On Saturday's AM Joy on MSNBC, during a discussion of recent instances of apparent Donald Trump supporters being recorded in public places being rowdy and sometimes saying racist things to strangers, former CNN correspondent Maria Hinojosa complained that the "mainstream media" have caused whites to be afraid of immigrants. And, moments later, guest Tim Wise -- identified as an "anti-racism educator" -- fretted about whether "white folks" would be "silent collaborators" with racists rather than opposing them.
Hinojosa -- currently of the Futuro Media Group -- began her complaint about the media:
Where did the narrative come from, right, that, as we become a more diverse society, that it means a loss for somebody else? And I have to look at the mainstream media. Like, again, I mean, I hate to just kind of go there in a big way, but, if you have a mainstream American news media that is not diverse in its own news rooms, and they are reporting about data that is clear, are they bring in their perspective of, "Oh, my God! Change, it's going to mean something that's a loss for us! Oh, my God."
She then added:
Whereas, for example, I run my own newsroom. It is a diverse newsroom. We are committed to reporting about the demographic change and Latinos. So this kind of demographic change is not "Oh my God," it is who we are. Why do we, as our country, why do we fear who we already are?
Host Joy Reid, picking up on Hinojosa's argument, then turned to Wise and posed:
Tim, I'll ask you that question because we do have people who are taking in messages from the media that say, you know, the only time that you're talking about immigration is showing sort of frightening pictures of people coming over the border, so even people who don't even live in a border state fear that there is this influx of migrants that they think are criminals, that they think are frightening.
Are we presenting such a distorted picture writ large that even people who live in completely uniform communities are afraid of people of color, afraid that they're coming?
Wise also faulted the media as he began:
Well, of course, I mean, the research on this going back 15 or 20 years is pretty clear that the media does present oftentimes unidimensional images of immigrants, of black folks in communities, you know. That's why Donald Trump was able to, you know, say, "All black people live in hell. They get shot walking out the door," because that's an image, right, that the media has portrayed.
He then continued:
So clearly the media bears some responsibility, but let me just finish by saying, even though it may be a small minority -- and I think that's probably true, people who were going to act out in this rage-filled way -- the real key for us going forward is how many white folks are not going to be silent collaborators, how many are going to challenge those people. The good news is, in some of these instances, white folks have challenged these folks, and I believe that's the key.
The anti-racism educator then suggested that whites need to avoid being "silent collaborators" as he added:
White folks are going to have to figure out, "How are we going to live in this skin? Are we going to be silent collaborators with racism? Or are we going to be allies acting in solidarity with people of color to change this?"
Moments later, Reid plugged her other guest, Negin Farsard's book, How to Make White People Laugh, and then wondered if minorities were doing too much "to make Trump voters feel more comfortable." Reid:
And, you know, Negin, you just gave me a great book, and it's a hilarious title: How to Make White People Laugh. So, since you have given me this great book, and I'm glad to be able to plug that for you. Are we putting too much responsibility on people of color, on people of religious minorities to make Trump voters feel more comfortable? Are we going too far to say, "We will understand you and sort of care for you"? Is it the responsibility of the other people to the rest of the majority of the country to make them feel better?
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Saturday, December 3, AM Joy on MSNBC:
11:37 a.m. ET
MARIA HINOJOSA, THE FUTURO MEDIA GROUP: Where did the narrative come from, right, that, as we become a more diverse society, that it means a loss for somebody else? And I have to look at the mainstream media. Like, again, I mean, I hate to just kind of go there in a big way, but, if you have a mainstream American news media that is not diverse in its own news rooms, and they are reporting about data that is clear, are they bring in their perspective of, "Oh, my God! Change, it's going to mean something that's a loss for us! Oh, my God."
Whereas, for example, I run my own newsroom. It is a diverse newsroom. We are committed to reporting about the demographic change and Latinos. So this kind of demographic change is not "Oh my God," it is who we are. Why do we, as our country, why do we fear who we already are?
JOY REID: Well, I mean, Tim, I'll ask you that question because we do have people who are taking in messages from the media that say, you know, the only time that you're talking about immigration is showing sort of frightening pictures of people coming over the border, so even people who don't even live in a border state fear that there is this influx of migrants that they think are criminals, that they think are frightening. Are we presenting such a distorted picture writ large that even people who live in completely uniform communities are afraid of people of color, afraid that they're coming?
TIM WISE, ANTI-RACISM EDUCATOR: Well, of course, I mean, the research on this going back 15 or 20 years is pretty clear that the media does present oftentimes unidimensional images of immigrants, of black folks in communities, you know. That's why Donald Trump was able to, you know, say, "All black people live in hell. They get shot walking out the door," because that's an image, right, that the media has portrayed.
So clearly the media bears some responsibility, but let me just finish by saying, even though it may be a small minority -- and I think that's probably true, people who were going to act out in this rage-filled way -- the real key for us going forward is how many white folks are not going to be silent collaborators, how many are going to challenge those people. The good news is, in some of these instances, white folks have challenged these folks, and I believe that's the key.
White folks are going to have to figure out, "How are we going to live in this skin? Are we going to be silent collaborators with racism? Or are we going to be allies acting in solidarity with people of color to change this?"
REID: Well, and also, and misogyny. I'll stay with you for one second, Tim. Why do you suppose no one stood up on that plane when the man went off on that rant, when he used the "B" word to refer to, there were women sitting right near him, and what was weird in that video was unlike the Michaels video where the woman filming the video stood up to the woman who went on a 45-minute rant, like, it was weird for me that even men on that plane did not stand up to the guy on the flight. Why do you think that didn't happen?
WISE: Well, I think one is that there's probably some internalized misogyny that allows us to accept that word in ways we wouldn't perhaps a racial slur. But I also think it has to do with the tight confinement of an airplane and the fear that that guy seemed to be, you know, pretty out of control, maybe drunk, the fear that there would be real violence. And so we really have to talk about that as well. How much of this is being driven by misogyny? How much by racism? How much by this sort of alpha male behavior that the new President of the United States has made entirely normal. We have to be willing to stand up to all of that.
REID: And, you know, Negin, you just gave me a great book, and it's a hilarious title: How to Make White People Laugh. So, since you have given me this great book, and I'm glad to be able to plug that for you. Are we putting too much responsibility on people of color, on people of religious minorities to make Trump voters feel more comfortable? Are we going too far to say, "We will understand you and sort of care for you"? Is it the responsibility of the other people to the rest of the majority of the country to make them feel better?
