Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 142 posts

Re: Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

#21

Post by mensetmanusman »

alistairSH wrote: post #14
NateEag wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US public school system is "no additional charge" - you have to pay taxes to help fund it regardless of whether you use it, but you do not have to pay anything beyond those taxes for your children to attend. It may not be much good , but that's a different question.

Many communities in the US actively cripple their public schools via poor funding (and then send their kids to private schools, leaving only the poor behind).

It’s complicated by the fact that if you do give the public schools money, they spend it on $10 million football facilities for 15 year olds, this is what happened in our community.

Re: Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

#22

Post by [deleted] »

AzzieElbab wrote: post #17
InitialLastName wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One of them said, 'We don't cover black murders because those are cheap deaths,' If anyone ever wondered what attitude triggered the slogan "Black Lives Matter"...

google Chicago shootings and then ask yourself why none of it made national headlines. Here is my first search result https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/8/21/22636162/chicag...

[deleted]

Re: Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

#23

Post by mnw21cam »

DrNosferatu wrote: post #12

"Inside the newsroom some of them would say hello or nod or even speak to me but if they saw me outside the building they would pretend they didn't know me". When you experience this as an immigrant (so the ignoring party knows you have a different nationality) is it generally racism? - What do you think?

Sounds like fear to me.

Re: Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

#24

Post by freeopinion »

NateEag wrote: post #13
reacharavindh wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is precisely why Education should not be treated as a business. If Education was free for every citizen, it does a lot to bring equality of opportunity (it does not fix all of the damages from discrimination, but aids significantly in recovery). So is healthcare. Having experienced education and healthcare in USA and Denmark, I cannot believe such extremes exist in the same world. It blows my mind that the wealt…

The US public school system is "no additional charge" - you have to pay taxes to help fund it regardless of whether you use it, but you do not have to pay anything beyond those taxes for your children to attend. It may not be much good , but that's a different question.

This is the fantasy of public education. It is the time of year where we experience the reality of public education. Many parents in the U.S. just spent thousands of dollars in "additional charges" to enroll their children in public schools.

Re: Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

#25

Post by xenophonf »

DrNosferatu wrote: post #12

"Inside the newsroom some of them would say hello or nod or even speak to me but if they saw me outside the building they would pretend they didn't know me". When you experience this as an immigrant (so the ignoring party knows you have a different nationality) is it generally racism? - What do you think?

Of course that's racism, just like what Ms. Gilliam experienced was racism.

Re: Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

#26

Post by catawbasam »

NateEag wrote: post #13
reacharavindh wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is precisely why Education should not be treated as a business. If Education was free for every citizen, it does a lot to bring equality of opportunity (it does not fix all of the damages from discrimination, but aids significantly in recovery). So is healthcare. Having experienced education and healthcare in USA and Denmark, I cannot believe such extremes exist in the same world. It blows my mind that the wealt…

The US public school system is "no additional charge" - you have to pay taxes to help fund it regardless of whether you use it, but you do not have to pay anything beyond those taxes for your children to attend. It may not be much good , but that's a different question.

This is true for core instruction but not sports and other extracurricular, which are Pay-fors in many parts of the US. Robert Putnam's "Our Kids" (great book!) is eloquent on the costs and consequences.

Re: Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

#27

Post by silurian »

InitialLastName wrote: post #11
Barrin92 wrote: post #2

"There were some old style editors who were still at the Post when I was there. One of them said, 'We don't cover black murders because those are cheap deaths,[..]Inside the newsroom some of them would say hello or nod or even speak to me but if they saw me outside the building they would pretend they didn't know me." I honestly can't even imagine what it's like to live like that. Not just the callousness but also ju…

> One of them said, 'We don't cover black murders because those are cheap deaths,' If anyone ever wondered what attitude triggered the slogan "Black Lives Matter"...

FTA

> She retired from the Post in 2003.

Also, it seems as that quote is from her time there in the 60s judging by the surrounding paragraphs (clearer and more explicit) timelines.

Re: Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

#28

Post by dundarious »

AzzieElbab wrote: post #17
InitialLastName wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One of them said, 'We don't cover black murders because those are cheap deaths,' If anyone ever wondered what attitude triggered the slogan "Black Lives Matter"...

google Chicago shootings and then ask yourself why none of it made national headlines. Here is my first search result https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/8/21/22636162/chicag...

It’s news in Chicago so the Chicago papers don’t consider it “cheap” just because it’s commonplace. DC had a lot of murders in black neighborhoods too, at least in the past. Shouldn’t the Washington Post, a DC newspaper, cover those in detail? And if the time period of the article doesn’t line up and the murder rate rose later, how are those earlier black victims “cheap deaths” even by that metric?

In every circumstance, there appears to be a racist connotation to calling black murders “cheap deaths”.

Re: Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

#29

Post by cirrus-clouds »

noisy_boy wrote: post #6

> When Dorothy Butler Gilliam arrived at a wealthy Washington woman's 100th birthday party the doorman told her she couldn't enter via the front door. "The maid's entrance is around the back," he explained. Just reading it boils my blood.

Some examples from the UK:

A few years ago (2016), a black MP (Member of Parliament) entered a members-only lift in the parliament building (House of Commons). Another MP (unamed) in the same lift told her: "This lift really isn't for cleaners." [1]

More recently (September 2020), a black barrister (type of lawyer) was mistaken for a defendant three times in one day. Her experience was widely reported in the press. [2]

These examples received press attention, but there are undoubtedly many examples that are never reported (for people from any ethnic minority). There have been horrible examples of racism against people of South-East Asian origin during the pandemic.

Sometimes, it feels that progress is being made. At other times, it seems much still needs doing.

The problem of discrimation appears to be Europe-wide too. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published a survey in Nov 2018 that examined the experiences of almost 6,000 people of African descent in 12 European countries. Summary of weighted results across all surveyed countries (taken from the report): https://imgur.com/a/gcHR5dk

[1] Black MP Dawn Butler 'mistaken for cleaner' in Westminster: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-35685169

[2] Black barrister mistaken for defendant three times gets apology: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-54281111

Re: Dorothy Butler Gilliam: ‘I am not a maid, I am a reporter’

#30

Post by CaptainZapp »

mnw21cam wrote: post #23
DrNosferatu wrote: post #12

"Inside the newsroom some of them would say hello or nod or even speak to me but if they saw me outside the building they would pretend they didn't know me". When you experience this as an immigrant (so the ignoring party knows you have a different nationality) is it generally racism? - What do you think?

Sounds like fear to me.

Not to excuse racism in any way, shape or form. But I think that fear and racism are quite tightly connected.
Post reply on HN