Blackface

Electric Sheep wrote: »

I think it's hilarious when people dress up as drunk leprechauns when portraying an Irish person. I have no idea why anyone finds it offensive.

Me either, I'd struggle to think of something that would effect me less. The world must be an intolerable place to someone who would be hurt by something as benign as that.

Mrcaramelchoc wrote: »

I couldn't see any other thread about this.

https://news.sky.com/story/little-britain-removed-from-iplayer-and-netflix-after-blackface-criticism-12003558

In a nut shell comedians are having to apologise for black facing themselves in their sketches over the years.jimmy fallon apologising for a sketch he did on snl 20 years ago.
Its absolutely pathetic and a world gone mad.
Little Britain is one of them.that is comedy gold and having to apologise for some sketches now is a disgrace.
Its like erasing bits of history just because it offends a certain section.
There's isnt a race on the planet that hasn't had the piss taken out of it.
A load of bollox.

hmmm

most blackface comedy is utter garbage and simply not funny beyond lampooning negative stereotypes

Electric Sheep wrote: »

I think it's hilarious when people dress up as drunk leprechauns when portraying an Irish person. I have no idea why anyone finds it offensive.

Because people have nothing better to do with their lives, they spend all day on woke pages online looking for something to get offended by . There was a thing out last year about the fighting Irish mascot in Notre Dame , some yank sports commentor called on Notre Dame to change as he deemed it offensive to Irish and stereotypes us as drunken fighters . People need to get a bloody life . You can't open a paper or look online now without something , someone's found offensive coming up. Man I'd love to go back to the 90s or early 00s , people could take a joke, if you didn't like something on the telly you just changed the channel .

Jackson Wailing Yawn wrote: »

As someone that likes history I don't like this erasure of the past. I know some say certain symbols are offensive but I believe them important for us to remember past mistakes.

The continued maintenance of concentration camps is a case in point. I visited Dachau outside Munich a few years ago and it was very impactful and glad I visited it. Eerie to be standing in a gas chamber (although the one in Dachau were never actually used as far as I know), it certainly puts life in perspective.

I wouldn't even go so far.

If I urinate all over the living room of my house, that's my business. I like it, otherwise I wouldn't do it. No problems.

If some other dude invites himself into my house and starts throwing a wobbler, it is literally none of their business. If they don't like it, they're as free to go as they arrived.

Thats the problem. They don't want to live in your house, they want to live in their house.

This isn't about Ghanaians or Chinese or German or Brazilians. It's not about picking on anyone else. It's about YOU, and what you want in your house. Everyone else be damned.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

So what? Why try to conflate that with systemic racism against black people?

Isn't it interesting to watch people pretend not to understand the topic. Your post here is a great example. A poster earlier pretended they don't know if there's racism against black people in america because they don't live there.

If you have to play-act at not understanding to avoid the discussion, then why take part in the discussion at all?

No I understand the topic quite well. Your answer to statistics was "so what?".

Mrcaramelchoc wrote: »

I couldn't see any other thread about this.

https://news.sky.com/story/little-britain-removed-from-iplayer-and-netflix-after-blackface-criticism-12003558

In a nut shell comedians are having to apologise for black facing themselves in their sketches over the years.jimmy fallon apologising for a sketch he did on snl 20 years ago.
Its absolutely pathetic and a world gone mad.
Little Britain is one of them.that is comedy gold and having to apologise for some sketches now is a disgrace.
Its like erasing bits of history just because it offends a certain section.
There's isnt a race on the planet that hasn't had the piss taken out of it.
A load of bollox.

It seems there's probably going to have to be a load of stuff that has to be removed if the race/gender/religioun/sexual orientation thing is to be consistent and pander to all those who are in someway "offended".


I don't find blackface to be offensive nor do I find it particularly humourous either. But I'm not black. That doesn't mean that I don't find racial connotations or cheap digs at ethnic groups distasteful. Some is insulting and unfunny, some is kind of funny. When one listens to Alf Garnet ("Till Death Do Us Part / In Sickness And In Health") banging on about "darkies" and "pakistaaaaaanis", yes what he is saying is coarse and ignorant but it's more of a revelation about his character and how grumpy and cranky and bigoted he is.


I'm an Irishman and I get insulted when I hear ignorant cockneys refer to the Irish as Stupid Micks. When my mother and father lived in London for a while in the 70's my mother overheard a neighbour talking to another neighbour over a back wall just after my parents moved in. "Ello Betty, 'ere we've got new neighbours. Irish, but nice."

People like that aren't worth my time anyway. I know I'm above their petty prejudices. Fcuk em.


But getting all offended about every little quasi-racial wisecrack on comedy shows is just absurd. Here are some things that will also have to be pulled from the air or iPlayer:


Fawlty Towers and the depiction of O'Reilly the Irish builder. Manuel, the "continental cretin" waiter, Basil doing his goosestepping around the place when the Germans were staying. Is the "only gay in the village" with his sailor hat and red rubber body suit an offense to homosexuals? What about Russ Abbott's skits with "See you, Jimmy?" the Scottish thug? Are all Scots going to demand such a caricature be banned. Dick Emery had a sketch with an Irish character called Mr. O'Thick. What about the Simpsons? There was a very funny episode about St. Patrick's Day in Springfield and the newscaster talking about various Irish "activities" like getting drunk and the camera footage then pans to "John Bull's Fish & Chip shop" with a Union Jack on the awning and someone runs up, throws something in the windows and bolts and the chipper explodes.



What about Catherine Tate and one of her characters...the gormless Irish nurse who is portrayed as a bit simple and is always horny and playing with herself?


Maybe I'm missing the point. Maybe blackface is a darker (no pun intended) dig at a race than characterizing the Irish as dopey drunks or Aussies and South Africans as smelly, ignoramuses (which is true, haha...just kidding) ...see Spitting Image or Harry Enfield.


Anyway there'll be a lot of footage to be pulled from the air if people find it offensive. If something is truly distasteful I say leave it be until the only people who think it's funny are assholes.



On a side note...didn't Bill Cosby buy up the rights to The Little Rascals because he found the depictions of the black kid, Buckwheat, to be racist? Shame he didn't share the same concern for all the women he raped.

ShatterAlan wrote: »

On a side note...didn't Bill Cosby buy up the rights to The Little Rascals because he found the depictions of the black kid, Buckwheat, to be racist? Shame he didn't share the same concern for all the women he raped.

I've seen this myth repeated about various celebrities and various TV shows. It's always nonsense.

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

Absolutely it is. People lobbying Councils is exactly the right way to go about it, people taking the law into their own hands is not.

Yeah but people taking the law into their own hands in a couple of instances has caused dozens of ststuea to be taken down and probably hundreds or thousands of changes to street names, school, theatre, hospital names. Asking politely was ignored for decades.

It's very easy to say that it's wrong to take things into their own hands, but I think everyone knows it far more effective than simply signing a petition which is then ignored.

Electric Sheep wrote: »

I think it's hilarious when people dress up as drunk leprechauns when portraying an Irish person. I have no idea why anyone finds it offensive.

WrenBoy wrote: »

Me either, I'd struggle to think of something that would effect me less. The world must be an intolerable place to someone who would be hurt by something as benign as that.

I wouldn't be offended by it either (not sure if class it as hilarious though). But Irish people aren't systematically discriminated against, as a group and isn't the crux of it? If we were systematically discriminated against in our own country or abroad, then I absolutely guarantee you'd understand the offence.

And that's the whole point. If black people weren't systematically discrimated against, then dressing as a black person wouldn't be an issue - in the sense of dressing as Mr T because there a good character.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Yeah but people taking the law into their own hands in a couple of instances has caused dozens of ststuea to be taken down and probably hundreds or thousands of changes to street names, school, theatre, hospital names. Asking politely was ignored for decades.

It's very easy to say that it's wrong to take things into their own hands, but I think everyone knows it far more effective than simply signing a petition which is then ignored.

Advocating the attack of structures because it is quicker than going through legitimate means is within a hair's breadth of advocating terrorism.



Democratically elected Council's taking down statues would be absolutely the right thing to do, mobs tearing them down is wrong. Just as it was wrong for the IRA to blow up the statue of Nelson in Dublin.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Sure but they've been lobbying councils for decades on Colston alone. They've been asking comedians not to do blackface for generations and it's only now thst they're being listened to. Do you think they're being listened to this week by pure coincidence or because they took matters into their own hands in a few instances to get the ball rolling?

The world and it's mother knew the status shoild be takes down (once they heard about it) and the people of Bristol were asking for it for decades. When the democratic process stops working for people then they might well be right to take matters into their own hands.

As I said, it's easy to say that they should always go through the proper channels. But its also clear that action speaks louder than words.

The people of Bristol weren't asking, a collection of middle class kids were.