Racism - what a load of huff!

General Discussion
1

I was stunned the other day to hear that Scotland Yard, no less, has referred the Terry/Ferdinand name calling incident to the Crown prosecution service! It is alleged that, in the heat of the moment, a puffed up football player called another a nasty name, inserting the guy's colour into the insult. If he had left the descriptive word "black" out it would not have been racist! So, poor behaviour then, & not acceptable from a public figure whilst in public, punishable by his professional body perhaps, but to involve Scotland Yard for name calling??? How out of hand so called racism has become!


When I was a child in the early sixties we were taught that "sticks & stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me", something I still believe today. I had a teddy & a gollywog. I was never told that the gollywog represented black people but if it had been pointed out it would not have mattered - that gollywog was one of my much loved toys & held in high esteem. My parents used to watch the Black & White minstels, a TV show where white folk dressed up as black folk to better emulate the superior singing of black entertainers. I never thought of it as a put down of black guys, just the opposite!


Then things changed. Somebody decided that to have gollywogs was racist & the Robinsons jam trademark & other representations were suddenly unacceptable, thus spoiling many childrens' chances of completing the badge set. When I was told the reason I then began to see black people as the cause of my disappointment - overnight some bleeding heart politically "correct" lame brain turned many small children into budding racists, a process which continues to this day!


It is one sided, this so called racism, there is an association of black policemen, but not an association of white policemen. You have the MOBO awards, but no MOWO awards. I have, on occasion, been insulted (hard to believe, I know) where reference to my colour has been included but never felt the urge to take things further.


I spent a year studying business at a college where I was the only white guy. My Economics professor was Jamaican. If I had a question my hand would go up to be met with " what do you want, honky?" or similar. I had a great time & the name calling was never meant to offend & was never taken as such, although I gave as good as I got. My spoof student president election campaign saw me way ahead in the polls so I can't have got things too wrong!


Nowadays I am even handed & am suspicious of all nationalities & religions & though one should not generalise, I do. I don't like the Irish - my experience is that they are not as hospitable as they like to make out & in the north - well, any nation who can throw nail bombs at their own 5 year old children on their way to school just because they worship in a slightly different way.....


Americans want to rule the world if they knew where it was & act as if their poo doen't stink, Africa is run by corrupt governments who blame the West for stealing the wealth that they did not even know they had, let alone what it could be used for, Western Europe then imposes its own morals & way of life on countries who have always done things differently, thus upsetting the delicate balance of life there. Eastern Europe, home for gangsters who travel. Middle East, busy destroying itself. All religous groups, responsible for causing more wars & the deaths of millions, & that with a THEORY! A paki is a person from Pakistan in the same way that I am a brit, an Australian, an ozzy, but now the abbreviation has become a racist remark.The list goes on...


I've always felt that when referring to someone's colour or feature it is just a way to identify a person in a group. A football team dresses the same but the person in the kit is different. If you don't know their name refer to them by a visible feature, the most obvious being the skin colour.


We are told that one should not generalize, but we still do!


Despite my views I do have friends from all over the world who do not conform to my generalizations & have proved to me that they can think & act intelligently. Some do not see things my way but can accept that I hold that view. We have good discussions & enjoy each others company. They are not fools. I love them all & do not have to watch what I say round them.


I end by including a dictionary definition, as there is bound to be someone out there who will incorrectly call me one, whilst ironically revealing that they themselves qualify!


Bigot.


noun



  1. a person who is intolerant of any ideas other than his or her own, esp on religion, politics, or race.



Feel free to burst my balloon, but keep it nice? And a Happy Christmas to you all.

2

Hi Mark,

Interesting topic, thanks.

I too, Oxford raised witnessed the waves of immigrants from the Post war Poles, to the Paddies who built our Motorways, to the British Colonials from the West Indies etc. that we advertised for, to take on the sh*t jobs on the buses and in the hospitals, 'cos that was beneath us.

In those days we called a spade a spade, as did the spades. You sort of knew were you were, if you wanted your Ganja, you 'd pop down the Afro-Carribean club, ( I am a reliably informed ) in much the same way as you'd approach a Mod for your 'blues' à là Quadrophenia. ( I assume ) I don't think we had [spoiler]niggers[/spoiler] as such, but plenty of 'I'll hold yer monkey" jokes. All pretty light hearted.

I remember when the Scotties arrived, for socio-economic reasons, "there's ney werk Ronnie" some of the Jocks are still looking. Strange that the Scots will stereotype themselves, if the Hoops army are on the rampage, they'll all sport the taran flatcap with the ginger curtain. See you!

I was at a technical College in '68, and many of us picketed a local hairdressers for they're refusal to dress anything other than flaxen hair. It hit the press, and was organsed by Peter Hitchins and other Political power junkies like Godwin Matatu the well know activist ( now deceased, God Bless you Godders )

I'ts all a bit hazy, wrapped up in that Grosvenor Sq, Marianne Mars bar era. Godders was heavily engaged with my best mate Chris Dummet's mum's set up the Oxford Society for Racial Integration. I don't remember Chris picketing, he was too busy rehearsing with Freddy Mercury in pre-Queen days, but I was snapped and on the front page of the Oxford Mail with Sarah Fiske Wodger's daugher from the Jackanory tune fame. Love you Sarah!

Oh, have I slipped into name dropping mode? soz.... Back on topic, Yes, in later days, pretty practical, not racist as such, but to call the open all hours shop the Paki shop was a practical euphemism, immediately differentiating that establishment form the Spar or all night Co-op or 24 Hour filling station. If they even had them then.

Being half German on my Mother's side Fritz is practical, Nazi is course a Political jibe not a racial one. I'm happy to be a Pomme, a Honkey, White boy, Ros' Bif, especially when I'm engaged with Spiks, Yanks, Paddys, and Frogs. Those are probably more country specific than racial. But the whole pc thing is getting a bit confusing. Even calling someone a Jew today, whist literally correct, sounds like a racist comment.

So, when all my black friends were Darkies, then Coloureds, now people of African origin, they can now call themselves '[spoiler]Nigger' or 'Nigga[/spoiler]' mo fo, but I can't. I'm confused dot com.

Didn't we all come from Africa in the first place, aren't we all darkies? seven daughters of Eve, and all that? If the Queen's consort Phil the Greek wasn't laid up, he could point us in the right direction, maybe, in a spear throwing slitty eyed sort of way.

I think we should just brush it all to one side, call every body human, it is the HUMAN RACE after all, and just spare a thought for the real lost tribe. The Gingers.

sent via Jungle drum 10.13

3

I think that the case of the other footballer, he's from Liverpool but I can't remember his name, who has been banned for eight matches and fined £40,000 when it came down to one person's word against another's is far more insidious.
Also, the self-righteous who take it upon themselves to impose the strict letter of the law when those concerned have forgiven and forgotten, need to take a hard look at the results of their political correctness. They just make things worse.
We saw this in the Christian guesthouse which was put out of business because of their attitude to gays. I think the owners were wrong, but for the gay lobby to descend en masse is just another example of intolerance v intolerance. It is the extreme version of I am right at all costs!

4

Many moons ago we lived in Barbados (I know, hardship posting). One of my Bajan colleagues told me he regularly suffered from bouts of "niggeritis" which caused him to stay in bed all day or spend the day at the beach instead of coming to work. Some time later I told him I was suffering from the same thing and was going to take the rest of the day off. He was horrified. Apparently it was OK for him to say it about himself but not for me to use the same word to describe my own condition. I told him I didn't really see why, but I apologised and nothing more was said. And it didn't stop us from spending New Year's Eve together with our families getting totally smashed on his wife's lethal rum punch!

5

Don't know who said it when, but it has remained in the back of my mind ever since I've heard it: "Political correctness is simply a speed bump in the traffic of truth, free thought and free speech".

That member of the public that filed the complaint might be called a bigot him/herself in the sense of: "in my mind Terry did a terrible, terrible thing to Ferdinand so I'm going to file a complaint, no matter if the two players themselves were cool after the match".

6

Think you are spot on Mark, I to have had all flavours of friends over the years and rarely have we been politically correct with each other and if offence was taken its always been resolved without recourse to fights or law.

One of my funny racist memories is of a white english male mate who had a Chinese girlfriend, the girlfriends parents hated the idea of her marrying out of race and tried everything to split them up. Some of it very overtly racist. So girlfriend decided to move in with my mate. As they were taking the last load of her belongings out of the parents house, mate turned to her parents and said, ' this is the best chinky takeaway I've ever had'

They have all been best of friends since.

When this football crap first started with John Terry I did wonder, should the offended player have said the same to JT calling him the equivalent of a white whatever it was he said, if JT had decided to press charges I don't think he would even have got an interview with the police to put his case forward.

My neighbour calls me rosbif when he wants to insult me which is often (he's an aggressive drunk) I laugh and make croaking sounds, (call me immature) he gets wound up, who's being racist?

These are an instant reactions to a situation, if the world has to be so politically correct, what happens in the future? Instead of a little bit of banter, these are footballers we have to assume they can in the main give as good as they get, so next time someone wants to call someone a 'white prat' for a foul, they cant so instead of 10 brief words and a booking for the foul, the anger builds up and the aggrieved party leaves the game in a temper and shoots the fouler instead.

Yep that's what happens if you cant release frustration it turns to anger, that turns to doing harm, maybe that's where the riots come from!

No idea really, just think the worlds going mad.

I'd say happy christmas but not sure thats allowed I think its referred to 'the winter festive season' now good job I dont believe in it, dont want to get into trouble, or anger may rise and crush grapes.