02.05.2014 Undifferentiated article from Daily Mail confirms prejudices

Enoch (2014) from Daily Mail reports on a court case in London. A Polish Roma family is accused of having trafficked several Polish nationals to England and to have abused them with forced labour. Which ethnic group the victims belong to is not stated. While the article precisely describes the offenses the Rroma family is accused of, Enoch remains vague regarding the motives and the relevance of ethnic membership. He indirectly suggests that mentioning of ethnicity is self-explanatory and explains the motives behind these actions. He thereby confirms racist stereotypes about criminal Rroma, who are said to be involved in human trafficking and forced labour. Naming group membership is completely unnecessary and encourages xenophobic opinions among the readers. Enoch states: “A family of Roma gypsies tricked three fellow Poles into moving to London, where one was forced into slavery and subjected to beatings – and all had their National Insurance numbers used to rip off the benefits system, a court heard. One female victim was constantly sexually molested and forced to shoplift and beg with her two children, who were kept in a locked room and also threatened with beatings, a jury at Croydon Crown Court was told.” Daily Mail regularly publishes articles about Rroma that consciously promote xenophobia against the minority. The newspaper is totally unaware of its responsibility for a differentiated clarification of the readership.

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