White Damsels in Distress

By George E. CurryNNPA Columnist Whether conscious or subconscious, the White-owned news media goes into a frenzy whenever there appears to be a White damsel in distress. “Every few weeks, this stressed-out nation with more problems to worry about than hours in the day find time to become obsessed with the saga – it’s always a ‘saga,’ never just a story – of a damsel in distress,” Eugene Robinson wrote recently in the Washington Post. “Natalee Holloway, the student who disappeared while on a class trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba, is the latest in what seems to be an endless series. “Holloway assumed the mantle from her predecessor, the Runaway Bride, who turned out not to have been in distress at all – not physical distress, at least, though it’s obvious that the prospect of her impending 600-guest wedding caused Jennifer Wilbanks an understandable measure of mental trauma.” Robinson continued, “Before the Runaway Bride, there were too many damsels to provide a full list, but surely you remember the damsel elite: Laci Peterson. Elizabeth Smart. Lori Hacking. Chandra Levy. JonBenet Ramsey. We even created a damsel amid the chaos of war in Iraq: Jessica Lynch.” Judging by the saturated news coverage, one would think that the only White women are reported missing. According to the 46,600 active missing adult cases tracked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 53 percent of the victims are men and 29.1 percent are African-Americans. But you’d never know it by the news coverage. Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post’s media critic, acknowledged: “I’ve got to say, when you look at which missing-persons stories get covered (female, white, usually middle-class) and those that don’t, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that selective news judgment is at work.” In an interview with Kurtz, Tom Rosentiel, director of the Project for Excellence, was even more direct. “To be blunt, blond white chicks who go missing get covered and poor black, Hispanic or other people of color who go missing do not get covered,” he said. “You’re more likely to get coverage if you’re attractive than if you’re not.” In other words, if one is ugly, she is also out of luck. Robinson, in his column, provided more specifics. “A damsel must be white. This requirement is nonnegotiable. It helps if her frame is of dimensions that breathless cable television reporters can credibly describe as ‘petite,’ and it also helps if she’s the kind of woman who wouldn’t really mind being called ‘petite,’ a woman with a good deal of princess in her personality. She must be attractive – also nonnegotiable. Her economic status should be middle class or higher, but an exception can be made in the case of wartime (see: Lynch).” The news media’s obsession with White damsels in distress can be attributed, in part, to the complexion of the nation’s newsrooms. African-Americans are 12.5 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Census Bureau. A survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors revealed that Blacks are only 5.4 percent of U.S. newsrooms. In terms of African-Americans with decision-making power, those numbers are even smaller. The industry remains largely-White while the country grows increasingly diverse. In 50 years, Whites will become a minority in the United States for the first time. Instead of making sure newsrooms reflect that diversity, employment of people of color peaked in previous years and today, executives are merely paying lip service to the cause of diversity or, in the case of the New York Times, redefining diversity so broadly that it will result in less emphasis on hiring African-Americans. Compounding the problem is the trend of frustrated Black journalists leaving the profession at a rate higher than their White counterparts. In addition to the underemployment of African-Americans, we’re seeing some White editors viewing the world through their own limited prisms. Searching for an explanation, Robinson wrote in the Washington Post: “It’s the meta-narrative of something seen as precious and delicate being snatched away, defiled, destroyed by evil forces that lurk in the shadows, just outside the bedroom window. It’s whiteness under siege. It’s innocence and optimism crushed by cruel reality. It’s a flower smashed by a rock. “Or maybe…the damsel thing is just a guaranteed cure for the slow news day. The cable news channels, after all, have lots of airtime to fill.” Slow news days notwithstanding, White damsels in distress are not the only ones suffering unfortunate and deadly fates. And the news coverage should not give that mistaken impression. George E. Curry is editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service. He appears on National Public Radio (NPR) three times a week as part of “News and Notes with Ed Gordon.”