Why mention race of Guyanese of Chinese descent?

I raised it before and I don’t want to make a big issue about it but why are certain newspapers in Guyana continuing to cite the race of persons of Chinese ancestry whenever a story is written about them? There are implications for other ethnic minorities in Guyana.

Last Sunday, the Stabroek News had an item about the owner of a “Chinese Restaurant” allegedly being in a fight with a suspected shoplifter. Throughout the story, the race of the restaurant owner was referred to. Even an apparent male friend was so described…

The reference to a person’s race in this case was totally unnecessary. Even the reference to “Chinese Restaurant” was problematic.

What should have been written was this:”The proprietress of a fast food outlet in Georgetown was yesterday reported to be in an altercation with a suspected shoplifter”. End of story.

None of us are perfect, but reference books on journalistic professional practices support the reference to race (along with marital status, sexual orientation, religious persuasion and physically or mentally challenging traits) only if it is relevant to the story. The information given in the SN item indicates it was irrelevant. I could understand if a police release had said that the Chinese nationals were undocumented or had false documents, but this was apparently not the case. Indeed, these persons of Chinese descent may have been descendents of early Chinese immigrants to Guyana who came in the 1800s. If they are new Guyanese (that is, those who have recently immigrated to Guyana), they may have become citizens or legal residents.

To cavalierly and thoughtlessly cite their race in news stories , may further confirm the views of impressionable and ill-informed readers that Guyanese of Chinese descent are somehow “outsiders”, that they are not an integral part of Guyanese society. Civil rights organisations in North America have long campaigned against “crime stories” unnecessarily referring to the race of people of African or Hispanic descent. The argument is that such references may give a skewed picture that such ethnic minorities are disproportionally involved in crime among other adverse repercussions…

Stabroek News is rushing headlong to try and keep up with the sensationalist tabloid Kaieteur News in splashing stories about crime, sex, torture and mayhem stories on front page and inside lead stories to pander to baser instincts. This is not to forget the local shock columnist who wracks his brain every night to get something even more outrageous than the day before to give people something to laugh about and who doesn’t have an inkling among other shortcomings about the politics of fascism and socialism.

In fairness, these two dailies in question have some good stories but the Guyanese reading public deserves better coverage of the ongoing developmental projects and overall progress for all the people in Guyana. We need less sensationalism and speculation.

Notwithstanding the deep tradition of Guyanese newspapers and the excellent work of dedicated professional newsmen and women, there are those who argue that Guyana needs an effective Press Council with punitive measures capability to deal with continuing lapses in sections of the Guyanese media…
NORMAN FARIA
Barbados

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