Becoming the Scapegoat: How We are Taught to Hate
By: Felicity Thompson
Tags: People, Media Criticism, Mass Media, Prejudice, Psychology

Becoming the Scapegoat: How We are Taught to Hate

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

Moving to Australia has seriously opened my eyes to the way the media manipulates our views of different groups. It is something I have always ‘known’ but not something I ever thought really worked.

In London, where I grew up, Muslims, Black people, Eastern Europeans and pretty much every non-white group have all had their fair share of targeted hate led by the media, but I am ashamed to say that it has taken becoming the blamed party myself to start to truly understand the extent to which people are manipulated by this.

I remember watching a TV show about the 7/11 bombings in London where a young Muslim girl was not allowed on the bus with her Cello, because of a racist bus driver who had seen Muslims blamed for the tragedy.

I remember clearly thinking “what an idiot” but that is pretty much where I left it. I have always advocated that anyone who hates entire groups of people based on what they read in the media is nothing short of idiotic, but I always believed that that group was a minority.

Fast forward to 2020’s pride and joy, however, and it has become all too clear that the proportion of people still believing lies printed in the media is vast, if not the majority.

As a young person with a foreign accent in Australia, I classify as a backpacker, which has been one of groups of people largely targeted by the media over here, since the pandemic.

I feel utterly ridiculous complaining about the experiences of a white, privileged young person enjoying an incredible life opportunity, so please realise that I am in no way equating my slight experience with vilification to the systematic racism encountered daily by ethnic minorities (and minority groups in general).

I am, instead, attempting to educate other people like me, by highlighting my more subtle experiences.

Becoming the scapegoat

Australia is often stereotyped as a racist country, but being white has meant that I have never consistently experienced hate spurred by my race.

When Coronavirus hit, however, the newspapers were increasing hostile towards another of my ‘ingroups’ — backpackers, with headlines similar to below:

Coronavirus cluster in Bondi as infectious backpackers unknowingly spread virus Bondi virus outbreak: Backpackers spread COVID-19

Now, I am not condoning anyone who breaks the rules or puts anyone else in danger, but are we really supposed to believe that of the 500+ people who broke the mass gatherings rule that caused Bondi beach to be closed (for example), ALL of them were backpackers?

Is it not possible that Australians are also breaking rules and spreading Coronavirus?

It is, actually, because I know many Australians who break the rules and I also know many backpackers who don’t.

Anyway, the old me would have seen the headline, laughed at it and carried on with my day — and I did. But, around April 2020 I began to encounter large numbers of Australians who had clearly been duped by these headlines.

I was constantly asked why I was here and told to go home, which I was fine with — just ignore them. But I also witnessed other people have their vehicles graffitied “go home, backpackers not welcome” and it was a weird reminder that people really do believe the scapegoats they are handed.

Blaming the victim is easier than accepting their fate as a possibility for you

As a psychology graduate, I know exactly why people believe these things — it stems from a protective instinct (it happened to them because of xxx, so it would never happen to me). If you are interested in learning about victim blaming feel free to read my dissertation!

But, despite the theory being there, I was so shielded from the practical implications of it — purely because of my privilege.

The media controls our thoughts so intensely, and it plays on our psychological make up to do so.

But, not only does blindly believing what we read in the news put us at an intellectual disadvantage, it also creates intense divides between communities. At a time when we need to come together most, that is truly counterproductive (for us; maybe not for those pointing the finger).

Fast forward 6 months and many Australians are learning exactly what use the country has for backpackers. With the majority gone, there are fields and fields of rotting fruit and veg — wasted because no one will pick it.

Farms are begging Australians to replace the backpackers in those roles, but as most will agree fruit picking in the blazing sun in the middle of nowhere is a far from ideal way of earning minimum wage.

We will see what happens with those less desirable jobs in England once the effects of Brexit come to light…

It is so unfortunate that it often takes the privileged to educate each other, despite the lessons constantly punching them in the face until they choose to see them.

Nevertheless, I would like as many people as possible to learn exactly what I did, so next time you see a headline highlighting an issue caused by a certain group, please just think critically.

Black people do not owe us an explanation of why they are not responsible for a riot.

Muslims do not owe us an explanation of why terrorists are not real Muslims.

Read, watch, listen and learn from the people who have already chosen to share their story. They might not be the people you think you usually relate to, which is why their influence is so important.

We all need to educate ourselves and take ownership of our unconscious biases, because scapegoating helps no one.