The Newsroom recap: Africa plot was stupid and offensive

Willa Paskin over at Slate attempts to take down the Newsroom’s Unintended Consequences episode as yet another generalization of the African continent by the White Savior Complex:

In the episode, Maggie and her colleague Gary Cooper (yes, Gary Cooper) fly to Uganda and immediately head out to an orphanage in the countryside. Cooper spends the last 100 miles of the drive filming from the back of a truck, because the handler told him he might see drug lords. “There were no drug lords, and I didn’t see one animal I haven’t seen in my apartment,” Maggie brusquely recalls about this portion of the trip, and when they arrive the handler makes clear that he was just playing Gary for a fool. “Idiot,” he says, expressing his disdain for naïve Americans who imagine drug lords are so prevalent on the Dark Continent as to be part of the scenery.  Except then the rest of the episode dedicates itself to making a whole host of hackneyed, condescending clichés about dysfunctional, dangerous Africa come true.

She then proceeds to be taken down herself in the comments section. I especially loved Thom Stark and Kevon Swami’s level headed analysis of the episode’s intentions.

But why is it always Uganda? Thanks Juliane Okot Bitek for the heads up.

Maybe I am just super sensitive to this but I’ve noticed a raft of movies with passing mentions of Uganda lately…. the following r examples

— TMS Ruge (@tmsruge) July 9, 2013

via The Newsroom recap: Africa plot was stupid and offensive..