This is the world as I see it and understand it. I do not intentionally take events out of context but I do relate things as I hear and understand them.
ok. this is discourse analysis. What I mean is that I understand what I heard on Radio4, in the way that I heard it and not necessarily in the way it was meant. But I think I could hear what the speaker was really saying and that's why I'm citing discourse analytic theory.
The first example happened the other day. An old man, whose name I missed, has written a book and was on the radio to discuss it. He was in the Hitler Youth and fought on the side of the Nazis during World War 2. His father was a pacifist and hated the Nazi regime. This man had written his book to pass on his own learning about hatred and the consequences of war. I guess he was hoping that some good could come of evil.
During his interview he explained that he had never known Jews when he was young. "In his poor area, he had never met any Jews."
To me it is clear what he was saying. To this day, despite avowing that he is anti-racist, a pacifist, sorry for his past bigotry, on some level he still believes and betrayed in that line, that all Jews are rich...
Another instance of betraying a deeply felt prejudice happened on the news and current affairs program, 'PM'. Again, I don't think the reporter would believe herself to have any prejudices about Islam or anything. Afterall, the BBC is objective and impartial. The report was about a football match, a qualifier for the World Cup between Iran and Ireland played in Iran. The report began with 2 sentences along the lines of: although this is football-mad country, women are not allowed into football stadiums. This is a Muslim country.
Nothing wrong with either sentence in themselves. Both are true. But there is an inference that because it is a Muslim country, women aren't allowed to watch football. Again, there seems to be the equation that all Muslims are fundamentalists. The reporter had forgotten temporarily that Turkey is a Muslim country and women do things there in much the same way as we do in Britian. Islam is not necessarily a fundamentalist religion, and like all religions there are as many shades and interpretations as there are regions of the world or individuals. But BBC Radio4 implies otherwise.
The thing that these 2 examples have in common, is that it is very easy to perpetuate stereotypes (and therefore hatred and misunderstanding) through implication, by what is left out as much as what is included.