General Chat

Having seen the thread about 'normal' but not wanting to hi-jack it, reading it made me think about how Fawlty Towers has now had to be censored before it can be shown again.

We grew up with 'Til Death Do Us Part' and we loved it. All sorts of new phrases to use to each other at school. It did not, however, make us racist,but that might be because this is the whitest part of Britain you can imagine, I don't know.

Most of the episodes are available on YouTube and I have been watching some again and it does occur to me that the whole point of the programme is to laugh at the bigoted racist and that is what I learned to do while watching them. Whatever remarks the colonel made in Fawlty Towers made him look like a silly old duffer that we laughed at.

Is the current attitude going to do more harm than good in the log term, I wonder.

I think it makes people see problems where there are often none. My parents in the 50s/60s would use the awful 'N' word for people of colour. They were not racist, the word had always been used and nobody had publicly taken offence so they used it in ignorance. My Mother would be shocked now to know how she was being offensive. Obviously educating people against being offensive to others whether they mean to or not is the way to go. But finding old comedy shows offensive and doctoring them is not helping. If we can laugh at odd traits in anybody in a comedy show then they shouldn't single out apparently racist comments to doctor. Maybe they should ban laughing!!

If you had a black dog or cat, which you loved, there was always a favourite name to call it. I didn't associate it with hatred.

I just got on with my 'Little Black Sambo' book and that was a book about a good little boy who go the mangoes for his mother as I recall.

The colour I associated with evil was green (my name too!) and that was the colour of the mekon who was always causing Dan Dare problems.

The current attitude is, to my mind, ridiculous.
There are still people who would say what the colonel would say.
Hiding this fact doesn't make it go away.
Much better to air it - and at the same time laugh at his attitude.

I had to laugh that 'Johnson wouldn't be drawn on accusations of racism at Buckingham Palace made by the Duchess of Sussex during an interview with Oprah Winfrey.' I'm amazed they even asked him!
His time as a journalist really brought out the racism, misogyny and ignorance in him.
Here are just a few examples:

He referred to Muslim women in burqas as 'letterboxes

He claimed Malaysian women only go to university to find a husband

He said "Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies." - which is both derogatory to Commonwealth citizens, and the Queen.

He described black people in the Democratic Republic of Congo as having "watermelon smiles"

He said of under 30 year olds as "have an almost Nigerian interest in money and gadgets of all kinds"

Johnson said that a "bunch of black kids" made him “turn a hair”, and added:
If that is racial prejudice, then I am guilty" Yes it is racist.

Sharron, Guy Gibson - of Dam Busters fame had a black dog with what is now an 'inappropriate' name. The dog was killed on the day of the Dam Busters raid, and buried, with a headstone at RAF Scampton.
In July 2020 headstone was replaced, with his name removed. The RAF said it "did not want to give prominence to an offensive term that went against its ethos"

It was a much loved dog - not a racial slur!

Sharron, I wouldn’t have minded. It is ‘normal’ to move a conversation on. :-D

Names.

I would have felt I was muscling in.

Back in the days of Alf Garrnet comedy was funny.

Like everything else looking at something from years ago with todays eyes can make us uncomfortable. It's how it's taken today it doesn't mean it is wrong. How many of us had Golliwogs as toys mainly due to the jam, but does that makes us racist??
There is a group there now that looks for something to be offended by...yes of course there are some who will go out of their way to be offensive but most just want to live their lives...I'm guessing most of us just like to treat others as we like to be treated.

My mate Vilbard, who is Ovambo,grew up and lived with the real thing, apartheid, and he finds our attitude quite amusing.

I took his daughter to the social club we used to use and was accused of being racist because I said she was black, which she is.

Apparently I should have said she was coloured, which she isn't. As she is black, she would have been offended had I said she was coloured because they are a different race of people and by to not use the proper nomenclature would imply that black is a negative.