At this point, you have undoubtedly seen the video of one woman’s experience walking the streets of New York for 10 hours, and the unsolicited harassment and catcalling she received from what they say were “people of all backgrounds.” If you haven’t, well, watch the video above. We’ll wait.
You know who seems strangely absent from these “100-plus instances of verbal street harassment,” though? White people.
Slate columnist Hanna Rosin discusses in an essay the dangerous implications the video has beyond its chief anti-harassment message: namely, that the majority of street harassers are black or Latino, and that they are unemployed.
Marketing agency (and video co-producers) Rob Bliss Creative said in a statement that “We got a fair amount of white guys, but for whatever reason, a lot of what they said was in passing, or off camera.” OK, but you had like 10 hours of footage. There wasn’t one usable comment from a white dude?
While by no means does the lack of white people invalidate the video’s message, it does (at least in part) unintentionally diminish some of its impact and inspire a side conversation about racial politics.
[via Slate]
