Happy Thursday Reader!

Welcome to new subscribers Ashley, Marietta, Marcella, Mayra, Anna, Tabea and Venkatesh!
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Subscriber Shirish shared a comment with me on the lesson I shared about inclusion two newsletters ago namely that you shouldn’t focus in your stories on the differences between people but instead focus on what we all have in common. He says he always believed this in his own work as well and says: “I think it’s particularly important in foreign reporting, where too often we report on the basis of 'look at these foreign people, they’re so weird and different?!'".
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Well, speaking of foreign reporting, what a week it was! It feels like a month flew by... Most of my time went into co-writing and publishing a petition against parachute journalism (119 signatures and you can still sign!), based on the press trip of CNN to Myanmar. The case already got a lot of attention on Twitter but I felt sometimes it’s necessary to make a stronger statement that reaches further than the journalism bubble of tweets and threads.
​(Do read this #thread by political and legal anthropologist Judith Beyer).
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Interestingly enough, Alan told me how he got some ‘really encouraging messages’ from people whereas I received quite some critical responses as well. I recognize the defence mechanism in the criticism (all of them were white journalists) because it took me personally a few years to not feel personally offended anymore when discussing white savior complex.
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But I wish we could take the whole discussion to a next level where we first ask ourselves some questions before we immediately point out to others. For example:

• Wow, that’s a lot of backlash, what is their main critique?
• Is there some truth in some of the things being said?
• What could we have done differently?

For the last question I already have an example. BBC presenter Ros Atkins and his team created a solid roundup in a 10 minutes video about Myanmar. Just one example of how good journalism is possible without having to travel to a country:

South East Asia Globe published an article yesterday where they explained why they’d joined CNN on the press trip in Myanmar and they’re organizing a webinar tomorrow to give transparency about their decision, free to join for everyone. Register here.

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- Sanne.

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To keep it 'short' and sweet :)

Honestly, this newsletter doesn’t come easy to me. Partly because of my inner critic who shouts that it needs to be 'excellent' every week, whatever that means 😆. I decided to talk to my inner critic and negotiate to do things slightly different. She agreed. Instead of trying to write something 'brilliant', exclusively for the newsletter - which makes me procrastinate and being taken over by the imposter syndrome - I’m now writing a short blog on my website every day and I bring a weekly summary here:
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The critical responses on the petition made me think of the importance of an embodied experience to really tackle racism within yourself. Or, in other words, there is no comfortable shortcut to inclusion. Another thought about the issues this week came after a podcast I was invited to and someone asked why I use the word “inclusion” when we shouldn’t aim for inclusion in the existing system but rather change the whole foundation. I think we can do both. And before the petition got published, I posted about parachute journalism on my Instagram and received interesting responses about foreign reporting in Syria:

“Not to discredit some of the amazing work some of the foreign journalists accomplished at great personal risk, however the Syrian voice was silenced because the West never accepted that a voice from within the conflict can be neutral and report facts.”)

and also in the Caribbean Netherlands:

“We have more than enough solid journalists, but European media prefer a construction in which the local journalists are allowed to fix sources, translations, etc. for a small fee, while the journalists flew in with the big story and the credits.”

Journal prompt

When do you procrastinate and why? Do you sometimes delay an action or response regarding inclusion and diversity? Is there a reason why you feel reluctant to act or speak out?

What am I reading or watching?

• The documentary 'Coded Bias' about AI technology is a must see on Netflix. As Vice describes:
  ​“It's a refreshingly digestible introduction to the myriad ways algorithmic bias has infiltrated every aspect of our lives—from racist facial recognition and predictive policing systems to scoring software that decides who gets access to housing, loans, public assistance, and more.” ​
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• And I’ve seen 'Minari', a movie about the Korean immigrant family Yi who works hard for a better future in the US. Steven Yeun became the first Asian-American Best Actor nominee in the history of the Oscars. A beautiful film and insightful regarding the US immigrant history.

What about you?

Speaking of the film industry, subscriber Mandy sent me an article written by former professional basketball player, classmate of Mandy at UCLA :) and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with the title “Hollywood must do more to combat Asian stereotypes”.
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He concludes:

“After all, if we valued Asian Americans, why would we allow them to be continually humiliated by how we portray them, or worse, how we ignore them as a significant presence. Especially when we have the power to change things.”

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If you have an article, film, meme or real life situation you want to share, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and reply to this email!

What can you do?

1. Follow BBC North America correspondent Larry Madowo on Twitter and Instagram. He currently reports about the Derek Chauvin trial, the officer who killed George Floyd. I wrote about what we can learn from Madowo before, him being a Black reporter gives extra depth especially in this case. He left a rare personal note about that before, saying: “I’m not African American, but I’m a Black man living in AMerica… I’ve seen the effect and the emotional toll it’s got on the BLack community… I see people who are going to therapy now - people who are seeking support in different ways.”
2. Check out Minority Africa, the digital publication “that houses minority reports that detail interventions and are objective, well researched and representative”. They published an insightful piece about R&B star and music mogul Akon who wants to build a futuristic city in Uganda: “When Black elites like Akon fight to uphold capitalist systems at the expense of Africa’s most vulnerable people, they are effectively sustaining white supremacy.”
3. I attended yoga classes last month here in Bali where Paul Teodo teaches. The things he talks about during the practice stick with me. About how yoga can help us to connect again with other people (after the pandemic), how we don’t need to be perfect but just have to grow every day (even if it’s just half a centimeter) and how a spiritual practice is not just to feel better for yourself but ultimately to help others feel good. No worries if you don’t like yoga, just see how you can move your body this week and think about why that helps you to help others.

Have a great week!