Like almost everyone else, PPT watched political events in the United States. As the results came out, we were a little taken aback by the reports that started to appear in the mainstream media in Bangkok that began to see “the story” as being about Tammy Duckworth. This is kind of outside our normal posts, but we think some of this reporting has been appalling.
Patrick Winn at the Global Post notes this when he points to a Thai Rath headline: “สาวสายเลือดไทยชนะเลือกตั้ง เป็นส.ส.สหรัฐ” or Thai-blooded Thai girl becomes a congresswoman. As Winn notes, describing the former U.S. Army helicopter pilot who lost her legs in Iraq in 2004, when her Black Hawk was hit by an RPG is an insult in itself. Duckworth is the daughter of an American father, a marine, and a Thai mother.
Being proud of a woman with a Thai mother who becomes an elected member of the U.S. Congress is one thing. Doing that in racist and sexist terms is something else, betraying yet again that the mainstream media in Thailand remains mired in the debris of a failed education system and the 19th and 20th century creation of a propaganda state.
If readers are interested in some real news about Asian-Americans and the elections, try this.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 