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Lifesaboxofgardens t1_iydgds7 wrote

White guys named Mike can't be shark experts? This headline is something else lol.

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Geoff_with_a_J t1_iyea0xo wrote

based on my anecdotal survey on people i know who still watch Shark Week, most of them are white dudes named Mike

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SynthD t1_iydibs9 wrote

It’s a phrasing I’ve seen before, where past articles also cleared it up for anyone confused.

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CatFoodBeerAndGlue t1_iydhttt wrote

Maybe read the article before commenting.

>Nor does Shark Week accurately represent experts in this field. One issue is ethnicity: Three of the five most-featured locations on Shark Week are Mexico, South Africa and the Bahamas, but we could count on one hand the number of non-white scientists who we saw featured in shows about their own countries. It was far more common for Discovery to fly a white male halfway around the world than to feature a local scientist.

>Moreover, while more than half of U.S. shark scientists are female, you wouldn’t know this from watching Shark Week. Among people who we saw featured in more than one episode, there were more white male non-scientists named Mike than women of any profession or name.

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RecommendsMalazan t1_iydmjuf wrote

I mean, that doesn't make the headline any less nonsensical.

Kinda feels to me like they're throwing that in there as a play on gender politics to try to get more people to read.

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HortonHearsTheWho t1_iydrfl4 wrote

You don’t actually have to be of the local ethnicity to be a zoological expert in local fauna. Just like you don’t have to be of a certain race to be an expert in virology, astronomy, etc. Seems weird to insist your scientists fill certain race quotas.

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CatFoodBeerAndGlue t1_iyedu6a wrote

Read it again. The white guys named Mike aren't scientists.

Discovery hired more white non-scientists specifically named Mike than they hired female and ethnic actual shark scientists despite their abundance.

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Lifesaboxofgardens t1_iydia1z wrote

I was quite literally just pointing out that it is funny to me that white guys named Mike are catching strays in this headline. It was pretty obviously meant to be inflammatory clickbait so it's doing its job, not everything has to be so serious.

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boneguru t1_iydnp6m wrote

But some need to feel offended! I got your comment, and it was funny!

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MulciberTenebras t1_iydnzo2 wrote

Discovery has been accused in the past of racism/sexism on their shows (in some cases far worse than this).

After the WB merger, plenty of POC and women in high positions at the company were being forced out. And it doesn't take much to see a pattern of what shows they decided to cancel/erase from existence to save money.

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Valiantheart t1_iyfe9cr wrote

So we should discount the knowledge of these experts because of a lack of melanin? Is the entire article just ironically racist?

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KumagawaUshio t1_iydra49 wrote

What so the issue is they flew in English speakers for a documentary targeted to English speakers rather than use subtitles? how is that a problem.

The Bahamas is a country with a smaller population than a mid size town in some countries so considering how that even in the USA shark specialist scientists aren't that common even in a country with over 80,000 times its population.

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Jackattack736 t1_iydyxol wrote

Lol your point about languages is a bit moot seeing that the official language of The Bahamas is English. Subtitles wouldn't be needed.

As to if there are any Bahamian shark scientists, that I have no idea about

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JohnCavil01 t1_iyeteun wrote

You could at least pretend you read the article though.

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