There is NO sliding scale of racism !!!Below is part of the formal complaint made about the segment on Friday 16th of July.
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During the rehearsal and on the day, the producer helped **** correctly pronounce my surname for at least 5 or 10 minuets. Mattiazzo may be a long surname, but it's Italian, you pronounce everything in it and you're fine. The amount of time we took in rehearsal and the then again, the time the producer took before we went live to air, should have been enough for an announcer who has been in the game for 30 something years to get it right.
Throughout the rehearsal **** was mostly welcoming and the idea of the first segment was to introduce me to his audience and also to invite a younger demographic to the programme. As stated in the original email from the producer ......"As discussed today, in the first live segment, we will introduce you to our audience and get you to talk about how you have weathered the COVID storm as a creative artist.From there, we will get you to do a 'What's Caught My Eye This Week'. If you have a better tagline for the segment, I'm open to ideas!
We really want you to bring your own fun and flavour to it, using the following filters:
- What will resonate with a 50-64 Female audience?
- What are the stories of the week, be they mainstream or your own observations, that you can chat about in an informative yet fun way?- What are some of your personal experiences and daily observations that you can chat to ***** openly and honestly about?"
In the segment he couldn't say my name to save his life. This is insulting alone (as already mentioned) as we spent sooo much time in rehearsal etc getting it right. It became a racist issue when he said "Why can't you be Carla Jones etc etc etc" A list of approx. 3 Anglo Saxon names is a pure representation of times gone by. Where people didn't take the time to correctly pronounce someone of another culture/nationality's name and it was usually followed by a racist insult. The icing on the racist cake was when he called me a French Frog. Even the producer audibly gasped.
The continuous mention of 'no bloody work' for performers, was disappointing, don't you think a national radio announcer would be wanting to open up doors and support the arts? To invite people who are looking for performing artists to get in contact, to support and encourage the arts and artists to keep going. ***** repeated the 'no bloody work' quote/sentiment a few times throughout this 9min segment, again indicating to artists everywhere there is no value in what they do and you're better of working in your fall-back job.
The section where he spoke about the vaccination was ill informed, rude, insensitive, and patronising. The roll out and the messaging in regard to the jab has been horrid in this country. That aside, I was pretty sure I was in the age range, the state and the ethnicity where I was not permitted to receive the jab at this stage of the roll out. Since the segment on Friday, I have completed the SA Health website questionnaire to see if I was correct, indeed I was. If only I had that information before going to air. The comment about it not being good enough that I have not looked into it, because I have a lot of time on my hands and shouldn't my parents be pressuring me to get it, was not something that sat well with me (or the listeners) at all. He spent way too long 'having a go' at me about the vaccination.
The assumption that I have heaps of time on my hands is incorrect. Obviously, he has no idea that artists everywhere are creating new shows or ways to put on shows, that takes time, we are applying for 'day job's' and spending time on the relentless grant application processes. To add further insult to injury, linking the artists being out of work with not getting the jab yet, made no sense. Then to follow on from that the fact that I mentioned my Dad getting sick from his first jab was met with a scoff. I had to explain myself and give out personal information about my Dad (that he ended up in hospital) to prove my point... this subject is sensitive for everyone and if a loved one has ended up in hospital, a small piece of empathy would have been preferred. Instead, no empathy and sensitivity was given.
At the end of the segment ***** sums up by getting my surname wrong again... and one more a knock down comment for the arts and the final sprinkle of condescension 'much love to you young ones out there' or something to that effect. Made my stomach turn.
I will not be going back to give them content or to be a 'punching bag' each week. This weekly segment was unpaid 'exposure dollars', it wasn't just the time I was spending on air, but the research and note taking of weekly events that I was to bring to the table each week. Not to mention the jingle creation and recording and editing etc.
My social media blew up and my friends who listened messaged me throughout the segment. The groups of people were; ethnics, artists and women around my age. All disgusted at how racist, rude, sexist, patronising and negative he was about my nationality, the vaccine and the arts. A lot of the females whose comments were via socials or text thought he was completely condescending, (to say the least) like a woman in her mid 30's is not capable of making autonomous decisions about getting the vaccination.
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If you would like to hear the full segment without my commentary, feel free to get in touch.
