Where does Personal become Racist?

A Newspaper article caught my eye yesterday, it is something I really shouldn’t be worried about writing about but I find that I have to very carefully form the sentences in my mind before typing them such is the fear of offending on such a delicate matter. The Article that took my attention is about Racism and as a White Male I am time and time again told that I have no way of being able to comment on this issue – An Irony that my race would make me ineligible to speak on racism. (In my life I have been on the receiving end of racist taunts and a few racist attacks, I attended a predominantly Asian college and calls of Gora (An Indian term meaning white skinned) were common and unfortunately often accompanied by spitting and on a few occasions violence.)

I think my views on racism are probably that which are held by most rational thinking people, That racism is wrong, not just morally but intellectually, it really doesn’t take much brain power that to group together the Hundreds of Millions/Billions of each race into one group and judge them all on that basis is clearly insane. Surely logic dictates that if you take a million Caucasians and a million Afro-Caribbeans then you will get a very wide mix of experiences and life stories and similarities will come across the groups just as surely as differences must occur within them. Therefore if you are to discount a large proportion of the worlds population on the basis of Colour, just like on sex or education or wealth or any division for that matter, you will be severely limiting your scope.

Anyway back to the actual article, this article was about a dispute with Naomi Campbell and Cadbury’s chocolate, in their latest advert Cadbury’s displayed a picture of their new chocolate bar alongside the slogan “Move over Naomi, There’s a new Diva in town.” Naomi Campbell then came straight out and attacked Cadburys for racism. When I first heard that I was not sure on what grounds but as Naomi says herself “I am shocked. It’s upsetting to be described as chocolate, not just for me but for all black people.” So her issue is with being described as chocolate which I can kind of agree with as this is a playground racial slur and if we are to ever beat racism the battle needs to start on the playground. However the advert does not compare Naomi to a chocolate but rather it compares a chocolate to Naomi which is a very important difference.

In essence the Advert takes one element of her personality and assigns it to the chocolate bar in this case her reputation as a diva. Now you could argue if this is bordering on an attack on her by accusing her of being a diva (Even if it does then it would clearly be personal and not racially motivated.) however by her own admission their reflection on her personality must be correct, After all the advert does not say “Move over Naomi Campbell” it only says Naomi it is the usage of Naomi and diva in the same sentence that she has taken as being a clear indication that it is her, if it said “Move over Naomi – there’s a new astrophysicist in town.” It is unlikely anyone would be thinking of Naomi Campbell.

So as she is clearly being mentioned in this advert due to her personality trait and not her race then clearly the only think that is holding up her claims of racism is that chocolate is brown, following this complaint through to it’s natural conclusion therefore would basically be stating that no Afro-Caribbean people could advertise chocolate or for that matter anything that is brown – Assumingly this would be a real headache for Hagen-Daz who would have to carefully monitor that they don’t have the wrong people advertising their chocolate ice cream or heaven forbid a white woman selling vanilla. So in Naomi Campbell’s ideal world the jobs people could do would be dictated to by their colour – Thank god she is fighting against racism!

Quite unbelievably when looking up a few facts for this post (I know it is hard to believe but I do occasionally check the facts I am writing about.) I came across calls from “Black Civil Rights Groups” calling for a boycott of all Kraft goods and a quote from Lee Jasper (Controversial Former equalities aide to Ken Livingstone when he was mayor) who has said “Part of the problem is that [These companies] don’t see it as offensive.” Perhaps the problem is that this isn’t offensive unless you look for it, perhaps the fact is that Naomi’s race didn’t come into the equation at all they simply asked who was the biggest Diva they could mention and Naomi’s name was at the top, so in fact it is just possible that despite Mr. Jasper’s claims this incident is a symptom of a less racist world, but for that to happen we must all leave behind the hang ups of the past.

Moral victory

Just had my first happy experience in an Asda store. Walking between the aisles when an old man complained. "Look at all these lot what don't speak our language."

To which I happily replied "who don't speak our language."

I doubt he understood my sarcasm, but it made me feel good.

Why FIFA should Ignore Russia Bid

The FIFA delegation has arrived in England to view the Bid for England to host the World Cup in 2018, it would appear that it will come down to a straight fight between Russia and England, whilst I obviously have to declare a bias here I do think that FIFA must think very carefully before handing a tournament of this prestige to Russia. Whilst I think that the UK bid speaks for itself with world class stadiums such as Wembley, Old Trafford and the Emirates along side our much complained about Public Transport System (Which if we are honest is actually one of the better ones in global terms.) but the simple fact is that Russia has a real problem with racism in their football supporters, And not just a little problem with most BME players coming in for abuse and several recorded offences against BME fans who are following their teams. It would be amiss of FIFA to announce that as the World Cup in 2018 is widely believed to be one in which African teams will start to make real progress that they should have to come into an environment that is violent towards them (It reminds me of when they tried to hold Miss World in a Muslim country – clearly no thoughts required.) Now all that said it is true that Russia are improving and that Neo-Nazism is on the decrease however I think until they get the situation under control it is irresponsible and FIFA are not meeting their duty of care to consider it.

FIFA should take the stand once and for all and say ANY federation who can not show that they take racism seriously can not hold any major tournament or final. I understand that there are occasional racist incidents in this country but they are dealt with quickly and strongly, not denied like they have been of late in Russia and Spain.

Councillor Prosecuted for Racist Comments

I saw an article over on the BBC.co.uk’s magazine section regarding the rules of Speech Crime (When you can be prosecuted for what you say.) like many issues I can see both sides of the story on this one as I deplore racism and feel that anyone who uses racial (or other prejudice) language and insults against someone deserves punishment. On the other hand however I believe fully in freedom of the individual, I believe the answer to racism is not to silence the debate but to bring it into the open and therefore beat it with education and logic.

The article was written after the case of Cllr Shirley Brown (Lib Dem) on Bristol Council, apparently she called an Asian Councillor a “Coconut”, now I have to admit when I read that I was shocked and thought it was more PC nonsense, however on reading deeper it appears that Ms Brown called fellow councillor, Jay Jethwa (Conservative) a coconut as it is a well known insult for someone who is brown on the outside but white in the middle. (First I have heard it.) Ms Brown goes on to say "I must admit, I was angry because I thought it was an absolute insult, because she is of Asian background. I was thinking how could you cut funding that is going to impact so many people. So the first thing that came to mind, instead of saying 'you idiot', I said 'you coconut'." When I read this I found this incredible, so basically what she is saying is that if you are Asian, Black etc.. you have to vote (and I assume) think a certain way? Surely to believe that someone has to have certain opinions due to their skin colour is the worse form of Racism! And to say that someone is “white” because they disagree with you is insulting to the victim of the attack and every white person in this country, and I am sure there are many white people who would have been on her side.

Personally I think it is a shame that clearly racist individuals like Ms brown are allowed to hold political office, however as I said earlier this may be the price of freedom, I just hope that her constituents take the next opportunity to relieve her of spending time with people she clearly feels uncomfortable with.