If you want to make assumptions or poke holes in anything that’s cute or funny or relatively journalistic, take it to Twitter. Like this viral video of BBC journalist Robert Kelly being interrupted by his kids during an on-air segment.
The best interview of 2017. Hands down. 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/ugUdcHzjpV
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 10, 2017
While the most distracting thing to me is the cool, casual way that tiny baby rolls up in the office, others have had different reactions. For instance, assuming the woman in the video was the kids’ nanny. (Spoiler: She’s their mom.)
https://twitter.com/ellenstark/status/840213795532394498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/MindyFurano/status/840285275293155330
What he did to the child?! And the nanny later?! #bbc #live #children
— Samoborski Muftija (@sanjinbuzo) March 10, 2017
People have been commenting on this problematic assumption for awhile, before the woman was verified by the Daily Mail as their mother, Jung-a Kim. Many on Twitter have argued that jumping to the conclusion that an Asian woman who wrangles children for a white man must be a nanny is nothing short of racist.
That BBC interview? People were assuming the Asian woman must be a nanny because she 'couldn't' be the wife of a white man?
— Sinead Anja (@SineadAnja) March 10, 2017
lol to all of you people who assumed the korean wife was the nanny in the bbc clip. smh check yourselvesssss
— ✨ nacho // 조혜미 ✨ (@angelinacho) March 10, 2017
ohmigod the amount of people on my fb assuming the woman in the BBC interviewee video is the nanny pic.twitter.com/kZ2qbgWzVD
— Meg Reid 🦦 (@megireid) March 10, 2017
Women, especially women in journalism, have also pointed out that the entire thing is a double-standard—it’s adorable when a man brings children to the office, maybe even pushes them aside to work, but when a woman does it, it’s a non-thing. Maybe it’s even considered neglect.
https://twitter.com/lyzl/status/840248850879270913
I went on TV while nursing and you couldn't tell (until the end) https://t.co/fhqKQvVBcX cc @CBCNews pic.twitter.com/4AVqHtrJK5
— Rachel Sklar (she/her) (@rachelsklar) February 24, 2017
In related news, just the other day, my husband told me someone on the street stopped him while he was holding hands with our son to say how cute our kid is. However, I can’t think of one time when this has happened to me. No one is more invisible than a woman being a mother to her child.