A response to Victoria Coren

Last week the Washington Post published the results of a phone survey of 1900 adults, on a range of issues, with individuals identified by gender and race. This weekend’s Observer published a follow-up article by Victoria Coren giving her interpretation of these findings. The general thrust was:

1. According to this poll’s results, American black women tend to have higher self-esteem are more career-focussed, romantically independent, less stressed and more religious than white women.
2. It must be because there are so few black models featured in magazines that black women “have managed to not get screwed up”.
3. Black women should continue to be disconnected from and under-represented in the evil media, for their own good.

While I have a lot of respect and time for Victoria Coren, and I’m sure this was written with the best intentions and possibly with a tongue firmly in cheek, I feel she has deeply misunderstood, reduced and misrepresented a multitude of black women’s voices. Aside from the problem of a white woman telling black women how lucky they are to be excluded from mainstream society, the leap of logic exhibited in the piece is frankly a bit dodgy.

Sensationalism Around Murder: Some Thoughts

Over the last week and a bit, I’ve made a concerted effort to wind down, starting with resolutely avoiding the news. Despite this, something has infiltrated my embargo; I’m talking about, of course, the murder of a woman in Bristol.

It totally perplexes me why this particular case has taken the media by storm and caught the imagination of the family and friends who keep bringing it up as dinner-table conversation.

The cynic in me would say that there should be no surprise since judging from media coverage, only physically attractive (usually blonde), talented women, much-loved by families and partners, are ever murdered. Or that it’s a relatively quiet news period so the whodunnit narrative fills otherwise dreary pages (assisted by police maps and pictures – your very own real life Cluedo for the post-Christmas lunch games session!).

Babri Mazjid Verdict: More than just a political game?

So the much-awaited verdict on the Babri Mazjid demolition case was finally passed on the 30^th October by the Allahabad High Court. The disputed land was divided into 3 parts. One part was given to the Hindus for building a Rama temple, the second part was given to the Muslims for building a mosque and the third part was given to the nirmohi akharas.

There’s much history and baggage that precedes this verdict; almost sixteen years of fighting a battle hoping to get a fair deal out of the case. In my opinion that’s exactly what the court provided when deciding the verdict.

Before I go into what the larger repercussions of this verdict are, it’s important to understand the history behind the Babri Mazjid, its demolition, and the ensuing battle over the disputed land.