What gets me about this whole Tory racist saga is not that a lot of Tory activists are racists, that is obvious, it is that the Tory hierachy think it acceptable not to discipline those involved. Phillip Clarke (a 'tolerant' Christian - what a surprise!) employed by Tory attorney Lord Lyell gets a smack on the wrist in the form of a temporary suspension while blacked up Tory researcher Emma Pentreath gets away scott free (as she obviously didn't know that a photo of her 'blacked up' was being taken - probably too drunk or high at the time eh?). I imagine most grassroots Tories think even that too harsh for a 'bit of fun'. 'I mean', they would argue, 'what is wrong with jokingly using racist language and blacking up like a minstrel'? David 'DD' Davis probably agrees, so too, our wonderful Boris 'picaninny' Johnson, Ann 'ten a penny' Winterton, her husband Peter 'Benny Hill' Bottomley (ditto Tim Loughton) and councillor Eleanor 'piss off we're full' Bland, [sigh]. The Tories have...
a lot to learn and a long way to go.
You don't have a link to the article explaining what happened and I can't find anything on The Telegraph site.
ReplyDeleteForgive me if I'm wrong but I'll take this as a Tory girl dressed up like a minstrel at a party.
Isn't this just a parody of the 'Little Britain' sketches? Is it not an over reaction to suggest it's racist? If an African person wants to go to a party as a Caucasian and wears the appropriate attire or make up, is that a problem? Would we be branding that person offensive? Or would we be encouraging the fun?
I've never thought of myself as a grassroots Tory, but I think we are playing a dangerous game when we brand people so quickly.
Again, forgive me if I got the wrong end of the stick, I can't find any background to the story.
Neil, would you like to send me an email? I was thinking of doing a post with the list of the few things we actually agree on.
ReplyDeletegmwadsworth at gmail dot com
Red&White: Sorry for lack of link. I assume everybody had heard the story.
ReplyDeleteHere is a couple of links, here and here.
Basically the words used in the caption and the joking reference to Ann Winterton's racism displays an insensitivity to race that we have come to expect from Tories. If you do not know why it is offensive the n that tells me a lot about your sensitivity to race issues (which seems to be the Tories attitude as well - they suspended the poster for being dim enough to put it up on facebook, not for the racist actions themselves - otherwise they would have suspended Pentreath as well).
Mark: Will send you my email address.
ReplyDeleteBloggers tend to focus on where they disagree (obviously there would be no debates otherwise), but of course there are probably more things that right-wingers and left-wingers agree on than disagree on.
Hurtful and disgusting (from a black man in the USA)
ReplyDelete