Considering the surname and her infamous mother, Carol Thatcher has always seemed a very pleasant and amiable person whenever i have seen her on television. As usual with our 'celebrities' the public persona can be very different to the private one and it seems that Thatcher juniors views on race relations leaves something to be desired.
Regardless of whose mouth it comes from, repeatedly referring to a black person as a 'golliwog' is wrong as she did when talking about a coloured tennis player whilst waiting in the green room ready to appear on a BBC show.
To then offer a half hearted apology and comment that 'you don't understand what the fuss is about' is the height of ignorance and exactly why Ms Thatcher deserves everything she gets aimed at her.
The BBC, mindful of the recent Johnathon Ross incident, fired her from her role as a roving reporter and are now unbelievably being accused of being rash in dismissing her. The Major of London has even came out in support of her, saying the comment was ' a bit offensive'.
Maybe people like Carol Thatcher, Boris Johnson and all those who are accusing the BBC of falling to Political Correctness greet there black friends with a cheery 'Hello golliwog' but i strongly doubt it because even inside their thick skulls there is a part that must recognise that it is deeply offensive and demeaning.
Most vexing is the amount of white people who are phoning up radio shows and writing letters to the press saying that it isn't an offensive thing to say while the black population are telling tales of how they grew up with the same word aimed at them as a term of abuse.
If you are one of those that doesn't understand what the fuss is about or subscribe to the Daily Mail line that it is 'sad that Britain has become a country in which we have to watch our tongues for fear of offending a politically correct public service ruling class' then i really worry about how many pathetically ignorant people we still have in this country.
4 comments:
Boris Johnson, as usual, has got the whole thing wrong. He said the BBC were "wrong to sack" Thatcher for it. But she wasn't employed by The One Show. She was invited to contribute stories on a casual basis and now, because she's said something offensive for which she's refused to apologise, she's not going to be invited back.
Boris has previous in situations like this, particularly the the 'watermelon smile' comment he made a while back.
I had to look "golliwog" up and it seems the common denominators amongst definitions were "black" and "grotesque". Anyone with the social stupidity and underlying racist attitude to use such a word anywhere deserves what they get.
I've always considered Carol Thatcher as rather 'nice, but dim' before all of this hoo-haa. So, it came as no big surprise to me that Thatcher still harbors jurassic ideas about race and British colonialism.
To be fair, most British people have moved on, and are far more enlightened than they used to be 30 or even 20 years ago.
What surprised me was the fact the BBC thought Thatcher might be any good as a roving 'journalist'. How naive could they possibly be?
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