“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses”
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Ms Christina Victor
This post will inform you of Ms Christina Victor, although a personal account of one person, I see this as a representation of how some cultures are seen in the public eye.
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Pictured above is Ms. Christina Victor, a 19 year old Polynesian female. Based on her appearance, was pulled aside and interrogated by staff at Glasson's clothing store. Auckland based reporter Catherine Gaffeney wrote an article on her ill treatment titled "Accused of shoplifting and told 'she looked dodgy'" from the "NZ Herald" online.
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| Catherine Gaffeney |
Ms Christina Victor quoted "They said the shoes looked new and pointed to the barcode still on them."
"My hands were shaking and I felt like crying. They were staring at me like a piece of meat."
"The shoes are new, my sister bought them and the only other time I'd worn them was to church the week before."
"I'm a Catholic. Stealing is in the Ten Commandments; it's a big no-no," she said.
Hopefully you will take from this post how a person who is wrongly accused can feel when subjected to embarrassment because of the color of their skin.
Maybe in future before making accusations, like so many stores especially Glasson's is to view the in store video tapes. Technology has come a long way to get to the bottom of it straight away. Decisions can be based on what they see on screen which was a mistake, avoiding this embarrassing situation for Ms. Christina Victor and those involved.
I would like to end this post with lyrics from a song that I think exemplifies Ms Christina Victor and any person who has been marginalized and stereotyped because of their appearance.
"Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
you were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird" The Beatles
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You make a fair point, which I agree with, and that this woman was accused solely on her appearance/skin colour. There are no other factors which would have formed this decision in the shop assistant's mind. It's a hard issue to shake from our own minds because we see it all over the media with the particular ways which people of colour are represented (in these degrading criminal stereotypes). The shop assistants would not have batted an eye if the woman were "white".
ReplyDeleteThank you Kate.
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