File this one under 'you couldn't make it up' and picture if you will the management team over at the Daily Mail sitting around planning the entry criteria for that paper's 'Young Journalist of the Year.
- "Now, bear with me. You know some people seem to think we're a racist newspaper?"
- "Well, I've heard some loony lefties suggest we're somehow wrong to want the gypsies, foreigners and Muslims run out of the country."
- "Right, so what if we ran a competition for young journalists, and let some of those people enter?"
- "What, like the blacks and stuff?"
- "Them, and the Asians and the Muslims and what have you."
- "Bloody hell, why don't we just make it ONLY open to these people... that'll show them who's a bally racist and who isn't... Just no Eastern Europeans or gypsies because they eat swans."
- "Done! We'll say they have to look properly exotic."
Sound unlikely and a little crass? Well here's the ad, published this afternoon on Gorkana:
Daily Mail - Young Journalist of the Year Award
The Daily Mail is looking for talented writers in print or broadcast, under 30 and from a visible ethnic minority to enter the Young Journalist of the Year Award and stand a chance to win £500 or an internship with the Daily Mail.
On first glance I think only the Daily Mail could try so hard to be PC yet get it so wrong. But on reflection I suspect this could be a trick question and the prize will go to the first white, middle class, anglo-saxon protestant who writes in and says:
"I consider myself a visible ethnic minority... because all those illegal immigrants have made me a 'foreigner in my own country' (TM)."
“Congratulations young man, you've passed the first test. Welcome to the Daily Mail.”
For me, the telling word in all of that is "OR" - as in: "a chance to win £500 or an internship with the Daily Mail."
I wonder which it will be!
Posted by: Chris Smith | Jul 21, 2009 at 16:29
Crass token racism aside, it's telling that even 'Young Journalist of the Year' can't win an actual job.
Posted by: Nadia Saint | Jul 21, 2009 at 16:33
Isn't positive discrimination just as bad? And in this case worse because I suspect the Mail is using this entirely for the purposes of tokenism and a misguided sense of publicity.
What's more, since when did "young" mean "visibly ethnic". Wouldn't it have been better to seek a patron of this award - a journalist and role model from an ethnic minority and make it 'So-and-So's award for outstanding young journalism from an ethnic minority" (or whatever)? And perhaps offer a raft of awards to be more inclusive - after all, £500 or an internship isn't exactly going to break the bank even in these straitened times.
Making it a competition for any young person - oh, as long as you're visibly ethnic - is, as you say, crass!
Posted by: Anon | Jul 21, 2009 at 16:37
'Must be able to work for free... or take the £500 brush off.'
The cynic in me says this is because the Mail is a little wary of who it wants knocking around its office.
But I'm probably only being so harsh *because* it's the Mail.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 21, 2009 at 16:43
Oh, I get it. It means 'No Poles, No Dogs, No Irish'!
Posted by: Karen | Jul 23, 2009 at 21:27
It's part of this larger set of awards for people from ethnic minorities: http://www.gg2.net/awards09/GG/Award_Categories.asp The Mail just sponsors the journalism award. Still, the use of the word "visible" appears to be the Mail's own, as I can't find it anywhere else on the awards site.
Posted by: Tom | Jul 24, 2009 at 00:16