when does an Insult become racism?

[therealjr]

Just watching the game between Stevenage and Spurs on the TV. For some reason I'm not sure of the Stevenage fans seem to have taken a dislike to Gareth Bale and are directing the chant of 'you look like a chimp' at him (google him if you don't understand) presumably in a effort to lessen his performance. Nobody is batting an eyelid.
Now if they were directing the same chant towards Jermain Defoe or Louis Saha the PC brigade would be full of self righteous indignation, people would be calling for Stevenage to be thrown out of the competition and life bans given to any fans involved.
So it's ok to verbally abuse a white man about his physical appearance but not a black man?

[Pete]

Tricky one there Jon - I don't think I can get my head around that.

I think part of the answer lies somewhere in history, where for years white people took black people as slaves.

But as Clarkson found out last week, no matter who you joke about, you're in the shit.

I suppose humour will die out completely one day as there is always some PC types going to take offence.

Maybe if folks stopped joking about folks that would be acceptable.

Get ready for a new breed of comedian that 1) Only jokes about inanimate objects or 2) Isn't very funny at all.

By the way - did you hear the one about the bloke with the big nose? Ooops! Sorry...

Why don't we have a contest to find the funniest joke that is politically correct? Bet the winner would be about a plank of wood

[therealjr]

Where I still in 'another place' I think I'd get pilloried for this but on here I will risk it.
Do you know what defines a 'racially motivated' crime or incident?
Answer: Because the victim says it is.

So for example a group of idiots could come walking down your street and throw a half brick through the front windows of 20 houses.
19 of those incidents will be listed by the police as a crime
The 20th will have to be recorded as a racially motivated crime because the owner of number 42 is a member of the Black and ethnic minority community and says that he believes the idiots only threw a brick through his window because they were racially motivated to do so.
Home office guidelines dictate that not only do the police have no option but to record the crime in this way they also have to investigate it in a different manner.

[Pete]

Again - a very tricky question.

It reminds me of a friend who married a German girl - one of their kids got bullied at school and the my friend rang up and complained. Nothing happened. But when both parents went to the school to complain and the headmistress saw that the mother was German, she swung into action because "it could be racially motivated".

[k4blades]

Story in today's paper.
A boy aged 7 asked one of his classmates "is your skin brown because you are from Africa"
The boy was accused of being racist and mother called up to the school. She was expected to sign an agreement confirming that her son acted in a way that was racially wrong but she refused and is now taking her son out of the school.
Repeat: He was NOT calling names or intending any offence, simply asking about the boys appearance, as most young children do, when they see something they may not be familiar with.

This country is really being dragged down by the silly PC brigade. And I agree with JR, its always one way. They have the Metropolitan Black Police Offices Association, can you imagine if someone started up a Metropolitan WHITE Police Offices Association. Nothing to do with slavery and everything to do with some mini dickats wanting to rule the world and force their ideals onto everyone else!

[Slacker]

There was a strange one once in the on crime stats presented to Community Forum a case of one partner harrsassing his (or her) ex partner. This was recorded as racial because one was black and the other was white. Total nonsense that it's race hate when these were once a couple.

[therealjr]

see today that Jeremy Clarkson's comments about the public sector strikes were deemed not to be offensive by Ofcom. Of course if you read the full quote rather than do a politicians trick of cherry picking what you think proves your point, it never was!!

His initial response when asked about the strikes was: "I think they have been fantastic. Absolutely. London today has just been empty. Everybody stayed at home, you can whizz about, restaurants are empty."

However, he added: "We have to balance this though, because this is the BBC. Frankly, I'd have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families."

[Pete]

The Guardian website have footage of the incident, but only choose to show the second half of the last sentence... Hypocrites! I expect that sort of behavior from the Mail and Telegraph, but not from the Guardian.

[Kent]

Whilst on the Racism Theme

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4139714/Chippie-found-to-be-racist-plaice-to-work.html

And You Couldn't make this up

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4139714/Chippie-found-to-be-racist-plaice-to-work.html

[Old Cruser]

I don't suppose we will ever see repeats of Love Thy Neighbour!
The world has gone stupid with this racial thing - look at the incident with one of the young princes when he used a friendly term to his friend --- some of it is in the minds of people who I think ARE actually racist as they can twist things around and put a totally different meaning to things.

It's the same with politically correct --- can't say gollywog, manhole cover, etc etc --- stupid. When I had my gollywog no way did I think of it as beeing a black person and when I bought one for my daughter it was just another cuddly TOY! For goodness sake world --- get a grip!

[Gerty Gumdrop]

I don't suppose we will ever see repeats of Love Thy Neighbour!
The world has gone stupid with this racial thing - look at the incident with one of the young princes when he used a friendly term to his friend --- some of it is in the minds of people who I think ARE actually racist as they can twist things around and put a totally different meaning to things.

It's the same with politically correct --- can't say gollywog, manhole cover, etc etc --- stupid. When I had my gollywog no way did I think of it as beeing a black person and when I bought one for my daughter it was just another cuddly TOY! For goodness sake world --- get a grip!

Hear, hear!   

[k4blades]

What they said.

[Alsatian]

Watched 'Coppers' on Ch 4 last night and one of the bobbies' nickname was 'monkey' (I should mention here that he was 'white') - no-one (not even 'monkey' himself) batted an eyelid. It was all good humoured banter between colleagues - just imagine the uproar if it was aimed at a 'non-white' person!

[Scimitar]

I'm going to introduce something which might be upsetting/ maybe interesting.
The EDL has a human rights statement which I can largely agree with after reading it.
However I feel prevented from joining their cause because i feel they have been extreme in the past.Nevertheless, a lot of their points are valid. I am not a member.
I'm not going to post their website on here.
Its up to you if you want to find it.
Only today US Army has had to grovel apologies for apparently burning stuff which may have included copies of the Koran. I don't remember apologies from countries, whose peoples live here, for burning poppies near armistice day.
I get a feeling we are too soft on political correctness.
Skin colour should not be an excuse for anyone living in this country for racist remarks, to only backfire on "white people" in this day and age when we have had ethnic communities for decades living here. Especially when made out of innocence. Don't forget the "ethnic" communities can go back to WW2 , i.e. Polish fighter pilots, and so on.
Its about time PC grew up and said tit for tat, thats OK then. Its wrong however to pull the "is it cos I am black" statement now surely?!?

[Pete]

>> Only today US Army has had to grovel apologies for apparently burning stuff which may have included copies of the Koran

It sort of makes up for burning people and not saying sorry.