LOUIS BURKE | Cultural Gaffes | CONTACT
After managing a weeks worth of programming on the back of neighbours from hell, dodgy doctors and undesirably, updates on what is happing on The Voice, an A Current Affair staffer is wondering if it’s too soon to run the same story about Asians buying baby formula in the supermarket.
A Current Affair ‘journalist’ Kimberly Spackman (32) has previously run a story about a large number of predominantly Asian shoppers who load up on baby formula to sell in China at a premium price, making access to the product more difficult for those who already deal with the stigma of not breastfeeding in the first place.
According to Spackman, it’s the kind of story A Current Affair viewers are interested in seeing, as it causes outrage, victimises average Australians and demonises Asians.
Although Spackman aired a story about this very issues two months ago, she is hoping that it is not too soon to air the story again and is hopeful the average ACA viewer will not notice or mind.
“Every time we air the story about shoppers sending trolleys full of baby formula to China we are inundated with feedback from our viewers,” stated Spackman.
“I’d read some of the comments but I think that might be classified as a hate crime.”
When the segment last aired, Spackman presented the story with interviews from a disgruntled mother of two who claimed to have ‘nothing against orientals’ intercut with smartphone footage taken inches from the face of an Asian woman loading her trolley with baby formula while ignoring the questioning from a bloke twice her size.
“That’s really hot footage because it shows how these people who aren’t breaking any laws are not willing to explain the many complexities of the state of Chinese baby formula to someone who is filming them in public.”
In a recent statement by Spackman, she states it’s likely she will run the story next week as people want to watch it and Australia hasn’t had an incident of ‘Asian-bashing’ since that woman tried to reserve a car space simply by standing in the spot a couple of months back.
“However, it’s certainly not Asian bashing. They are doing this, it’s happening and if people who already don’t like Asians find themselves getting outraged by this how is that my fault?”
