apology ran, some listeners were infuriated, thinking it unnecessary, claiming that NPR had succumbed to political correctness.

Shepard brought out a passel of scolds to denounce NPR's insensitivity to unequal power relations:

"Even when not consciously selected, language that diminishes one group at the expense of others wields great power in naturalizing unequal power relations," Prof. Martin A. Berger, who specializes in gender and race at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told NPR. "It's less useful to talk about 'racist' people, than to see how racialized patterns of thought and speech are structured into our lives."

For her part, Shepard concluded that the apology was right, but it could have come with more context and discussion.

I would have been surprised to hear that term on NPR driving down the road, considering their progressive instincts, but it's not "drive off the side of the road" offensive. For that, let's recall some old examples from the 1990s from NPR commentators:

...NPR commentators like Bebe Moore-Campbell, who called the NRA "the Negro Removal Association," or Philip Martin, who proclaimed: "In the 1930s, Father Coughlin's anti-Semitism enjoyed enormous popularity because a vocal minority of people shared his views. The same is true today for devoted listeners of Rush Limbaugh and company."

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center


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The protest of the

The protest of the sensetivity of the political correctness nazis couldn't be aimed at a more deserving group. (Maybe PBS) The people who gave them power. 

This is rich. Stupid. But rich.

I'm going to take out my box of colored pencils and write myself a letter.

"There is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition."
- Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Meteorology, MIT

You go, danbo!! You show

You go, danbo!! You show them that, despite what they think, not all conservatives write with crayons (as opposed to Liberals who use fine-quill pens, says Mario Cuomo).

Another example of a liberal group being (to use my new favorite phrase) hoist on their own petard!

You gotta love it!

 

Calling Ray Nagin

How about, "The Chocolate Continent?"

So, What Should We Call It?

"Ebola Acres" - "LolapaZULU" -

Help me out here, NBer's.

Warning - all replies MUST be acceptable to John McCain.

I always thought "The Dark

I always thought "The Dark Continent" referred to the maps that were drawn 200 years ago or so, when Africa was largely unexplored, and left blank, or "dark", on the maps. Silly me.

I have added this phrase to my list of "things that offend every teeny-tiny special interest group", right below "hangman", which we can never play again because, *shudder*, it involves a noose! And we all know nooses are the exclusive property of the black man...

Well I guess you won't have

Well I guess you won't have to worry about getting  a black mark against you for doing it!

Roger the Metalhead :)

All those "explorers" that made the African maps were colonialist,imperialist,slave-owning racists,therefore "the Dark Continent" name must be racist in nature.

Very funny. Though you have

Very funny. Though you have to be careful with satire as some people may have thought you were being serious.

Not me though, I got the gag.

Vote 4 change. Vote 4 anything. See Jack & Mr Shy's first campaign ad for the ONLY viable 3rd party candidate.

Hatemongers!

Hatemongers!

RtS, I'm now very offended by your remarks!

I'm not sure why, but there are enough references in there to take offense to, and when I pick one and figure it out, I'll let you know!  How DARE you!?

<sarcasm off>

I am such a hatemonger!!!

I am such a hatemonger!!!

Well you have been taught by

Well you have been taught by the best (reverse Noel).

Vote 4 change. Vote 4 anything. See Jack & Mr Shy's first campaign ad for the ONLY viable 3rd party candidate.

We're talking about people

We're talking about people who demanded and got the head of someone for using the word niggardly in reference to a budget. Apparently others stupidity is more important than the correct word usage.

As Einstine said. There are two things limitless. The universe and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe. 

"There is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition."
- Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Meteorology, MIT

hey danbo -- you just beat

hey danbo -- you just beat me in posting the "niggardly" insanity.

Thank you Teachers Unions for helping produce a devolving population of machurianed thickos.

But dey v. gud @ txt msgs, dude.

Vote 4 change. Vote 4 anything. See Jack & Mr Shy's first campaign ad for the ONLY viable 3rd party candidate.

What can I say. Great minds

What can I say. Great minds think alike. LOL

"There is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition."
- Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Meteorology, MIT

Roger

I think the dark continent was referenced as you said. It was also mysterious, dark and unexplored. It reminds me of the the outcry over the use of the word "niggardly"  which has absolutely nothing to do with race.

That's what I always

That's what I always thought. Dark = mysterious.

Isn't that Busch Gardens' slogan, too? 

Somebody get in touch with

Somebody get in touch with Busch Gardens' lawyers, stat!

Bal deserves a healthy piece of the action on the impending lawsuit....

 

Yeah, I can almost hear

Yeah, I can almost hear the drums beating. Just like in Jumanji.:)

ADD

And don't ever use the word "niggardly", either.

Damn Those Romanticists!

lol...it was nothing more than a romantic name during a romantic period (nineteenth century) designating an unknown, underexplored land of mystery.

So now 'dark' is not acceptable. I guess there goes dark matter. I suppose black holes will be next - wait, I just know there is a great double entendre here somewhere...

V/R

Clyde

"...the aspirants to tyranny are either the...men of the state, who in democracies are demagogues,... or those who hold great offices, and have a long tenure.." - Aristotle, Politics, c350BC

Mea Culpa

Now put her in sensitivity training for the next six months and that will appease the howling leftist loonies.

 

P.S. Tim, great job on O'Reilly last night. 

LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT!!

SNL didn't use a "dark" man and they are hounded by libs...NPR calls Africa the "dark" continent and they are hounded...

 

Danred if you do, darned if you don't

I get offended when people

I get offended when people call me white.I'm actually golden bronze.(with a pinkish hue)

Dear Mr. Struggler, As

Dear Mr. Struggler,

As legal counsel to the Albino Defense Fund, I am writing my displeasure upon reading your viscious, anti-Albino slur used on the typically anti-hypopigmentation website, Newsbusters.

Sincerely,

Edgar Winter

You rock Edgar. Keep up the

You rock Edgar. Keep up the good work with your Average White Band.

Vote 4 change. Vote 4 anything. See Jack & Mr Shy's first campaign ad for the ONLY viable 3rd party candidate.

Jean

...Shoulda just called the complainers a pack of 'niggling nincompoops'.

No joke......

"niggling" will probably be the next word to go....

motherbelt, the word "niggardly" caused a huge dust-up here.

Several years ago here in Atlanta, this word was mentioned in what I recall was a school lecture of some sort, and the parents of the students went nuts over it. All kinds of protests were launched, charges of racism, threats of lawsuits, the whole nine yards. It was truly ridiculous.

It is really sad what fifty years of government education have done to this country. We have essentially become a society of illiterates.

John McCain is a liberal. He said so himself.

Sure... let's allow

Sure... let's allow illiterates decide what we can and cannot say...

Clearly we need to be advised by the illeducated who think a word such as "niggardly" has a racial connotation. Remember that braindaed kerfuffle of a few years back?

So while we are at it, let's stop referring to Australia as a land "down under"..


Down under
is obviously a slave/master reference with the Abo's being the race "under" the cruel white master.

Oh... anyone ever pick up that the word AFRICA is a white European name for the "dark continent"? Ooooooo... much change word now... invent something phony sound ethnic like Zimbabwe or Kwanza

Of course, rather than let a liberal tell you what to do, think and say, you could just say...

"nah, on reflection, go perform the act of self-love on yourself, liberal."

Vote 4 change. Vote 4 anything. See Jack & Mr Shy's first campaign ad for the ONLY viable 3rd party candidate.

Jack

I kinda thought that "down under" meant something else. ;>)

Just when we think that PC

Just when we think that PC had reached its ultimate absurdity, 'those who live to be offended’ vault it to new heights.

As for NPR, they made scientific history by caving faster than the speed of light.

What about us?

I am offended. I demand an apology. It is quite racist to think of  all Africans as black. Do I call all Americans white?

-an Egyptian

On January 15, 1999, David

On January 15, 1999, David Howard, a white aide to Anthony A. Williams, the
black mayor of Washington, D.C., United States, used the word in reference to a
budget. This apparently upset one of his black colleagues (identified by Howard
as Marshall Brown), who incorrectly interpreted it as a racial slur and lodged
a complaint. As a result, on January 25 Howard tendered his resignation, and
Williams accepted it.

However, after pressure from the gay community (of which Howard was a
member) an internal review into the matter was brought about, and the mayor
offered Howard the chance to return to his position as Office of the Public
Advocate on February 4. Howard refused but accepted another position with the
mayor instead, insisting that he did not feel victimized by the incident. On
the contrary, Howard felt that he had learned from the situation. "I used
to think it would be great if we could all be colorblind. That's naive,
especially for a white person, because a white person can't afford to be
colorblind. They don't have to think about race every day. An African American
does."

It's idiotic public events like this that are destroying the very use of our English Language. Instead of firing the innocent perpetraitors of such "offenses", or sending them to sensitivity training.... maybe we should be setting up "desensitizing training centers" where we can instruct overly sensitive individuals on the nature of the English Language and its use. Other conceptual topics might include; "American Slavery, Old History..... Get the HELL over it", or..."If you don't like the word n*gger, don't use it".... or "So you've mastered the sixpack, now try cracking open a Dictionary"... and my favorite...."If you're not exactly sure what we're talking about, then sit down and shut the hell up!"

 

 

 

Life can be a real b*tch... so why vote for one?

The language police are at

The language police are at it again. This speech policing just continues to expand.

White Christmas

Does this now mean I can't dream of a white Christmas?

"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind." --Thomas Jefferson

No XMAS!

Didn't you get the memo? "White Christmas" has been changed to "Multi-Ethnic Winter Holiday." After all, we don't want to be offensive.

Another leading

Another leading "progressive" voice, Margaret Sanger comes to mind. At a minimum, she would have sent them all back to the dark cover of the continent.

The Dark Continent

I bet that Africa seemed pretty dark to all the people who starved to death in places like Ethiopia, Darfur, Somlia, Ect.

Does this mean they'll have

Does this mean they'll have to change all that dialogue in the "Star Wars" movies that refer to "the dark side" of the Force?

Yeah!!

And what was up with making a Black man play Darth Vader. What were they trying to say there?

 

"Did NPR owe an apology?"

Not for the "Dark Continent" reference, but they owe me at least an apology for wasting my tax money on this bullsh!t.

Per wiki.....

http://en.wikipedia....

 

douchebags...

 

HF

Well of course, everyone

Well of course, everyone KNOWS that's why Africa's been called the Dark Continent. I learned that in third grade, for crying out loud! (That was back when they used to actually teach geography!)

That's why this whole thing is just plain stupid; another faux outrage manufactured by the Ministers of Perpetual Grievance.

Our freedom of speech is

Our freedom of speech is about down the drain when an outfit like the leftist NPR are getting into hot water...

PCness is jut about to take us over the cliff here in this country...of course this all is being led by the likes of Obama and his supporters behind the scenes..if we do not fight back and let this continue I fear for this country all the more.

What's up doc?

Somebody remembers their Bugs Bunny cartoons! Isn't that cute. I thought it was called the "dark continent" because of the fact that the vegetation stopped the sun from reaching the ground. Call me silly.