“Granny Fight Club” (2017) is a documentary about a self-defence course taught to old women in the slums of Nairobi to protect them from rape. The course is taught by “Ujamma”, an NGO. The documentary was filmed by RT, a news outlet in Russia.
It was filmed in Korogocho, one of the worst slums of Kenya according to RT. Part of it was also filmed at the nearby Dandoro dump, where some of the women make a living finding things to sell. We hear the stories of rape and see the self-defence course being taught. The women are taught to shout “No!” and to hurt the man in a weak spot (eyes, nose, chin, testicles). They are trained in several self-defence moves.
You would think old women would be free from rape. But they are seen as going through a “secondary virginity”, so some teenage boys go after them, believing that sex with them will cure AIDS.
“Ujamma” is misspelled, as I found out from a Google search. Ujamaa Africa is an NGO founded by Dr Jake Sinclair, a White doctor in the US, and his wife. The website says he is “a passionate advocate for young victims of domestic and sexual violence and has developed several youth empowerment programs in the USA and Africa.”
RT gets its money from the Russian government. It presents itself as being free from the bias found in Western news, but in this case it is not. Rape, poverty, AIDS, Africa – you see it so much that there is a name for it: the Broken Africa stereotype.
Most RT documentaries on Africa seem to be little better. They are about stuff like:
- child brides,
- child soldiers,
- street boys,
- witch kids,
- garbage dumps,
- overcrowding,
- refugees,
- refugee camps,
- tribesmen visiting Russia,
- poor people who “waste” money on nice clothes (Les Sapeurs),
- camel races.
Of the three less stereotypical stories – about Nollywood, Mount Kilimanjaro and West African fishing – two seem to be centred on White people.
This is not to say that the issues covered in these documentaries are not serious. Many are. Rape is most certainly a serious issue. But there is no balance.
Stories: This week I am getting all my news from RT. And after four days, this documentary is the only thing I have seen about Africa – or about any Black people anywhere. RT presents itself as covering world news.
Employees: RT has at least one Black employee, Ashlee Banks – I saw her once, a few weeks ago – but not so far this week. Except for one Asian woman, everyone has been White, mostly with British and North American accents.
Bias in the news is pushed not so much by untrue facts but by the selection of facts. The documentary by itself was not bad – they even let Black people do all the talking, something you do not always see. But when it is the main thing I am seeing of Africa and of Black people, and when it fits a stereotype, that is bias.
– Abagond, 2017.
See also:
- YouTube: Granny Fight Club – 28 minutes
- prejudice
- RT
- Programming note #32 – my RT news diet
- propaganda model
528
Secondary virginity? I can’t even.
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praising it with faint damnation.
looks like good reporting to me. “you seeit so much” where? where in their own voice? msm?
And from less than one week of watching you have a grasp of the scope of their documentaries? At least try to pretend to be something other than biased and russophobic.
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@nomad,
Russia is a white supremacist country and Russians are white supremacists. That is the truth based on reality not phobia.
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Also you highlight the least prominent part of RT lineup. “Documentary”. The very nature of the program is documentary, Sociological. Cultural. Not politics or news. The ‘stereotypical’ topics are its subject matter. Nothing is more stereotypical than society and culture. They are the very source of our stereotypes. Complaining about Documentary for dealing with stereotypes is like complaining about National Geographic being “unbalanced”. As opposed to what? Is 60 Minutes unbalanced when they focus on one subject as opposed to some other subject? How can a Documentary be unbalanced, unless its fraudulent and fake? So I don’t really understand the criticism here.
As for coverage of black people. Perhaps its a slow news period for us. This just one week. I know for a fact that their coverage of the black police killings was much better than MSM, because I watched during that period. From Michael Brown to now.
It’s the news and talk programs that determines the “balance” of RT. Not Documentary.
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@Anne
Anne
Assuming that that is true and that it has some relationship to the quality of RT programming, how is that different from America? Isnt this a white supremacist country run by white supremacists? I just think that that those white supremacists over there have a better news service than these white supremacists over here.
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“I just think that that those white supremacists over there have a better news service than these white supremacists over here.”
Nomad cracks me up lol
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Nomad said:
My work here is done.
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yes if your work was to do nothing
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@Nomad
Your observation is one that most people don’t get. The “cold war” was about two competing white supremist cartels that used left/right political idiology to distract from the real goal of which cartel was going to control the world’s resources.
Each side promised protection from the evil communists or the evil capitalists in exchange for controlling that countries resources.
Today these cartels have switched to talk about “terrorism” and low intensity conflicts “protect” the resources of the countries that are friends with the U.S. or Russia.
The U.S. has dropped a ton of bombs (23,000 in 2016) but so have the Russians. There is no good side here.
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See, I don’t get this. Seems a false equivalence. How many bombs have the Russians dropped in past 20 years? How many people have they droned? Sure, both sides do it, but we are talking about a mountain of US bombs and aggression versus a pound of Russia’s. There is no good side here but there is one that is criminally maniacal. Hell bent on mass destruction and WW III.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/04/27/washington-plans-nuke-russia-china/
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Two things jump out at me in the comments above:
(my bolding)
Are there commenters replying on behalf of the Russia Times itself? Otherwise who would “us” refer to?
That is exactly the mantra that the PRC’s 50 cent army uses to counter anything detrimental or critical said about the PRC. They deflect and say that the US is no better (at least in that regard, or in a similar regard.) The thief-thief technique is amply employed.
However, by definition, the 50 cent army is an army of trolls. I don’t know about other people, but the thief-thief argument totally evaporates any credibility that I can place on an argument.
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Russia is white supremacist? Tell me, how many black slaves did they have? What kind of Jim Crow institutions? How many indigenous people did they wipe off the face of the earth? How many atomic bombs did they drop and test on nonwhite people? (These last are not rhetorical questions. I have no idea.)
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just to be clear jefe, the us im referring to is black people. the Russian troll bs is slander.
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@ Nomad
The Russians had colonies in Alaska and down the west coast into northern California. They used Alaskan Natives as forced labor and would kill those who refused.
It’s estimated that up to 80% of the Aleuts died during the first fifty years of Russian occupation, mostly due to exposure to Eurasian diseases but also from violence and hardships caused by Russian oppression. The Russians also practiced cultural destruction, which is why, for example, many Alaskan Natives today belong to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Russians also were active in Hawaii for a time, but I know less about that.
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thanks. ‘cultural destruction’. is that anything like assimilation?
“which is why, for example, many Alaskan Natives today belong to the Russian Orthodox Church.”
we tend to adopt the religion of our oppressors.
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@ Nomad
There is voluntary assimilation, which is what immigrants do. There generally is a merging of cultures in the first generation. Subsequent generations tend to assimilate even more but may retain some ties to their original culture (such as religion).
Then there is involuntary (forced) assimilation, which is synonymous with cultural destruction. This is what happened to the African slaves and the Native Americans. This is how entire languages, religions, and lifeways become extinct.
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sure. russias slaves became orthodox. Americas slaves became protestants.
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America did not try to assimilate or culturally destroy indigenous people. well. not mainly. they opted for literal corporeal destruction.
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@ Nomad
Depends on which people where and what time period. The federal government’s Indian boarding schools, for example, were all about forced assimilation and cultural destruction: “kill the Indian and save the man”
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@Abagond
“….they even let Black people do all the talking, something you do not always see. ”
I thought I was the only one that had noticed that in most documentaries. You hit the nail on the head.
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It is both sad and terrifying that menopausal women are being sexually defiled by teen-aged boys who stupidly think sex with virgins will cure AIDS.
There seem to be so many contributing factors: a broken public health system, government corruption and impunity, an unchecked AIDS epidemic, grinding poverty and boys/men who seek personal power by attacking and humiliating people physically weaker than them.
In traditional societies throughout Africa, these women were once unassailable. Their status as grandmothers and aunties afforded them some measure of respect and deference. Not any more.
It hurts to read about this.
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Afrofem
At last, someone talks about the content of the documentary, which I have not seen BTW. Generally I don’t watch “Documentary”. Occasionally something catches my eye.
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@abagond
So RT picks stories about blacks based on stereotypes? Assuming that’s true, how is that different from MSM? Which gives a more stereotypical picture of black folks and Africa? MSM or RT? Which is more biased MSM or RT? Which is more racist? MSM or RT? Tell me.
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@Abagond,
There is a term that the kids use these days. It’s called “Try Hard”. That’s when someone tries too hard to do something, doesn’t succeed at it, but acts like they’re doing well.
Anyway, I’m glad you also noticed that the conflict is between two different spheres of white supremacy and not between good and evil. It’s a new imperialism after a short break of actual populism where native peoples were able to exert their will. Economic anxiety is another way of saying that they miss the old days.
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I saw a second Black employee on RT! It was Natalie McGill on “Redacted Tonight”. She seems to be their Jessica Williams, if that makes sense. Maybe I should have taken jerky, grainy footage of her and posted it online like she was the Loch Ness monster or Big Foot.
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@abagond
Your chief complaints about RT is that it is government funded and has only one or two blacks. As I have said before about the latter, that’s true but materially inconsequential. As we have seen with MSM, putting a black face on the news helps black people not at all and just makes MSM better at deceiving us into buying government propaganda because it has a black face on it. Putting a black face on imperialism doesn’t help black people one iota. It just helps deceive. Case in point Barack Effing Obama. But I concede the point. No blacks. I for one do not judge a news service by the face that presents the news but by the content of its character.
Your other criticism is a big so what?
The (racist) bias you see in this case is imaginary. But I have noticed many cases where RT is not free of western bias. Sadly. Not here though.
It operates independent of the government, despite its funding. Just as our PBS does, despite its government funding.
Is our government dictating their content? Well, given what I’ve just discovered about MSMs control by the Deep State, probably so.
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Last night on RT I saw an actual story about a Black person in the US! It was the about the botched execution in Arkansas of Kenneth Williams.
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@abagond
I told you about her.
So black people only exist on RT if you see them? What about Ed Harrison? Does he exist yet?
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If you saw it it must exist. RT actually did a story about black people. what a shock.
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@ nomad
From what I have seen so far, they seem to be about the same. RT is better in some ways, worse in others. I will address it in my post on RT, maybe even do a separate post on it.
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@ nomad
Yeah, I feel like I live in Australia.
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go head. defend your racist msm.
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@ nomad
How am I defending the racist MSM?
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by your both sides do it argument. if msm is racist rt must be also. and what other standard could you possibly using in your negative evaluation RT? RT is self described as anti-MSM. To disfavor one, it seems to me, is to favor the other. Or is there some other standard you are using?
BTW, in your judgement of the geopolitical orientation of RT be sure to include in your evaluation the above mentioned Redacted Tonight, Watching the Hawks, Crosstalk and Chris Hedges.
You defend MSM by not calling out its criminal negligence in contrast to the integrity of RT. I ask you once again:
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Also those Russian shows hosted by women where they demolish western posers in penetrating interviews. Russia got some badass news women.
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@ nomad
Huh? What in the world are you talking about? You asked me point-blank to compare them, so I did.
If you asked me who is worse, Hitler or Stalin and I said “Stalin is better in some ways, worse in others, I will address it in my post on Stalin, maybe even do a separate post on it,” that would not mean I am defending Hitler.
I have pointed out the racism and other failings of the MSM many, many times, way more than I have for RT.
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oh. I overlooked that. so I look forward to seeing what ways you think RT is better.
Naturally, since you don’t watch RT. And there are less such failings to report if you did.
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@ nomad
I have seen all of those shows so far this week except for Chris Hedges. I have seen him on The Real News but not yet on RT. I will try to find him on RT online if I do not see him tonight on television.
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oh yeah. and keiser report.
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@Afrofrem
“In traditional societies throughout Africa, these women were once unassailable. Their status as grandmothers and aunties afforded them some measure of respect and deference. Not any more.”
These horrible incidences often happen in slums in big cities like Nairobi. Its not that those traditions have been forgotten by Africans but forgotten by Africans who live in big cities.It is not as bad as it looks because most of our people live in rural areas and keep their traditions intact.
Slums are very hard to keep secure because they were built without any kind of planning. The don’t have security lights and the people that live in them normally don’t have secure jobs. The president we have now is a useless elitist and I hope he loses in our elections in August.
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@Abagond
Did you see the documentary they did about white farmers in South Africa preparing for genocide?
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@ villagewriter
“Slums are very hard to keep secure because they were built without any kind of planning. The don’t have security lights and the people that live in them normally don’t have secure jobs.”
That is true globally, whether the slums were planned or not. People in economic pressure cookers tend to explode on one another, not on the people who put them in those situations.
Economic and social insecurity are features of neoliberalism, not bugs.
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One cannot believe that racism is regulated only in the U.S. or even South Africa. Racism against blacks is everywhere, including in Russia. And after reading this and other analyses of RT’s reporting, it certainly lowered my opinion on the news network.
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This has me conflicted, imagine that. The picture reminds me of bum fights or something, but i guess it’s meant well?
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@ Abagond
Do you ever watch vice documentaries? I find them extremely interesting.
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What it means to be a Russian troll.
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http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/05/05/sauron-rules-washington/
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@ Zoe Jordan
They seem to be pretty good. I saw one on Haitian Dominicans. It was excellent.
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